THE BEAUTIFUL, UNCANNY ART OF THE RIP-OFF, PART 1: HELLO MARY LOU: PROM
NIGHT II
Mehrul Bari
︎
“This isn’t a sequel. Why do they call it a
sequel? It’s not Prom Night 2; the characters are different, the stories
are different,” Bruce Pittman, director Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II // HEADER PHOTO: The Samuel Goldwyn Company © 1987
essay, aug 23
essay, aug 23
Mary Lou: Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. It has
been three months since my last confession. I’ve disobeyed my parents many
times. I’ve taken the Lord’s name in vain many times. I’ve had sinful relations
with boys at my school. Many boys. Many times.
Priest: My child, these are great sins. You must
prepare yourself for the consequences.
Mary Lou: Father, there’s just one more thing.
Priest: What is it, my poor child?
Mary Lou: I loved every minute of it.
Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987), one of the great unheralded horror
sequels, is not particularly an original movie. It’s not even an actual sequel.
The first Prom Night has nothing to do with this Canadian film. The “Prom
Night II” moniker was slapped on by producers hoping to capitalize on the former’s
box office success (it didn’t.) “This isn’t a sequel. Why do they call it a
sequel? It’s not Prom Night 2; the characters are different, the stories
are different,” said the film’s director. So, then, what is Hello Mary Lou:
Prom Night II?
If you’ve religiously watched horror films of the ‘80s and late ‘70s, you’ve basically
seen Hello Mary Lou. There are homages on top of homages,
so much so it verges on infringement. Remember the high school hallway scenes
in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)? That’s this film stretched out to
feature-length. Remember the gonzo sexuality and dreamlike-unbelievability of Carrie (1976)? Then you’ve watched a more respectable version of this. While Hello
Mary Lou does indeed fit itself into the formulaic mold of the popular
horror of the time, it also does something more—it embraces and defies it.
The titular villain is Mary Lou Maloney. She bursts into flames and dies
in the opening after jilted boyfriend, Billy Nordham, throws a stink bomb at
her just as she takes the stage as Prom Queen 1957. Flash forward to 1987
and Nordham (played by devilish ham Michael Ironside) is now the principal of
the high school, and his son is going to prom with Vicki Carpenter (yes, Carpenter), who uncovers the unworn 1957 Prom Queen
dress and tiara in the school basement and makes the mistake of taking it home
with her. You can guess what happens next… The film similarly references The
Exorcist (1973). “The body of Christ compels you,” a priest unironically yelps.
This priest also used to have sex with Mary Lou Maloney.
There is surprisingly a lot of sex in Prom Night II. More
precisely there is sexuality, and you see it more than fetishistic sex. Mary Lou
seduces men in 1957, but in 1987, in another woman’s body and with greater
freedom, her games of seduction turn to women—with the same raw fervor intact. “I have seen hardcore porn with less horniness than this
movie,” said actress Charlize Theron, a noted fan.
For all of Mary Lou’s villainy, the character is framed yet as a “queer-coded
sexual liberator, obsessed with camp pageantry and consequence-free lust,” as
Leigh Monson puts it. “[Prom Night II] is a demonstration of
how villains can be used to deliver subversive messaging to an audience willing
to look outside the mainstream, and it’s a testament to how a queer feminist
villain can speak to people that society deems as inherently villainous, even
as the film she occupies nominally appeals to straight conservative values.”
︎ Lisa Schrage as Mary Lou Maloney // PHOTO: The Samuel Goldwyn Company
Very recently, actually, the film has seen a moderate reappraisal. Over the past few years, popular podcasts like How Did This Get Made?, Horror Queers, You Are Good, and at least 5 others, have discussed
the film, zeroing in on the queerness of Prom Night II and its penchant for
horror film rule-breaking.
From the Teen Creeps retrospective: “You have this creepy male gaze,
but it starts mutating. When you take that sexuality, and she starts to own that sexuality. […] Suddenly the female body isn’t this hot thing. It’s scary.
She’s coming after me, and she’s not embarrassed of her body. She not only
isn’t scared of it, she ravishes in it. She’s obsessed with it. And
that’s weaponizing sexuality that is scary for heterosexual males.”
![]()
︎ Wendy Lyon as Mary Lou Maloney as Vicki Carpenter // PHOTO: The Samuel Goldwyn Company
About as curious as Hello Mary Lou’s
queerness is to me, I’m fascinated just as much with its very derivative nature. It steals so openly and frequently from the staples of the time (a more positive review nonetheless compared it to the previous year’s Blue Velvet) that it actually gains agency from this.
The boldfaced rip-off that is so much of this movie makes an outstanding case for imitations (repurposed and renewed) to be
held as worthily as its originals. With
its interplaying of familiar expectations and subversions, Prom Night II wouldn’t have had the same power if it didn’t plagiarize.
And they knew
what they were doing: the film boasts characters named Carpenter, Craven, Browning, Hennenlotter, Waters, O’Bannon, King, and literally Eddie Wood.
If the film didn’t fit itself into the mold to begin with, the film couldn’t have defied the mold in the
shocking way that it did. The film wouldn’t even have had the same power if it wasn’t a cash-grabby sequel to the completely unrelated Prom Night 1...
Continue Reading:
“PART 2: BODY DOUBLES, 80s SLASHERS, HONG SANG-SOO, AND WHEN FAKE IS BETTER THAN REAL”
AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO
Mehrul Bari S. Chowdhury is the editor of Small World City. He
is a writer, poet, and visual artist from Dhaka, Bangladesh. He received his MA in Creative Writing with distinction at the University of Kent in Paris, and
has previously worked as the sub-editor for The Daily Star’s “Daily Star Books.”
His works have appeared in Permafrost, Sortes Magazine, Kitaab, and Blood Orange Review, among others. // instagram
His works have appeared in Permafrost, Sortes Magazine, Kitaab, and Blood Orange Review, among others. // instagram
“This isn’t a sequel. Why do they call it a
sequel? It’s not Prom Night 2; the characters are different, the stories
are different,” Bruce Pittman, director Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II // 1987 © The Samuel Goldwyn Company
essay, aug 23
essay, aug 23
Mary Lou: Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. It has
been three months since my last confession. I’ve disobeyed my parents many
times. I’ve taken the Lord’s name in vain many times. I’ve had sinful relations
with boys at my school. Many boys. Many times.
Priest: My child, these are great sins. You must
prepare yourself for the consequences.
Mary Lou: Father, there’s just one more thing.
Priest: What is it, my poor child?
Mary Lou: I loved every minute of it.
Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987), one of the great unheralded horror
sequels, is not particularly an original movie. It’s not even an actual sequel.
The first Prom Night has nothing to do with this Canadian film. The “Prom
Night II” moniker was slapped on by producers hoping to capitalize on the former’s
box office success (it didn’t.) “This isn’t a sequel. Why do they call it a
sequel? It’s not Prom Night 2; the characters are different, the stories
are different,” said the film’s director. So, then, what is Hello Mary Lou:
Prom Night II?
If you’ve religiously watched horror films of the ‘80s and late ‘70s, you’ve basically
seen Hello Mary Lou. There are homages on top of homages,
so much so it verges on infringement. Remember the high school hallway scenes
in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)? That’s this film stretched out to
feature-length. Remember the gonzo sexuality and dreamlike-unbelievability of Carrie (1976)? Then you’ve watched a more respectable version of this. While Hello
Mary Lou does indeed fit itself into the formulaic mold of the popular
horror of the time, it also does something more—it embraces and defies it.
The titular villain is Mary Lou Maloney. She bursts into flames and dies
in the opening after jilted boyfriend, Billy Nordham, throws a stink bomb at
her just as she takes the stage as Prom Queen 1957. Flash forward to 1987
and Nordham (played by devilish ham Michael Ironside) is now the principal of
the high school, and his son is going to prom with Vicki Carpenter (yes, Carpenter), who uncovers the unworn 1957 Prom Queen
dress and tiara in the school basement and makes the mistake of taking it home
with her. You can guess what happens next… The film similarly references The
Exorcist (1973). “The body of Christ compels you,” a priest unironically yelps.
This priest also used to have sex with Mary Lou Maloney.
There is surprisingly a lot of sex in Prom Night II. More
precisely there is sexuality, and you see it more than fetishistic sex. Mary Lou
seduces men in 1957, but in 1987, in another woman’s body and with greater
freedom, her games of seduction turn to women—with the same raw fervor intact. “I have seen hardcore porn with less horniness than this
movie,” said actress Charlize Theron, a noted fan.
For all of Mary Lou’s villainy, the character is framed yet as a “queer-coded
sexual liberator, obsessed with camp pageantry and consequence-free lust,” as Leigh Monson puts it. “[Prom Night II] is a demonstration of
how villains can be used to deliver subversive messaging to an audience willing
to look outside the mainstream, and it’s a testament to how a queer feminist
villain can speak to people that society deems as inherently villainous, even
as the film she occupies nominally appeals to straight conservative values.”
︎ Lisa Schrage as Mary Lou Maloney // PHOTO: The Samuel Goldwyn Company
Very recently, actually, the film has seen a moderate reappraisal. Over the past few years, popular podcasts like How Did This Get Made?, Horror Queers, You Are Good, and at least 5 others, have discussed
the film, zeroing in on the queerness of Prom Night II and its penchant for
horror film rule-breaking.
From the Teen Creeps retrospective: “You have this creepy male gaze,
but it starts mutating. When you take that sexuality, and she starts to own that sexuality. […] Suddenly the female body isn’t this hot thing. It’s scary.
She’s coming after me, and she’s not embarrassed of her body. She not only
isn’t scared of it, she ravishes in it. She’s obsessed with it. And
that’s weaponizing sexuality that is scary for heterosexual males.”
![]()
︎ Wendy Lyon as Mary Lou Maloney as Vicki Carpenter // PHOTO: The Samuel Goldwyn Company
About as curious as Hello Mary Lou’s
queerness is to me, I’m fascinated just as much with its very derivative nature. It steals so openly and frequently from the staples of the time (a more positive review nonetheless compared it to the previous year’s Blue Velvet) that it actually gains agency from this.
The boldfaced rip-off that is so much of this movie makes an outstanding case for imitations (repurposed and renewed) to be
held as worthily as its originals. With
its interplaying of familiar expectations and subversions, Prom Night II wouldn’t have had the same power if it didn’t plagiarize.
And they knew
what they were doing: the film boasts characters named Carpenter, Craven, Browning, Hennenlotter, Waters, O’Bannon, King, and literally Eddie Wood.
If the film didn’t fit itself into a mold to begin with, the film couldn’t have defied the mold in the
shocking way that it did. The film wouldn’t even have had the same power if it wasn’t a cash-grabby sequel to the completely unrelated Prom Night 1...
Continue Reading:
“PART 2: BODY DOUBLES, 80s SLASHERS, HONG SANG-SOO, AND WHEN FAKE IS BETTER THAN REAL”
AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO
Mehrul Bari S. Chowdhury is the editor of Small World City. He
is a writer, poet, artist, and web designer from Dhaka, Bangladesh. He received his MA in Creative Writing with distinction at the University of Kent in Paris, and
has previously worked as the sub-editor for The Daily Star’s “Daily Star Books.”
His works have appeared in Permafrost, Sortes Magazine, Kitaab, and Blood Orange Review, among others. // instagram
His works have appeared in Permafrost, Sortes Magazine, Kitaab, and Blood Orange Review, among others. // instagram