Movie Info
Movie Name: Prom Night II: Hello Betty Lou
Studio: Norstar Releasing
Genre(s): Horror
Release Date(s): October 16, 1987
MPAA Rating: R
It wouldn’t really be prom if the prom queen didn’t die in a ball of fire…
Mary Lou Maloney (Lisa Schrage) is a girl who likes to have fun. She uses men and tosses them aside when she’s finished. When Mary Lou tosses aside the wrong man, an accident takes her life. Now, Mary Lou has come back and taken possession of Vicki Carpenter (Wendy Lyon). She won Prom Queen once at Hamilton High School, and she’s out to win it again…and have some revenge along the way!
Directed by Bruce Pittman, Prom Night II: Hello Mary Lou (often called Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II) is the follow-up to the 1980 Jamie Lee Curtis slasher film Prom Night. The film was met with rather low reviews but became a success on video.
Mary Lou…just think what she would have done with Twitter and Facebook?
Prom Night was a rather fun slasher film that had a little “who’s the killer” mystery tied in. Prom Night II went along the lines of other popular slasher films that popped up in the ’80s, but Mary Lou just isn’t in the ranks of Freddy, Michael, or Jason.
The story for Prom Night II is a rather generic ghost story. Originally titled The Haunting of Hamilton High, the movie has nothing to do with the first film…except that it is prom. What the movie does do that is a little unique is that it is a bit reflexive. The characters reference other horror movies which at the time was pretty rare. This of course became popular later on in films like Scream, but it is interesting to see it here.
So many ’80s computer users were killed this way
Wendy Lyon just can’t hold the movie. Unlike someone like Heather Langenkamp from A Nightmare on Elm Street who really feels like she is part of the story, the Vicki character just seems to be along for the ride…so her weak acting just doesn’t work. Lisa Schrage could have been a scary ghost but doesn’t really get much screentime as the slutty Mary Lou, but does eat up what she has. Michael Ironside who generally plays a villain in horror films is rather low key in this movie as the adult version of Mary Lou’s original accidental killer.
Prom Night II looks like an ’80s movie. Scenes like electrocutions and other deaths are not as gory as a grindhouse movie, but also not as real looking as some of the modern horror movie deaths. I do like the “dead” Mary Lou from the end of the film, but she (like Mary Lou in general) doesn’t get enough screentime.
It is a very progressive school to have a non-traditional prom queen
Prom Night II: Hello Mary Lou is a rather dull entry in a series that never was that interesting past the original film. The next movie in the series ditches the more serious approach to the horror film and instead goes for horror comedy…this entry is almost so-bad-it-is-good at points that it possibly should have done that for this film. Prom Night II: Hello Mary Lou is followed by Prom Night III: The Last Kiss in 1990 which features the return of Mary Lou Maloney (now played by Courtney Taylor).
Related Links:
Prom Night III: The Last Kiss (1990)
