| Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II | |
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| Date of Release: | October 1987 |
| Preceded by: | Prom Night |
| Followed by: | Prom Night III: The Last Kiss |
Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II is a 1987 Canadian supernatural horror slasher film directed by Bruce Pittman, and starring Michael Ironside, Wendy Lyon, Louis Ferreira, and Lisa Schrage. It follows a high school student who becomes possessed by Mary Lou Maloney, a student who died at her high school prom in 1957. A sequel to the slasher film Prom Night (1980), it was originally intended to be a standalone film titled The Haunting of Hamilton High, but was refitted and retitled in order to capitalize on the success of the original Prom Night. Despite this, the only connection between the two narratives is that they occur in the same high school.
Filmed in Edmonton, Alberta in 1986, the film was retitled Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II by its Canadian distributor, Alliance Films. It was released theatrically in the United States by The Samuel Goldwyn Company in October 1987, and grossed nearly $3 million at the U.S. box office. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with many drawing stylistic comparisons to various other films of the era, ranging from David Lynch's Blue Velvet to its horror contemporaries Carrie and A Nightmare on Elm Street.
The character Mary Lou Maloney would also appear in the next installment, Prom Night III: The Last Kiss (1990).
Plot[]
In 1957, seventeen-year-old Mary Lou Maloney confesses her various sins to a priest en route to her senior prom, which include having sexual relations with numerous boys. Before leaving, she defiantly tells the priest she "loved every minute of it." She arrives at the prom at Hamilton High School, which she attends with Billy Nordham who gives her a ring with her initials on it. Shortly after receiving Billy's ring, Mary Lou sends him off to get punch while she sneaks backstage with Buddy Cooper, where the two are found making out by Billy. Storming off after Mary Lou claims she used him, Billy overhears two boys preparing a stink bomb and, when the boys abandon the bomb in the trash due to a teacher approaching, Billy grabs it. When Mary Lou is crowned prom queen, Billy, having snuck up onto the catwalk, drops the bomb on her before she is crowned. To the horror of Billy and everyone in attendance, the fuse of the bomb ignites Mary Lou's dress and she burns to death onstage, but not before looking up and seeing that Billy is the one responsible.
Thirty years later, student Vicki Carpenter goes looking for a prom dress in the school prop room after being denied a new dress by her overly religious mother. While searching, Vicki finds an old trunk containing Mary Lou's prom queen accessories and takes them, releasing Mary Lou's spirit in the process. After Vicki leaves Mary Lou's clothes in the art room after school, Vicki's friend Jess finds them and, after wedging a jewel out of the crown, is attacked by an unseen force and hung from a light by Mary Lou's cape. Jess's death is deemed a suicide caused by her despair over her recent discovery that she was pregnant.
After Jess's death, Vicki finds herself plagued by nightmarish hallucinations and confides in Buddy, who is now a priest. Buddy, after hearing Vicki's stories, believes Mary Lou may be back. Going to Mary Lou's grave, where his bible bursts into flames, Buddy afterwards tries to warn Billy, who is now the principal of Hamilton High and the father of Vicki's boyfriend Craig. During a detention caused by her slapping her rival Kelly Hennenlotter, Vicki is dragged into the classroom chalkboard, which turns to liquid.
Now fully possessed by Mary Lou, Vicki visits Buddy at the church and, revealing her identity to him, kills him by stabbing him in the face with a crucifix. Meanwhile, Vicki's new mannerisms and style of dress arouse the concern of Vicki's friend Monica. After confronting Vicki in the girls locker room, Monica is frightened into hiding from her in a locker, where she is crushed when Vicki makes the locker collapse in on her. After Monica's murder, Vicki seduces Craig and lures him away under the pretense of having sex, only to knock him unconscious and afterward confront and taunt Billy, revealing her identity to him. Finding the injured Craig, Billy takes him home and knocks him back out when Craig tries to go after Vicki. With Craig unconscious, Billy digs up Mary Lou's grave and finds the dead Buddy in the coffin. Meanwhile, Vicki's mother Virginia finds Vicki seducing her father, Walt. Horrified, she attempts to stop her from leaving for the prom, only to be telekinetically smashed through the front door.
Arriving at the prom, Vicki enjoys the festivities while Kelly, in order to become prom queen, fellates tally counter (and Monica's new boyfriend) Josh as a bribe. When Josh changes the outcome of the votes to make Kelly the winner, Vicki electrocutes Josh through his computer and changes the outcome. When she is crowned prom queen, Vicki goes up on stage, but is shot by Billy moments before getting her crown, to the horror of the crowd. Arriving after the shooting and approaching what appears to be the dying Vicki, Craig is knocked back when Vicki morphs into the charred corpse of Mary Lou. In the havoc, Kelly is stabbed and apparently killed by a falling light fixture and Craig is chased into the school prop room by Mary Lou, who opens a vortex to the Underworld that begins to suck Craig in. Before Craig is pulled through the gateway, Billy arrives and places the crown on Mary Lou and kisses her, apparently appeasing her spirit, which vanishes, releasing Vicki.
With Mary Lou gone, Vicki and Craig leave with Billy, getting into his car. When Billy turns on the radio, Mary Lou's signature song "Hello Mary Lou" plays. Revealing he is wearing Mary Lou's ring and apparently possessed by Mary Lou, Billy drives off with the terrified Vicki and Craig.