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List Price: $12.95 | | Label: Peace Arch
Salesrank: 60953
Released: February 20, 2007 |
| Our Price: $5.94 |
| Used Price: $2.59 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
(Horror) Kim and her best friends drive to a remote lakeside cabin to relax and reminisce about their college days. When the group decides to play the ghoulish game "Dead Mary", they unleash a vengeful spirit that possesses them one by one. As the demon forces them to turn on one another, each is faced with a choice. Would you hack your best friend to pieces to ensure your own survival?
Dead Mary Reviews:
Lame, low budget. 
2009-04-18 - This is one of those movies you keep watching all the way through waiting for it to get better...
...but it never does. The plot wasn't totally bad, but could have been a lot better. The first thing that hit me was the soundtrack which was really awful. Whoever recorded the main song must have been a friend of the producer who was owed a favor. The music was boring, a perfect match for the rest of the movie. I would have given this movie 1/2 of a star, but this review doesn't allow for it.
Really, don't waste your money buying this movie.
Entertaining - with the right expectations 
2009-04-15 - Movies are always about expectations - expect a ton and be prepared to be let down, etc. In this case, don't expect a masterfully crafted story and movie. Its not. But it does have a certain atmospheric quality that transcends its otherwise mundane presentation. The characters are generally fun and not overly obnoxious. The filming location has a cozy feel - being in a cabin on a remote lake. And the horror part is pretty decent. Its a pretty straighforward story, but one I enjoy and actually bought.
The B side to Bloody Mary
2008-09-13 - Late night is the best time for a horrific b masterpiece. Over the years the window in between 12:30 am til 4:00 am has been such a huge source of our reviewing materials by revealing the straight to video side of films. For about the past month, every Friday night around 1 am this fim Dead Mary comes on. After checking it out partially here and there it was finally time to sit through the film in its entirety. Just from the description explaining a group of friends are terrorized by a supernatural force they summon lets you know what to expect. This is the same description for about 500 other horror titles that are shown late night, but thats all part of b.
When pondering this film you may wonder, why the title "Dead Mary" instead of the well known tale of Bloody Mary? The one thing that came to mind was some type of copyright nonsense. Which turned out to be exactly the problem. The original screenplay was called Bloody Mary. The title was cleared in every territory except Japan, where the name Bloody Mary is copyrighted, and it was suggested that the title be changed to Dead Mary for release in that country alone. When the film's producers discovered that another film, also called Bloody Mary, was being readied for release around the same time, it was decided that the film's title be officially changed to Dead Mary in order to avoid confusion. But with a direct to video release does it even matter?
As we begin we are introduced to yet another group of d bags who are having a little reunion in the woods to reminisce of old times. So for once we don't have a group of high school kids getting killed in the woods. Instead we have older versions of high school idiots who are probably more irritating now then they were in high school. Go Dead Mary! They finally arrive at the cabin and not much of anything happens for the first half hour. There is a lot of dialog which amounts to absolutely nothing. It gets so boring you may even consider just shutting it down. As night rolls in they are hanging out having some drinks when one of the girls suggest they play Dead Mary. After she starts challenging the room they finally give in and one by one go into the bathroom. With only a lit candle they stand in front of the mirror with their eyes closed and repeat Dead Mary 3 times. This part actually was a bit creepy. The atmosphere was very dark and provided some element of horror, but nothing too amazing. The one kid has an odd experience as his candle goes out and turns the light on to find blood on the sink signifying Dead Mary is one the loose. See this was a disappointment. It would have been cool to see some old decrepit spirit come smahing through the mirror but we get nothing. Everyone now decides it's bed time and one guy continues to get loaded by himself in the living room where he eventually passes out. He awakes to some odd noises which for some reason make him run outside. Once outside he gets killed. The friends go running as his corpse begins speaking revealing secrets within the group of friends. So instead of a cool Dead Mary running around have people getting killed and possesed by her spirit which makes them come back only to reveal each other secrets. It's absurd. The rest of the film moves at the same pace with nothing to offer. It feels like you're watching more of a therapy session then an actual horror film. All thats revealed is this group of losers dirty laundry in a weak attempt to create some chills.
After the viewing you're going to wonder why this is a horror film. After some research we found out that the original script called for Dead Mary, when summoned by the chant, would rise from the lake and murder each character. Instead of that director Robert Wilson decided it would be much better if Dead Mary was never seen. She wuld just manifest herself in the characters causing them to spill the beans about their friends. He should have picked the first idea which would have been a far superior film. It's good to take an approach outside the whole slasher idea, but there has to be some element of horror to make it work. This one just came up short where the rapidly aproaching ending was all you're rooting for. Don't bother with this unless up very late with nothing better to do.
Decent for direct-to-video horror 
2008-04-16 - An decent flick for the direct-to-video horror genre. There's a kind of a "The Thing" feel to this with a sprinking of "Candyman" which works (surprisingly) fairly well for the most part, even with the ambiguous ending. It allows for some suspense and a few genuine scares. Pretty good performances from the cast and excellent atmosphere make this watchable.
Dead Mary; who knew? 
2008-02-02 - Starts off like a sleazy version of Dawson's Creek. We watch as Kim (Dominique Swain) and all her friends set up at a cabin for a long weekend. The first half hour of the film is spent getting to know the characters; right off the bat Kim and her boyfriend Matt are at odds (blah, blah, blah) and that sets the framework for some of the other drama that follows. Bottom line is they're all friends who have no problem with screwing each other over. Kind of illustrating the sort of blank existence I've seen associated with extreme stereotypes of Gen X-ers, cynical to the point of melodrama. However, I did find that it reinforced the feeling of seclusion and paranoia central to the theme of the movie and while slow paced in the beginning it kind of made up for it at the end.
The pace starts to pick up a bit when the group is hanging out having drinks and the conversation turns to Dead Mary. I was happy Kim at least referenced the Bloody Mary urban legend and acknowledged the variance giving the story a small touch of realism(tee hee). After a few of them go into the bathroom to inadvertently conjure a demon, which we later find, possesses or infects a person, then forces the possessed to kill thus spreading said possession or infection, the action ramps up a bit. Fade to black (Literally).
From here on out, I have to say, I loved this film. The subtlety throughout the story was notable; there was never that feeling of any danger until something happened and caught me off guard and also had me saying "Wait a minute what just happened?" This for me made the entire film very worthwhile. An added worthiness was the fact that the supernatural force stalking the group worked more like a spiritual possession / virus enabling the possessed / infected to see and share everyone's darkest secret at the other's expense. Also, the awesome thing about this is that you can literally mangle the person, watch them die, and then a few minutes later they regenerate all while spouting party fouls and faux-paus and this alone made up for the slow character build-up at the beginning of the movie for me. This element would not have worked nearly as well or been half as gratifying when we find out which character banged the other friend's significant other if the viewer had not had some insight into the characters lives and secretly wanted them to die just so they would stop talking.
This movie is definitely achieved cult status in my library. Dead Mary does a great job of building that feeling of seclusion, a common byproduct of paranoia. I'll admit going into this I wasn't really sure about it but I was so pleasantly surprised. There was a decent amount of gore, excellent pacing and some great one liners; "Stop hitting my face with garden tools!!" Ha! Buy, rent, or watch this film.
