I watched the first Prom Night (1980) years ago and found it severely lacking. It’s fun to talk about as a historical footnote with the cast, timing, and disco element, but it was pretty boring to watch. If it wasn’t an early entry in the 80s slasher wave that starred Jamie Lee Curtis, I think it would be mostly forgotten. But I had heard some mentions of Prom Night II being way crazier and more fun, so I decided to give it a chance a while back. I am so glad I did, because this movie whips ass!

This 1987 Canadian supernatural horror flick from director Bruce Pittman was originally going to be called The Haunting of Hamilton High, but at some point, they decided to make it a (in name only) sequel to the financially successful Prom Night. The title credit reads Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II. Which I now read as Hello Mary Lou (…oh also it’s Prom Night too), because it turns out Mary Lou is a way bigger attraction than anything in the first Prom Night.

My wife and I had to pause this movie multiple times on first viewing because we were laughing or hooting and hollering so loud. And beyond the fun and crazy parts, I was actually impressed by the overall acting and the writing. The opening scene depicting a 1957 prom that ends in a tragic death is strong. I appreciated that unlike so many other horror movies, the tragedy does not result from characters being irrationally evil or cruel. The titular Mary Lou was cheating, but I also have to respect her for being a baller-ass promiscuous bitch in a time when that was not at all acceptable. Her angry boyfriend had no intention of really hurting her, mild embarrassment would have been the outcome if not for that damn flammable ’50s fabric. Compare this to something like Terror Train (1980), where they “prank” a kid by tricking him into getting in bed with a corpse! That’s multiple levels of criminal and psychotic. Stuff like that immediately removes any chance of me thinking of those characters as human beings or worrying about their fates.

After the intro, the film jumps to 30 years later and we see that this tragedy has totally messed these dudes up. The one who was fooling around with Mary Lou even became a priest! My wife commented on the unfortunate hairline of spurned “teen” Bill in the opening sequence, but the second we saw he grew up to be Michael Ironside we said, “yeah, that checks out.” Bill is now principal of the same high school he attended. After Mary Lou’s spirit is unleashed and the class picture for their year cracks over her face, Ironside immediately knows something’s up. We see him stop at the church and consider talking to the priest/other survivor about what’s happening, but the guilt and shame are too much for him and he drives off. That’s far more subtle character work than you would expect in a movie like this.

Lisa Schrage (China White) is great as Mary Lou in the opening flashback and a few brief moments later. It was a bit disappointing that we see so little of her in the role, but Wendy Lyon is also solid as Vicki, the girl Mary Lou possesses. Lyon starts out decent in her initial “good girl” role, but it is a lot of fun watching her turn up the crazy dial as Vicki becomes more confident, sexual, and violent under Mary Lou’s influence.

Discussions of this movie always mention the Carrie/Exorcist/Nightmare on Elm Street 2 similarities, but I also saw a possible Evil Dead influence in some of the more energetic editing and camera work (and the grisly climactic sequence). There were at least three moments where something hits someone or sends them flying that had me rolling. The way they are shot and edited they come out of nowhere and have a slapstick level of impact. This started with the first death scene. We see Vicki’s poor friend Jess (Beth Gondek) get dragged on the ground towards a paper cutter that seems like it is going to decapitate her, before she is hanged instead, as if Mary Lou changed her mind. Then it cuts to an exterior shot juuuust long enough that I thought it was a scene transition, when WHAM, her body comes flying out of the window! If I ever make a movie I am stealing that beat. Even the climax when Ironside’s character has a gun defied my expectations. I thought there would be at least a few seconds of equivocating or re-considering, or someone seeing or struggling with him, but nope, just BLAM!

Big props to Wendy Lyon for being very naked in the locker room scene. Gratuitous nudity, attempted lesbian action, and then a really cool and creative kill capping it off. If that sequence was all the movie had to offer I would still hold it in higher regard than many horror flicks, but that is just one highlight. Others include a nightmare scene with a blackboard that gave me Evil Dead/Elm Street vibes, some cool and creepy practical effects there. Also, Silent Hill-style flashes where Vicki finds herself in a dark, desiccated looking version of her school.

When my wife and I first saw Vicki’s bedroom and her large rocking horse, we questioned how old this girl was supposed to be. Then we see how oppressive her mom is and it makes some sense; this lady still wants Vicki to act like an obedient little girl so of course she’s not getting rid of that child’s toy. But it’s really there so it can be used in a disturbing nightmare scene, and later to show Vicki has gone full-Mary Lou as she sits on the creepy ass thing with her hand in its mouth!

Maybe if this had not been branded as a Prom Night sequel, it could have led to a long series of Mary Lou movies, and I would be seeking them out right now. Mary Lou does return one more time in Prom Night III: The Last Kiss (1990) played by a different actress (Courtney Taylor), stay tuned for that review next.

Note: there is only a Full Screen version of Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II currently streaming on Tubi, Amazon Prime, and (last time I had a subscription and could check) Shudder. There is also a widescreen DVD rip floating around online. Thankfully, it seems like the cult around Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II has been slowly growing over the years. Synapse Films announced in 2025 that they had the rights to restore and release a 4K version, although they specifically said it was only in the works and still haven’t given a release date. I hope it comes to fruition, as I need a quality copy of this classic for my collection.

Despite the small amount of screen time she had, I loved Lisa Schrage as Mary Lou, a bitch too bad to live in the 1950s, but also too bad to stay dead. I also enjoyed Wendy Lyon as Vicki, the repressed 1980s high school student possessed by Mary Lou. When I learned that Mary Lou returned in Part III but was replaced by a different actress (Courtney Taylor), it dulled my interest significantly. I also read that the main version of Part III available on DVD was an edited-for-TV cut, fuck that noise.

After seeing some letterboxd friends give Part III positive reviews, I managed to find the uncensored fullscreen version online and gave it a watch. There is no widescreen version available, but it played briefly in Canadian theaters so hopefully someone can restore a widescreen release for blu-ray at some point (Severin has mentioned working on this movie if they ever get their Prom Night II 4K done). If you see a big blood squib at the end of the first death scene, that should be an uncensored copy.

Prom Night III: The Last Kiss is a 1990 Canadian horror comedy (romance?) movie. Ron Oliver, the writer of Part II, returns to write and co-direct (with Peter R. Simpson) this installment. Part II was a possession story in the mode of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, but this one drops that angle. In fact, it feels like Oliver is trying to position Mary Lou as a figure more like Freddy in all the OTHER Nightmare sequels: an amusingly malevolent spirit with ties to a specific location (Hamilton High instead of Elm Street) who enjoys murdering people via fun themed set pieces. I said after watching Prom Night II that I wish we had a whole series of Mary Lou movies, this sequel shows what that might have looked like. I thought the 1950s Americana-themed kills they came up with here (jukebox, ice cream shop, etc.) were a lot of fun, but I don’t know how much more juice they could have squeezed out of that gimmick if they kept going with more sequels. I wish we had the opportunity to find out, though!

The opening sets expectations for tone and budget compared to the previous movie. Mary Lou’s Hell is depicted as some kind of burlesque show or low energy lady’s workout class in a dark, empty room with stone floors and smoke machines. Cheap, but silly and creative. Mary Lou breaks free of her chains with a nail file, her gravestone on Earth explodes, and the camera Evil Dead-rushes through the hallways of Hamilton High as we hear her laughter. Soon Mary Lou (with some burn marks) is manifesting and murdering in the school when she encounters an old classmate.

Hamilton High student and protagonist Alex (Tim Conlon) is tired of being nothing special. He is the average height, has the average shoe size, and gets average grades. Alex wants to go to med school, but the hilariously callous (and weirdly hot?) guidance counselor tells him to adjust his expectations and that “the world needs ditch diggers!”

Aimless Alex also can’t decide between spending the summer with his girlfriend or a road trip with his bestie. He decides to finally commit to something and study for his biology test to improve his grades. Returning to the school at night, he encounters Mary Lou. Alex falls down the stairs in surprise, pulling down an American flag on top of himself. Mary Lou stands over him ready to do her thang, but a groggy Alex with blurred vision goes to kiss her. All of a sudden Mary Lou’s burns have disappeared, they are making out, and she is into it! It doesn’t seem out of character, though, as pre-tragic death Mary Lou loved getting that D. Who knows how long it’s been since our ghost girl got some? They bone down on the flag while The Star-Spangled Banner plays on the soundtrack! I was very amused by the cheeky Canadian take on American iconography here and throughout Mary Lou’s various costumes and set pieces.

Alex finds a newspaper article about Mary Lou’s death in the library’s microfilm. Alex is creeped out but continues to see and hear Mary Lou as he zones out in class. Soon she is using her supernatural abilities to help second stringer Alex on the football field and get him an A on the biology test. The only problem is that A comes with a dead teacher attached. Alex has to clean up her mess, and boy it really is a mess. Mary Lou was definitely being extra when she set up the corpse presentation for her new boyfriend, but I gotta respect the style and creativity in her craft.

Alex starts losing time and becomes distant from his girlfriend and best friend. Mary Lou continues to help and seduce him, but by the time a third body drops Alex has had enough. He tries to break up with Mary Lou and finds out that surprisingly, dumping a horny murder ghost haunting you isn’t that easy. Things get even worse when the bodies Alex buried on the football field are found. Eventually things culminate with police shootouts and prom showdowns. A last-minute jaunt also establishes that the Silent Hill-style version of Hamilton High we saw flashes of in part II is actually Hell (or at least the corner of Hell that Mary Lou and her victims hang out in).

Despite not having the budget or production quality of the previous movie, this still has some style. The camerawork is energetic and tries to keep up with the increasingly fevered mind of the protagonist. When Alex is burying the first corpse it is intercut with him having sex with Mary Lou, and there is some nifty match-cutting between the bodies in the two scenes while the camera is rotating above them. There are far fewer special effects in part III, but there are still a couple good gory moments. The Hell-world version of Hamilton High looks cheaper but is more expansive this time around. I also appreciated the absolute lack of subtlety in the writing and directing. The results are often genuinely funny and hot, sometimes at the same time. Like when Mary Lou’s sexy housewife scenario leads to suggestively spilt milk:

It wasn’t until Mary Lou stood in front of a glowing doorway that I thought about how this movie is like an evil Weird Science. Mary Lou can magically improve your life, and unlike Lisa she WILL have sex with you, but she will also murder anyone who gets in her way. And Mary Lou doesn’t magically disappear along with the mess she created, she’s taking you down with her baby! While this I don’t think this is quite the cult classic in waiting that part II is, it is still a fast, fun movie. I appreciated getting another round with Mary Lou, and didn’t mind the changes to this iteration.

The best part of the movie is also the thing I was initially most worried about: Courtney Taylor as the new iteration of Mary Lou Maloney. She is perfect for this movie’s more cartoonish version of Mary Lou, giving just the right amount of gusto for this goofiness. Taylor is also fine as a motherfucker, reminding me of late 90s/2000s-era Tiffani Amber Thiessen. The volume and quality of her gorgeous hair is peak for this period, when big hair was still in but it didn’t look as damaged or teased as it often did in the 80s. Mary Lou shows up in a sexy sparkly prom dress, but she also gets a number of cute costume changes (diner waitress, nurse, housewife). I had no problem believing someone would bury bodies for her. Although I suppose I am partial to a bad bitch who grabs you by the throat and tells you what to do…

I also recognized the guy playing goofy cop Larry in the last act. It turns out, actor Brock Simpson is one of the only connections between all four Prom Night movies! He was in the opening scene of Prom Night as young Nick, one of the kids who causes the inciting tragedy. Then in part II he played Josh, the dork who seemed lovable until he coerced a girl into giving him sexual favors. Simpson also apparently returns in Prom Night IV as Father Colin. Brock’s the son of series producer and this entry’s co-director Peter Simpson. The other most obvious connection all four movies share is music by Paul Zaza. For this film Zaza uses a lot of 1950s style music for Mary Lou and generic scoring elsewhere, but every once in a while, he will give us some random synths or cartoon music (in the cop car ride, WTF was that?).

There is one super 1990-ass musical element that Zaza did not contribute, though. For this movie has one of my favorite tropes of the era, the custom-made closing credits rap song! “She’s Gonna Freak You” by Canadian rapper Maestro Fresh Wes shows up earlier in the movie, but it wasn’t until it came back at the end that I realized it wasn’t just a random licensed song. It is built around a sample of “American Woman” by the Guess Who that I would have assumed was too expensive for this silly little movie’s budget, but the track was actually made for this film. It doesn’t quite hit the heights of my favorites that talk directly about the movie character/events, but the Maestro does warn about the “American woman” inflicting terror and violence alongside typical worries such as gold digging. And it is actually an enjoyable, not embarrassing song to listen to outside of the movie! Spoiler warning, this fan made video for the song contains low quality clips of some of the movie’s best scenes:

Just like previous Mary Lou actress Lisa Schrage, Courtney Taylor sadly has a pretty small filmography (both have exactly nine credits on Letterboxd). BUT it looks like a couple of Taylor’s movies are 90s erotic thrillers, so I will definitely be seeking those out. Bafflingly, the next Prom Night (released in 1992) replaces Mary Lou with a killer Catholic priest and involves the church’s abuse of children. That doesn’t sound fun at all!

Any other Mary Lou fans in the house? It feels like there aren’t that many recurring female horror villains, which is a shame. Angela from the Night of the Demons series springs to mind. Pearl, from X and Pearl. Tiffany in the Chucky series, but she has to share the spotlight. I guess it might be time for me to start watching the Sleepaway Camp movies, as that series’ Angela Baker seems to be one of the only other characters that fits this bill. Are there any other lethal ladies who had multiple horror movies that I am missing?

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