Dead Mary
I thought I’d have quite an easy review job on this one, pointing to what I said about Mr Majestyk and how the 70s versions of these kinds of straight-to-video movies were inexplicably, but undeniably, simply, better than what we get today; that while there’s nothing inherently different in this movie from any given 70s slasher flick, there’s just, I don’t know, something missing. But while that’s certainly partially true, I’ve gotta admit – Dead Mary is actually pretty damn good. And if I modify Mark Kermode’s 5-laugh rule for comedies and simply ask myself, “was I scared?” then I’m surprised to find myself answering, umm, actually, yes – so as a horror movie, it definitely passes for me, and there are definitely a lot of my personal fave horror movies that wouldn’t pass given that criteria, lol.
Other than the sprinkling of genuinely good scares, if there’s a plus point that isn’t Dominique Swain (and even she’s a pale shadow of her Lolita / Girl / Face / Off years), it’s that the movie gets closer to the purity of old than a lot of recent attempts have gone. Part of me really expected some horrid latex-ridden witch-in-the-woods thing where the film makers haven’t learned anything from Cat People, Jaws and Blair Witch. But while the horror is pretty great once it comes, and though you do see the monster[s] it’s sparsely effective, until it comes – when we’re just “gettin to know” the victims, sitting around the campfire, lounging by the lake, whatever, drinking beers – it’s just so frickin’ dull.
Anyway, for the record, it turns out in the end to be Evil Dead meets Cabin Fever meets Candyman and it’s not often too close to any of them. But it’s not like I didn’t expect it. I’m loathe to say I hope this is the low point of ‘07, ‘cos I did the same last year with Bandidas and got Little Man for my sins . . . but . . . I hope this is the low point of ‘07. At the least it has Dominique and those scares. But I’m just glad I didn’t go doing something stupid like saving it for my Halloween marathon, lol.
May 16th, 2007 at 3:25 am
[...] Dead Mary Robert Wilson [...]
June 1st, 2007 at 12:00 am
[...] Oh boy. This movie was not what I expected but exactly what I wanted tonight – an easy watch that would ultimately suck me into the screen completely. This movie is like Dead Mary to get all recent on your asses, or just about any other Cabin Fever / Evil Dead type movie, except the characters feel like they walked out of Mitchell and Webb’s “Peep Show” – as a matter of fact, from what I hear, something like this would’ve been a far better choice of first movie project than Magicians was. [...]