From the little I knew about this film, the description from the back of the DVD, it sounded like Candyman warmed over for the 00?s. A group of young adults spend a weekend in a cabin, then on a dare play Dead Mary, saying her name five times into the mirror, then she shows up and kills everybody. A pretty basic horror plot-line, that sounded so typical that I skipped renting it and only decided to check it out when I noticed it on one of the movie channels. I?m glad I did, because while not a great horror film, it turned out to be far more ambitious than previously advertised.
The film starts with a nicely put together quiet scene; a young girl, played by Dominique Swain, sits idly in a car, fiddling around with the knobs, simply having a moment to herself. Rare is the horror film that begins without a bang, i.e. somebody getting killed, especially for something that went straight-to-DVD, they usually sell themselves to the lowest common denominator. I began to suspect that there might be something more to this film, my suspicions were confirmed when they spent the next half an hour setting up the characters. They all talk like old friends, gossiping about each others relationships, truly enjoying one another?s company. Again, rare is the modern horror film, that spends some time getting to know the characters. The acting is a little weak here, the dialogue a little too The Hills, but they give it a good try and you do end up caring more about these characters than most horror films.
At the turn of the first act they play the Dead Mary game, which of course leads to their comfy scene being destroyed. But the way it happens is quite surprising. Instead of some supernatural, ghastly looking woman appearing and chopping everyone up (The DVD cover is only some overzealous artists conception); it starts with a mystery. The guy we were lead to believe was the hero of the film, goes into the woods following a sound; a horror cliché true, but it has to start somewhere; something attacks him, a minute later one of the girls comes screaming into the house, she?s seen him killed, and she claims it was done by one of the other girls. The girl doing the blaming is the only girl not well known to the group, a new girlfriend, but something strange happened when the blamed girl played the last game of Dead Mary. Immediately things get strained among the group and nobody knows who to trust.
The situation gets even weirder when they go out to find the guy?s corpse, at first they think he?s been mauled by a bear, because his body has been so destroyed. What happens next is worse, he suddenly springs back to life, spewing all kinds of profanities towards everyone standing around him, and his body seems to be regenerating itself. The guy?s ex-girlfriend immediately bashes his head in with a shovel, a little harsh considering they?re still figuring out what?s going on, but it proves to be the right call. I don?t want to go into details, the film deserves to have a little mystery about it. Let me just say that the film is much more Evil Dead than Candyman. Things continue to get worse, each character turning on their best friend, no one can be trusted; and they?re forced to do horrible things to stay alive. And to make things more interesting, it seems that the epidemic isn't isolated to their neck of the woods.
If the film had done a few things differently, it might have been a really wonderful horror film. I like being left with a mystery, but they left it a shade to vague; a few tiny morsels more information on what was going on, a taste of what?s happening beyond the cabin, a few more clues to the characters motivations and it could have been something special. Maybe I need to go back and watch it again, it seems like one of those films, that?ll open itself up more on a second viewing. But as it is, Dead Mary is a far more interesting and well made, than most of the horror films you?ll find on the shelves at Blockbuster; it reaches far beyond it?s straight-to-DVD status to be something worth remembering. Director Robert Wilson may just knock his next film out of the park.
could be considered a cabin fever rip off amoung others, as stupid 20 somethings conjour up dead mary a childhood myth, then she apears through the cast killing and making people paranoid, not entirely sucessfull, with some good points scattered
This was a movie that started out being good then it just fell apart. It was very disappointing. I mean, they could have done so much with this story and they just failed miserably. I will admit that the first "scare" in the movie was pretty cool, the make-up and effects in that scene reminded me of Evil Dead. But after that scene the movie basically went to shit.
Crap ripoff of The Evil Dead. There was way too much pointless story and not enough happening. If I wanted to watch people get drunk I'd go to the pub.
Better than I expected. The acting was surprisingly good and the story was pretty creepy. I Kept watching it and was pretty involved with what was going to happen next. I'd recommend anyone to watch this because you just might like it.
Total waste of time, sucky story plot which did not explain is that monster is "dead mary" or not. Did not even have any bloodly scene and super fake acting.
This movie started out slow. I kept watching hoping it was going to get more interesting but to my disappointment it didnt. It had a little gore and blood, but still not worth watching.
When you think late night horror movies you think lots of gore, bad acting, sex, drugs, and crappy story. In this case, you get non of that. A great story line, that is slow during the beginning half of the movie. Nothing really happens, but a lot of talking until say, the last 45 minutes of the movie. The ending is great and their are some cool twists as to who lives and dies in the story. The acting is great, except for Marie-Josee Colburn is touch and go in the emotional department. Non of the cast are ever dead pan or over the top acting, so they do a great job. Kudos go to Majeski and Brown, for being able to do multiple personality. The gore effects, in most of the genre are over the top, are thankfully not the case here. There's plenty of blood, but it's not overpowering and the CGI is not stand out bad. It's not great, but I've seen worse. So if your flipping through the channels for a good late night scare, don't be afraid to see Dead Mary.
It looked kinda B, but despite the poster and feeling I had I gave it a try. Lots of blood and always the "who-is-one-of-them-feeling". Very good, a bit boring in the end but a good way of ending it, stupid that the cutest guy died first =/
This movie could have been so much better! There were a couple creepy moments..few and far between.
Several friends meet up at a cabin for the weekend. They play a game 'Dead Mary'. The spirit Mary is unleashed and possesses several of the friends, and they have to figure out who is and is not under Mary's spell. Ending was anticlimactic!
Dominique Swain looked terrible in this film like old and haggard and just ugly. the first 30mins OMG!! dragged it just wouldn't start the film like i didn't care what was going on. it finally got started with some decent scenes but nothing special and nothing scary nor gory. and the ending was terrible. but i guess the ending matched the film
what a mess! so many holes, a elephant could fall thru the plot, they tried to take shirtcuts by giving dialogue instead of showing what happened. ugh NOOOOOOOO
This movie not have closed caption or subtitle in english, because I am deaf and I require it. Which movies that not have closed caption, I not need to watch it.. But I am disappoint and I want to see it.
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