Bloody Mary (DVD)

There's not much to say about Bloody Mary, but I've got a word-quota to meet, so please read on.

Anyone who was ever a kid knows the story of Bloody Mary: If you stand in front of a mirror and say her name three times in a row, her evil spirit will manifest next to your reflection. And maybe, just maybe, she'll come and get you later on. Clive Barker put a little twist on this story with Candyman, and even Mary Lambert (director of Pet Sematary) took a crack at it last year. If that weren't enough, there's another movie on the same theme — a direct-to-DVD indie starring Dominique Swain, called Dead Mary — coming out in a couple of weeks. So, if you like this tale, there're plenty of choices for your Netflix cue.

Sorry to say Bloody Mary is the worst of the lot (if you must watch it, try downing a few of the alcoholic beverages of the same name before parking yourself in front of the tube), but it's not an altogether bad movie. It's just pointless and needless.

The film starts with a pack of Mean Girls ganging up on a Nice Girl, and forcing her to enter the dark, dreary, abandoned bowels of a mental hospital where, legend has it, a young woman named Mary was dreadfully dispatched some decades ago. Mary still likes to hang out there and she has conveniently hung a little oval mirror up on one of the walls, so that victims like our hapless chickie can be forced to stand in front of it and summon her.

When Nice Girl's sister, a best-selling Crime Novelist (no character names, no actors' names because… who can remember?), comes to town trying to solve the mystery, she gets more than she bargained for as she slowly begins to realize that Bloody Mary's spirit is free and is possessing all the "witnesses".

I didn't watch any of the extras…

Commentary by: Filmmakers

Behind the Cinematography

The Making of the Witch

"The Curse" music video

Outtakes

… but I wonder what could be considered an outtake (since the entire movie might as well have been taken out), and "Behind the Cinematography"? Calling the flat, uninspired, home-style videography "cinematography" is generous, indeed. And the music video…  does it come with complimentary Midol?

Still, the movie's not a complete wreck. There are a couple of semi-decent performances in it, and it moves along briskly enough. Some diehard horror fans might find Bloody Mary tolerable.

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