Search - Urban Legends - Bloody Mary on DVD

A weak addition to the series, but it's not all that bad

Daniel Jolley | Shelby, North Carolina USA | 09/12/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I was pretty psyched when I saw there was a third addition to the Urban Legends series - the first film was fantastic, and the second one was also pretty good. Then I saw that Urban Legends - Bloody Mary was a direct-to-video release that seemingly had nothing to do with the first two films. At that point, I just hoped this third film wouldn't be too awful. While the film falls far short of its predecessors, Urban Legends - Bloody Mary isn't all that bad. It has some definite weaknesses, but it also has a nice sampling of blood and gore.

There are many variations on the old Bloody Mary story, but it makes for classic urban legend fare. Look in the mirror, say Bloody Mary's name three times, and she appears - and then the fun begins. Apparently, a mirror isn't actually required after all, as young Samantha Owens (Kate Mara) apparently conjures the restless spirit without one after hearing the story of a local girl supposedly killed back in 1969. The next morning, she and her slumber party friends turn up missing. This is a real weak point in the story, as the whole missing episode is not handled well at all. Anyway, a connection seems to be established between Samantha and Mary Banner, the girl who was killed all those years ago. The only difference between the two girls is the fact that Samantha lived to tell about her disappearance (although, for unexplainable reasons, neither sets of girls ever told authorities who was responsible).

Those responsible for Samantha's disappearance start dying, in rather gruesome ways, which makes Sam and her brother David (whom some blame for the murders) exceedingly unpopular at school. By about the second murder, the whole urban legend m.o. is applied rather loosely, and the whole thing becomes basically a slasher film. Still, there's still the Bloody Mary connection, and Samantha comes to believe that the killer is the ghost of Mary and that she is killing the children of those responsible for her death.

There's no denying that Urban Legends - Bloody Mary is an exceedingly predictable little film. Mary's killer might as well have walked around with the words "I did it" on his forehead. There are some decent-sized holes in the plot, as well. As I mentioned, the disappearance of Samantha and her friends doesn't add up, and that gets the film off to a shaky start. Then there's the obvious question: why did neither of the sets of girls tell authorities who were responsible for their disappearances? That makes no sense at all. As for the climactic scene, the filmmakers decide to go crazy with visual effects for some reason, and that is another negative.

Still, I enjoyed this movie. The special effects for Bloody Mary herself are pretty good, and the deaths are reasonably gory (although we sometimes only see the aftermath of them) - if you hate spiders, I'm warning you right now that you do not want to watch this movie. You really have to judge this film on its own merits, as it really has next to nothing to do with the first two Urban Legends movies. Since the filmmakers sort of just ignore the whole urban legend m.o. for some of the later murders, it really doesn't belong in the series at all."

Decent Straight-to-Video Release

CreepyT | Colorado, United States | 01/11/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"At their homecoming dance in 1969, Mary and two of her friends became the victims of a viscous prank. What was not a planned part of this high school prank, however, was that Mary end up dead. Declared missing by the local authorities, Mary's body was never found.

Thirty years later, Samantha (Kate Mara) and two of her friends are "black-listed" from the dance because of an article and picture published by Samantha in the school paper that was construed as demeaning to a few of the football players. After telling several urban legends to one another, Samantha chants "bloody Mary" three times into the night. Shortly thereafter, the three become the victims of another prank, one that strongly resembles the one played thirty years previous. When Samantha returns unharmed, she begins to see the ghost of Mary, and the lives of the jocks who played the prank become threatened.

I must admit that I did not have high hopes for this movie. However, this latest installment of the Urban Legends films was not as awful as I had expected. Though the plot makes a few leaps and bounds, and the ending has "cheese" written all over it, Urban Legends Bloody Mary made for a reasonably satisfying straight-to-video release. The acting was rather decent, the make-up was quite good, and there are a few inventive kills definitely worth watching. Furthermore, this film did not merely rehash the plot of the previous two installments, as many sequels often do, but rather took an entirely new direction. In fact, the only thing linking this film to the previous two are the deaths via urban legends, making this a stand-alone film.

Though not quite on par with the previous two Urban Legends films, I highly recommend this as a rental for those intrigued by the Urban Legends series, or horror flicks in general. It's probably not worth the cost of the purchase though except for die-hard fans."

Good Installment In The Series

J. Haynie | Cottonwood, AZ USA | 07/19/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"First you will notice a review stating that this movie stole it's theme from Candyman, actually the Urban Legend of Bloody Mary has been around a lot longer, as most people will recall.

Aside from that, this movie is strong from start to finish. While any slasher/teen horror flick will be predictible, this movie feels more thought out than the other 2 in this series.

the story follows a legend based in the 60's, where a girl dies during prom night after a prank goes wrong.

Mary has awoken thanks to the chant and the prank that's awfully similar to the one that happened over thirty-years ago. Mary Lambert, who did Pet Semetary directs, which helped this film a lot.

"

Bloody Mary out for revenge

Norliza Ismail | Seria, Kuala Belait Brunei Darussalam | 05/27/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Being blacklisted by the jocks on their homecoming nights, the 3 girls; Samantha, Gina and Mindy; stayed at home for the night entertaining themself with Urban legends and most of all "Bloody Mary", which followed with laughter when each of them cited it, 3 times, only to disappeared the next day, drugged and kidnapped by the jocks themselves. Samantha began having hallucinations and haunting dreams of some girl getting murdered and her body put away.

Freakish incidents such as death by tanning bed, spiders coming out from a wound, crushed by a vending machine; started happening to some of her friends and the authorities were baffled by these cases. In her school and the rest of the public however, people kept on starring at Sam like she has something to do with it after what she had published in their school newspaper. the only person who believed her was her twin brother, who kept by her even though what she's experiencing was pretty outrageous to believe. While they are sleuthing for answers, they found out all of these accidents happened before, when their parents were still at school.

This is one heck of a horror movie but isn't up to my standards of excellent horror movie cause it's more of a scary by music score instead of the actual movie being scary. But the storyline kept you watching till the end cause it's a race. I love Mary Banner's ghostly makeups and gimmicks. Reminds me of watching my favorite Asian horror movies."