Along with the “I Know What You Did Last Summer” trilogy, the “Urban Legends” threesome wraps with a straight-to-video installment that many people don’t know exists. Because lead actress Kate Mara went on to become a name, “Urban Legends: Bloody Mary” (2005) might be on the radar of her fans, or of people who love cheesy Aughts horror.
At least the setting is nice
It’s hard to imagine anyone loving this installment, though. It follows 1998’s “Urban Legend,” notable for its “Scream” structure and unlikable characters, and the actually quite good “Urban Legends: Final Cut” (2000), which has a decent mystery and an appealing lead turn by Jennifer Morrison.
“Bloody Mary” is worse than both, but it’s watchable for a couple reasons. First, it takes place in the winter in Salt Lake City, and it’s shot in the winter in Salt Lake City. The cold air is evident in the characters’ breath. Director Mary Lambert (“The In Crowd”) and cinematographer Ian Fox put us in this place.
“Urban Legends: Bloody Mary” (2005)
Director: Mary Lambert
Writers: Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris
Stars: Kate Mara, Robert Vito, Tina Lifford
Second, it has fun “urban legend” kills. In the best one, a spider hatches in the face of an unfortunate teen (Audra Lea Keener as Heather) and soon she is covered with spiders and going crazy. The fact that the spiders are blatantly CGI adds to the cheese-factor appeal.
The tanning-booth kill has a nice gore effect, but it’s hurt by its predictability. Also: Is this a U.L. or simply a cliché? I’ve seen three cinematic tanning-booth scenes in my life, all in horror films (see also “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer” and “Final Destination 3”). I wonder if the tanning industry took a hit from 1998-2006.
The companionable nature of twins Samantha (Mara) and David (Robert Vito) is a nice contrast to the self-centered college students of the original. Unfortunately, another cliché is on display here: Several “teens” appear to be middle-aged. Sorry, but throwing them into a slumber party scene or putting a letterman’s jacket on them doesn’t make them 20 years younger.
Adding the supernatural
The resolution is ultimately dumb, as the person who obviously is doing the killings is doing the killings. Well, the natural killings, anyway.
“Bloody Mary” adds supernatural killings – another trait it shares with “I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer.” I’m not sure if it’s fair to add the supernatural this late into a saga that doesn’t have the supernatural.
On the other hand, it’s clear from the beginning that the ghost of Mary (Lillith Fields) is stalking Samantha, who has done the classic U.L. thing of saying “Bloody Mary” three times. (“Candyman,” as this movie acknowledges in the dialog, repurposed this urban legend. It also did it better, at least for one film.)
When Samantha says it, joking around at the slumber party, she’s not speaking into a mirror in the dark as the curse requires. But I correctly predicted that this movie is dumb enough that the curse would take effect anyway.
Not bad enough to be good
While the movie is bad, it’s not bad enough to be enjoyable for its badness outside of that spider sequence. It’s never something to take seriously, even though Mara – as is her wont — always looks serious. That’s not enough to help this material any more than her later unfortunate horror stop, the “Nightmare on Elm Street” remake.
This one isn’t as offensive, because no one looks at “Urban Legend” as a legendary series that can be denigrated with a bad sequel. “Bloody Mary” is a throwaway in the straight-to-video tradition. If you didn’t know it existed before watching it, you’ll soon go back to forgetting about it.