Before generative AI, there was Hollywood. You might say, "hey Ron Oliver, write me a screen play for a slasher that is Carrie meets the Exorcist meets Poltergeist, and include some stylistic inspiration from Nightmare on Elm Street, and the Evil Dead... oh and try to break the record for scene with the longest runtime of full frontal female nudity". If you did, you might get something like Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2.
The original Prom Night is something of an underrated 80's proto slasher. It follows a very slow burn, "who's the killer and why are they doing it" formula, probably before there actually was a formula to follow. Probably for that reason, it 's not nearly as efficient nor as effective as many later entries, but it still has a quality its own that has some charm, similar (though inferior, IMHO) to Black Christmas. But this movie here is neither a sequel nor an offshoot... it's a completely different film that has no connection of any kind to the first that I can tell. Perhaps they were trying to do something similar to Halloween 3: Season of the Witch, using more of an anthology concept that circles around a common theme, event, or day... in this case: Senior Prom. I don't actually know, so this is speculation. But, be aware, you won't benefit from having seen Prom Night,
But it's not just story and plot and characters... Hello Mary Lou also doesn't FEEL anything like the original. They are entirely different animals. The original was dramatic, kind of creepy, and at moments tense. If you went to the theater in 1980 looking for "thrills and chills", it probably delivered. 7 years later, you've got sarcastic killers spitting out punchlines before ironic kills and practical-effect-laced carnage intended to get people talking. "Oh, man! The LOCKER SCENE!" Or "did you see the part after the one girl gets shot where ____... that was wicked!". And that's exactly what this film delivers. Well... sort of.
See, parts of this movie are well done. The intro is creepy enough, focusing on building atmosphere. There's some surprisingly good camera work and visual design. Not consistently so, but where it comes up, it will make you go... hmm, I like the way they did that. Like, there's a scene where two characters are in the locker room, with one friend comforting another who's found out she's pregnant and the father of the child won't return her calls (don't worry... this has absolutely no plot significance!... more on that later). The subtle framing of this shot places the characters in the lower right hand corner with lockers on the left side dominating the perspective and a wall on the other, while the camera slowly zooms in on and centers the pair as the talk and connect. That... was more attentive than what one expects from something like this. There are also a few pretty classic 80's horror moments here. These are what I had gone into this remembering from my childhood. Yes, the "locker scene" was. Some decent jump scares and make up work as well. But, the problem is that these are like the marshmallows in a box of Lucky Charms.
First problem is pacing. The original was a slow burn, but at least it kept the audience engaged by establishing different characters and angles of the story. Here... there isn't much story. What we do have tries to evoke the original by playing the "see this character here, let's flash back to a short in the backstory scene to establish that they are the younger version of this other character" game. But that's about all of it. The rest makes very little sense. There are only two characters that were involved in the original sin of this story and our antagonist only has reason to be seeking revenge with one of them. We have his son, of course, which is a common trope in the 80's (teenager paying for sins of the father), but he is also not the primary target. Instead it's ... the innocent girl? Most of the victims don't seem to have it coming here, especially our first kill which doesn't happen until almost 30 minutes in. That's not too bad... except that the next kill doesn't come for ANOTHER 30 MINUTES. That's right, kill number 2 doesn't happen until a full hour into a sorta-slasher with only a 1:34 runtime (no counting credits). Without much story, what else is taking up all that time, you might wonder.
Not much. It's certainly not characters. Now, with horror in general and slashers in particular, we're not really expecting much in the way of character depth, let alone character-building. But the lack of well-rounded characters is more obvious when we're not distracted. Much like those flavorless pieces of cardboard are more obvious the fewer marshmallows are in your bowl of Lucky Charms. And so the audience has to sit through a bunch of meandering mediocrity in order to get to the good parts. There's some tension building around the supernatural/possession angle. This is where this film draws more inspiration from the Exorcist, Poltergeist, and other such movies of the era, not the least of which is Evil Dead. Not only does a mirror turn into a liquid portal to the other side, but the same type of visual effect is later used more extensively with a blackboard. There's a creepy rocking horse that comes to life and has eyes moving and an animatronic tongue flapping out in grotesque fashion that could easily have been lifted from any of several titles that come to mind. Etc, etc. But this breaks up the pace quite a bit, as well as the mood. It just doesn't work as being seriously scary and these parts all lack anything fun or entertaining beyond a few cool visual effects.
Now, once we do get to the last 30 minutes or so, that is when things pick up. Gone is this slow-build supernatural story and in place of that we get something that feels much closer to a standard slasher of its era. The pacing here is fast enough that it's quite a wild ride, but lacking in any real tension or suspense, just fun. It's a catharsis that would be more satisfying if it was better earned. Maybe you'll feel you earned it for stiting through the first hour waiting for something cool. If, like me, this ends up being all you really remember of this film, then you may well remember it more fondly. Indeed, the rest of the film isn't bad, so much as just lacking much to feel good about. The thoughtful camerawork doesn't make up for utterly meaninglessness. It's defined by the movie's first kill, with is a combination of "OK! Here we go!" and a let down because it's underwhelming. It looks like we might get a good one with the paper slicer, only to end up getting something much less satisfying. It's unsatisfying enough that you end up thinking "hey, we just found out something pretty important about that character... and now they're dead just like that... why do I care? Why did that character story element even appear if we weren't going to at least spend a bit more time with this character and get to know them?" All questions which will have no answers other than lazy writing.
In the end, this isn't an experience worthy of repeat in full. No matter how many marshmallows are in the bowl, nothing can make the rest taste any better. Go for the Fruity Pebbles instead.
The original Prom Night is something of an underrated 80's proto slasher. It follows a very slow burn, "who's the killer and why are they doing it" formula, probably before there actually was a formula to follow. Probably for that reason, it 's not nearly as efficient nor as effective as many later entries, but it still has a quality its own that has some charm, similar (though inferior, IMHO) to Black Christmas. But this movie here is neither a sequel nor an offshoot... it's a completely different film that has no connection of any kind to the first that I can tell. Perhaps they were trying to do something similar to Halloween 3: Season of the Witch, using more of an anthology concept that circles around a common theme, event, or day... in this case: Senior Prom. I don't actually know, so this is speculation. But, be aware, you won't benefit from having seen Prom Night,
But it's not just story and plot and characters... Hello Mary Lou also doesn't FEEL anything like the original. They are entirely different animals. The original was dramatic, kind of creepy, and at moments tense. If you went to the theater in 1980 looking for "thrills and chills", it probably delivered. 7 years later, you've got sarcastic killers spitting out punchlines before ironic kills and practical-effect-laced carnage intended to get people talking. "Oh, man! The LOCKER SCENE!" Or "did you see the part after the one girl gets shot where ____... that was wicked!". And that's exactly what this film delivers. Well... sort of.
See, parts of this movie are well done. The intro is creepy enough, focusing on building atmosphere. There's some surprisingly good camera work and visual design. Not consistently so, but where it comes up, it will make you go... hmm, I like the way they did that. Like, there's a scene where two characters are in the locker room, with one friend comforting another who's found out she's pregnant and the father of the child won't return her calls (don't worry... this has absolutely no plot significance!... more on that later). The subtle framing of this shot places the characters in the lower right hand corner with lockers on the left side dominating the perspective and a wall on the other, while the camera slowly zooms in on and centers the pair as the talk and connect. That... was more attentive than what one expects from something like this. There are also a few pretty classic 80's horror moments here. These are what I had gone into this remembering from my childhood. Yes, the "locker scene" was. Some decent jump scares and make up work as well. But, the problem is that these are like the marshmallows in a box of Lucky Charms.
First problem is pacing. The original was a slow burn, but at least it kept the audience engaged by establishing different characters and angles of the story. Here... there isn't much story. What we do have tries to evoke the original by playing the "see this character here, let's flash back to a short in the backstory scene to establish that they are the younger version of this other character" game. But that's about all of it. The rest makes very little sense. There are only two characters that were involved in the original sin of this story and our antagonist only has reason to be seeking revenge with one of them. We have his son, of course, which is a common trope in the 80's (teenager paying for sins of the father), but he is also not the primary target. Instead it's ... the innocent girl? Most of the victims don't seem to have it coming here, especially our first kill which doesn't happen until almost 30 minutes in. That's not too bad... except that the next kill doesn't come for ANOTHER 30 MINUTES. That's right, kill number 2 doesn't happen until a full hour into a sorta-slasher with only a 1:34 runtime (no counting credits). Without much story, what else is taking up all that time, you might wonder.
Not much. It's certainly not characters. Now, with horror in general and slashers in particular, we're not really expecting much in the way of character depth, let alone character-building. But the lack of well-rounded characters is more obvious when we're not distracted. Much like those flavorless pieces of cardboard are more obvious the fewer marshmallows are in your bowl of Lucky Charms. And so the audience has to sit through a bunch of meandering mediocrity in order to get to the good parts. There's some tension building around the supernatural/possession angle. This is where this film draws more inspiration from the Exorcist, Poltergeist, and other such movies of the era, not the least of which is Evil Dead. Not only does a mirror turn into a liquid portal to the other side, but the same type of visual effect is later used more extensively with a blackboard. There's a creepy rocking horse that comes to life and has eyes moving and an animatronic tongue flapping out in grotesque fashion that could easily have been lifted from any of several titles that come to mind. Etc, etc. But this breaks up the pace quite a bit, as well as the mood. It just doesn't work as being seriously scary and these parts all lack anything fun or entertaining beyond a few cool visual effects.
Now, once we do get to the last 30 minutes or so, that is when things pick up. Gone is this slow-build supernatural story and in place of that we get something that feels much closer to a standard slasher of its era. The pacing here is fast enough that it's quite a wild ride, but lacking in any real tension or suspense, just fun. It's a catharsis that would be more satisfying if it was better earned. Maybe you'll feel you earned it for stiting through the first hour waiting for something cool. If, like me, this ends up being all you really remember of this film, then you may well remember it more fondly. Indeed, the rest of the film isn't bad, so much as just lacking much to feel good about. The thoughtful camerawork doesn't make up for utterly meaninglessness. It's defined by the movie's first kill, with is a combination of "OK! Here we go!" and a let down because it's underwhelming. It looks like we might get a good one with the paper slicer, only to end up getting something much less satisfying. It's unsatisfying enough that you end up thinking "hey, we just found out something pretty important about that character... and now they're dead just like that... why do I care? Why did that character story element even appear if we weren't going to at least spend a bit more time with this character and get to know them?" All questions which will have no answers other than lazy writing.
In the end, this isn't an experience worthy of repeat in full. No matter how many marshmallows are in the bowl, nothing can make the rest taste any better. Go for the Fruity Pebbles instead.