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Overall Rating : 4.5/10
Directed By : Robert Wilson
Dominique Swain (Devour)
Marie-Josée Colburn
Reagan Pasternak
Maggie Castle (The Woods)
Supplied By : Peace Arch Entertainment
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Feb. 7, 2007
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| PLOT For Kim it was supposed to be the perfect reunion and weekend getaway. She 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 mistakenly 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. |
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| THE REVIEW In the Canadian Horror flick, DEAD MARY, Kim and her now ex-Boyfriend(after 10 years of courtship), head to a remote cabin in the woods, to meet up with a group of old college friends on New Years weekend. Well after a day of swimming and catching up on old times, Kim introduces the group to an old game she played as a kid called "Dead Mary". Supposedly, Dead Mary is a more tougher version of the tradition Bloody Mart game but the same rules would apply. When someone turns out the lights and speaks the name of Dead Mary 3 consecutive times, it would conjure up the spirit of the old legend herself. Well to be brave and in order to show up the females, a couple of the Males agree to do what the legend states - at first nothing happens, but it is then, a little later that strange noises from the outside woods begin frightening the group, one in particular is Matt whom goes out to investigate. Matt does not return, but one of the females named Lilly just so happens to find him dead and as she returns to the cabin, she is quick to point the finger at Eve, saying she saw her kill Matt, the friends don't believe her and in Horror movie fashion they go of to see the dead body. Well when they get there, Matt's body somehow becomes miraculously re-animated and in the meantime spouts off a few secrets that the friends have such as one cheated on their mate with another and so on, In a bit of frustration with Matt had to say about his own relationship with Kim, Kim violently kills what's left of Matt. But as he dies, the spirit of Dead Mary carries on to different members of our group, thus it begins to get difficult for them to trust each other - despite the problems within the group they already seemed to have. Honestly when reading about this film and even after seeing the box art which features a mirror with a glaring evil face in it - I thought that this would be "Just another Bloody Mary film". which there have been a number of, but DEAD MARY is quite different, or dare I say original. You see in this film, instead of Mary coming out of hiding and wreaking hell on those that awake her, it is her spirit that awakes and in the process it is passed from body to body as she has some evil fun with them. And what better setting is a group of Post-college friends who seem to value their relationships with their significant others the most, whom when word of infidelities surface they become more vulnerable? It's a great setting because as the certain individuals begin to turn, the opposing individual(whomever it may be) is torn between killing to save their own life and just wanting to bash their heads in to get back at them. But this is of course after the fun starts, and I say this because....yes DEAD MARY starts off at an incredibly slow and almost dull pace. In between there is a lot of drawn out discussions that consist of dialogue that really has nothing else to do with the movie - so much so that at times you find yourself asking, when will the real plot begin.....until it finally gets there about 45 minutes in. And at that mark in the film when it starts getting a little exciting, the look of the film that was eye pleasing for the first part of the film becomes dark as the sun goes down.... and in certain areas of the film it becomes too dark for the eye - in that it is so hard to see that you actually kind of miss key moments of the film(and on top of that the lighting just overall become one big headache in itself. The acting I was not overly pleased with as the majority felt totally amateurish and unconvincing. Perhaps the only great performance is that of the film's primary star Dominique Swain. To be honest with you, Dominique is the main reason I really had good expectations for, or even interest in DEAD MARY - she is just hot, what can I say? And had Swain not been in this, DEAD MARY, would have been just another typical straight to video film, as she virtually saves it at times. I'm not saying DEAD MARY is a bad film at all, but I did expect a film that was more fresh and a bit more fast paced. And when it begin on the slower side, I thought it would be a time for character development, but in the time spent, we really do not get anymore on our characters, but what we do get is a bunch of unnecessary 'filler' material to pad the time out - in the end it is just a rather decent effort to say the least. |
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| GORE
METER 3/10 Not as gory as one would hope in a film like this. You do get body parts that are severed, broken off, etc., and then some shovels to the head....all of which are done in the poor lighting anyway. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 2.5/10 In the soundtrack there were various folk rock tunes that were peaceful, but I feel that they really did not fit the film's subject matter.... and during the action scenes followed a more suspenseful score. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Overall, I really liked the concept of this film, as it is a classic tale done in a way not thought of, but in the end, although I didn't hate it. I do believe it was executed wrong. Had it been a little faster and some of the lighting been more visible... I would have enjoyed it much more perhaps(The cool box art does get an 8 though). I would still recommend DEAD MARY for a rent, for the sake of Dominique Swain alone however! This DVD will be released on February 20, 2007 |
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