Return to Mary Lou

 It has actually been nine years since I last watched this! I wrote the review for "Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987) back in 2011. It currently sits with the fourth most page views in the blog's tenure. I can't imagine what fans of the disco era 1980 Prom Night think of this one but I laugh at the thought of their first impressions. The tonal shift and outright  willingness to be naughty and misbehave is why the sequel became such a cult hit. It's delightful 80s aesthetic we know and love so well that retro horror films and series so badly try to emulate today is alive and well. The hair and clothing styles are so very much en vogue. Great times watching this always. Lyon as the vessel for Mary Lou to occupy, going from sweet, demure, and careful and soft-spoken to vile, brazen, fierce and foul-mouthed is every bit the contradiction. Lyon, to her credit, really nails Schrage, with the attitude and abrasive forwardness. The special effects are still very much the film's passion. I remained convinced the influence of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" series is absolutely all over it. I feel really good with the 2011 review so I won't go too much in depth. 

The Lyon locker room fully nude scene chasing her friend remains an obvious standout. It gets quite perverse and subversive with the priest's whole pursuit of God's help doing no good whatsoever, Mary Lou through Vicki just tongue kissing her father and making sure her strictly religious mother is hurled through the front door and out of the way grandiose examples. That scene where Mary exits Vicki after Ironside's Billy shoots her is right out of "A Nightmare on Elm Street 2" (1985). And the prom night eruption sort of recalls "Carrie". There is Terri Hawkes as Lyon's prom queen idol serving as the bitch archetype eventually crossing Mary Lou's wrath. I guess the electric bolts computer death is the zaniest but that rocking horse still sticks out as does the chest that opens seemingly housing some sort of ridiculous portal. Everything about this is outrageous, remaining just as loony toons as when I first watched it. I remember this being a big release from MGM back in 2008, even as a barebones edition. I rented the third film on VHS for the first (and as of now only) time from one of the last rental stores there was left in my hometown in 2007.