Review

It's Hamilton High's Prom Night 1957, and hot high-schooler Mary Lou Maloney has just been voted in as Prom Queen. Unfortunately Mary Lou picked an inopportune moment to dump her rich boyfriend Bill Nordham after being caught almost in the act with resident bad boy Buddy Copper. Bill's out for some payback and drops a stink bomb on the stage where Mary Lou is doing the Prom Queen thing. One thing leads to another and we get flambéd Prom Queen, anyone order the barbeque sauce?

Not quite sure how this works, but Mary Lou's vengeful spirit gets locked in a trunk in the school's prop room. Thirty years later, blonde Vicky Carpenter is looking for a dress due to her overbearing religious mother declining on the suggestion of purchasing a new one. Apparently school prop rooms are just the place to grab that special Prom outfit, who would have thought! Naturally Vicky, being blonde and all, unleashes the spirit of Mary Lou, becomes possessed, and has places to go and people to kill.

Did I mention Bill Nordham is now the school principal, his son dates Vicky, and Buddy Copper has become a Catholic priest with a Mary Lou obsession? What the heck, it all culminates at a strangely under-populated Prom night as Mary Lou either extracts her revenge or finally gets crowned, something like that anyway. One heck of a strange movie ensues. Ready to try on a few dresses for Prom Night?

In one of those weird developments that only the film industry could truly aspire to, a cheap and cheery horror flick called The Haunting of Hamilton High ended up as the sequel to the hit movie Prom Night (1980). Basically the filmmakers couldn't get the canuck Government to pony up the required capital so they approached MGM for the seed money. The good folk at MGM were of course delighted to throw some dollars into the pot as long as the title of the resulting movie included the words "Prom" and "Night" in an attempt to trade off the success of the original slasher flick. Okay, so it's fashionable to slam Prom Night as being overly cliched, specially if you're stupid enough to not realise the flick got made before the clices became cliches i.e. Prom Night was one of the flicks that helped to create them, but the 1980 slasher got some excellent reviews back in its day and made a boat load of cash at the box office. Hence why we end up with a movie that gives passing reference to its supposed original and then thumbs its nose as it goes its own way.

Of course, the other aspect that should be taken into account is the clear desire by all involved to turn the character of Mary Loy Maloney into the female Freddy Krueger to cash in on horror's then icon forming era. Of course it could be argued that a deceased teenage Prom Queen isn't likely to cause the same chills as a disfigured child molester with a glove full of knives, but hey, that might just be me and it's a moot point at this time and tide partner. Just noting the similarities involved with the demise of Mary Lou and Freddy while pointing a finger here.

Not entirely sure this one helped the horror genre, but then lesbo shower scene is nearly always a plus

48 minute mark: boom mike in frame

Crap, almost half way through my allotted space and I haven't got down and jammed with the actual movie. Okay, Prom Night II can best be viewed as a sort of weird amalgamation of the aforementioned A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Carrie (1976), and surprisingly The Exorcist (1973). And there's no prizes for guessing how many of the movies mentioned are getting remakes. We have the nightmare sequences that call to mind Wes Craven's movie, the whole Prom night shenanigans and melt down that owes a huge debt to Brian De Parma's teens in peril flick (not to mention Mrs White would be right at home in the Carpenter residence), and the whole possessed angle that crops up forty or so minutes into Prom Night II. Director Bruce Pittman doesn't shy away from giving the audience a huge wink in terms of the movies referenced, he has characters mentioning them ad nauseum. We got the point Pittman, belting a dead equine came to mind.

The whole point to Prom Night II is that the Director and quite possibly everyone involved, including the caterers, are well aware they are making a "B" grade horror flick but are having quite some fun in doing so. The movie doesn't take itself seriously and just romps along with the required pacing ensuring nothing lags as we head on down to the Prom of doom. Sure, it could be argued that the first third of the movie is moving at glacial speed, but heck we need the build-up to prepare ourselves for the final act that simply goes disco dancer on speed. (Not sure what that even means, but what the heck).

62 minute mark: wholly heck full frontal nudity mayhem, OMG a lesbo shower scene!

So what does Prom Night II get right? Actually quite a lot, considering the movie is barely above the schlock level of film making. Vicky's gradual "becoming" from shy chick to full-on hottie vamp was well handled. Note the lack of makeup etc Wendy Lyon is prepared to go with in the first half of the movie before going full makeover as Mary Lou drops in to say hi. We could possibly note a hint of John Carpenter's Christine (1983) if we wanted to be picky and mention the use of rock and roll music to give the audio hints that Vicky is making room for Mary Lou, but that would just be churlish really. Overall an excellent transformation with Vicky/Mary Lou nailing a couple of choice lines of dialogue along the way.

The special effects team were on the ball here with some good gore exploding in places, and some nice touches in the surreal end of the demonic possession wading pool. We get the by now obligatory possessing being bursting out of their victim A Nightmare On Elm Street II: Freddy's Revenge anyone? and loved the transformation of the emergent Mary Lou from crispy critter to almost hottie once again. So there's some fun times going down there.

Where the movie misfires slight, and I'm speeding along here as I'm well over my word limited, is defining exactly what Mary Lou is after. Is it revenge or is it being finally crowned Prom Queen after all these years? Let's not even get into who gets their just desserts and who doesn't, it makes no sense by closing credits. Speaking about the closet scene, simply why?

Genre "B" grade regular Michael Ironside (Bill) almost looks like he's sleepwalking through this one and he isn't particularly believable while doing so. Wendy Lyon (Vicky) almost carries the movie on her own and hits the right notes throughout, was digging her plain jane to wanton hussy thing over here. Justin Louis (Craig) sort of does okay as Vicky's boyfriend though since he's essentially completely useless at all times who cares. Lisa Schrage (Mary Lou) only gets limited screen time but chews up what she is given. And Richard Monette (Father Copper) simply can't act and goes out of his way to prove it with every screen he appears in.

On the T&A stakes drop your linen and start your grinning, if you are a bloke that is. We get full frontals from a couple of the gals, almost a lesbo shower scene, and lots of scantily clad chicks to be going on with. The gals get nothing as they never went to horror flicks in the 1980s apparently.

Paul Zaza laid down the score but it kind of gets lost amongst a pretty good collection of 1950s rock and roll tunes playing almost through the entirety of the movie.

Well I had some good fun with Prom Night II: Hello Mary Lou; it's a solid "B" grade horror flick that doesn't take itself seriously in the least. Sure there are the old issues "hey a boom mike in frame during one memorable scene" but still stands head and shoulders above the shite being made currently up to and including the remake of Prom Night. The movie is well worth dialling into just for the hair, did people really manage to move about with that amount of hair spray back in the day? Only question remaining for mine was if Mary Lou went up in flames, how come her prom dress survived and ended up in a trunk in the school prop room?

Surprisingly Prom Night II must have done okay as two further sequels happened. Prom Night III: The Last Kiss (1990) saw Mary Lou return, only character to have done so thus far, while Prom Night IV: Deliver Us From Evil (1992) went full circle back to slasherville on us. We'll get to the final couple of movies in due course, heck they promise to be even more cheese ball affairs than the second movie.

Worth a look if you don't mind "B" grade horror. Prom Night II isn't taking itself seriously and delivers on the gory fun like a champion. Half the fun is watching out for references to previous movies and there's a whole swag of them hiding away in Mary Lou's hemline. I wouldn't book a date for the Prom with the movie but worth catching up with over a few drinks after the final crowning.