Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II

As ineffective as its lackluster predecessor, Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II opens with a surprisingly effective prologue in which ’50s floozy Mary Lou Maloney is burned alive on prom night. Thirty years later, Mary Lou, in the form of virginal student Vicki Carpenter (Wendy Lyon), returns to wreak vengeance on the man responsible for her untimely death (Michael Ironside’s Bill Nordham). The degree to which Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II incorporates elements from other, better horror movies is nothing short of absurd, as screenwriter Ron Oliver peppers the proceedings with shamefully overt nods to such thematically-similar efforts as The Exorcist, Carrie, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. With the exception of a few admittedly creative set pieces (eg Vicki is sucked into a blackboard), there’s subsequently exceedingly little here that one hasn’t seen countless times before – with the conspicuous lack of gore only exacerbating the film’s various problems. And while Ironside delivers as compelling a performance as one might’ve expected, Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II ultimately suffers from a pervasively tedious vibe that cements its place as an entirely underwhelming sequel.

* out of ****