Episode 212 - Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II: LIVE! (w/ Charlize Theron, Seth Rogen)

[The Working Dead 12]

2 hours ago, theworstbuddhist said:

I noticed Craven and figured yeah, that makes sense since the director clearly borrowed a lot from Nightmare on Elm Street (I think someone in the podcast mentions that the director also talked to Craven for advice?) There is a lot of that kind easter egging in horror, with directors playing bit parts in each others' films and naming stuff after each other.

Yeah, the way Mary Lou just came out of Vicki at the climax was very remniscent of Nightmare part 2, and the whole final twist was cribbed from the first Nightmare.

I'm honestly surprised this one doesn't have more of a reputation. The acting is great, as the group said repeatedly, the writing is pretty strong, and I thought the effects were genuinely clever and well executed, especially considering this was probably a small budget. It's easy to see how they did the blackboard scene, but it's still a good image. And that rocking horse was creepy as hell when it went all demonic.

Also, my favorite horror easter egg in this film was when one character, pretty sure it was Josh, is joking that Vicki is possessed, and he quotes the Exorcist, but he uses the edited TV dialogue when he says "your mother sews socks in hell, Father Karas!" instead of the infamous "Your mother sucks cocks in hell" line.

[Cameron H. 23786]

I’m in the middle of watching the movie now, and I have to assume the entire episode is just them gushing over how fantastic it is. It seems pretty flawless to me.

[RyanSz 3140]

4 hours ago, theworstbuddhist said:

I noticed Craven and figured yeah, that makes sense since the director clearly borrowed a lot from Nightmare on Elm Street (I think someone in the podcast mentions that the director also talked to Craven for advice?) There is a lot of that kind easter egging in horror, with directors playing bit parts in each others' films and naming stuff after each other.

They really need to cover Night of the Creeps as it's an amazing cult horror film.

1 hour ago, The Working Dead said:

Yeah, the way Mary Lou just came out of Vicki at the climax was very remniscent of Nightmare part 2, and the whole final twist was cribbed from the first Nightmare.

I'm honestly surprised this one doesn't have more of a reputation. The acting is great, as the group said repeatedly, the writing is pretty strong, and I thought the effects were genuinely clever and well executed, especially considering this was probably a small budget. It's easy to see how they did the blackboard scene, but it's still a good image. And that rocking horse was creepy as hell when it went all demonic.

Also, my favorite horror easter egg in this film was when one character, pretty sure it was Josh, is joking that Vicki is possessed, and he quotes the Exorcist, but he uses the edited TV dialogue when he says "your mother sews socks in hell, Father Karas!" instead of the infamous "Your mother sucks cocks in hell" line.

That's one thing I never understood about Nightmare 2 or this, in that these bodies are literally torn to shreds for the villain to come into the real world to exact their revenge, but once you look back at the character they tore through, they are back to normal as if nothing happened. While it's just in the chest in Prom Night 2, in Nightmare 2 the lead character is just strimbles of skin once Freddy uses him as a doorway, there isn't even any blood on the room surfaces.

[Cam Bert 8145]

3 hours ago, Cameron H. said:

I’m in the middle of watching the movie now, and I have to assume the entire episode is just them gushing over how fantastic it is. It seems pretty flawless to me.

It is and it is

[Cam Bert 8145]

They talked about the license plate at the end but I think there is much more to it than a knowing wink and "Mary Lou" powers at work. See the car they drive away in is that of Principal Nordham who accidentally killed Mary Lou at prom all those years ago and has gotten away with it since. In a case like this you think they would have caught him sooner given that Mary Lou was cheating on him and they had a confrontation at prom that night. Now, graduating high school kids would be right around the age to start driving and getting their first cars. So when Billy gets his first car he also gets a the custom plate of "MARYLOU2" as a tribute to his lost love. "I loved her officer," he tells the police, "so much that I didn't want to be without her so I named my car after her." He sells it and the police buy it, but the other kids who know what Mary was really like are still suspicious. So he keeps his license plate. Even when he gets a new car he transfers it over. He brings it up at parties "I lost Mary Lou, you better believe I'm not losing Mary Lou 2" he tells people and pretends to cry a little. People start to believe that he really loved her and maybe he didn't know about her indiscretions. He just keeps selling it and selling it. Eventually at university while studying education he meets a girl and falls in love. She asks about the plates and he goes into his sob alibi story. She falls for it and their son in conceived in the back of that car. This also explains his Titanic themed nightmare vision. Eventually people stop questioning or caring but Priniciapl Nordham gets lazy and never changes the license plate to something more normal. That is his license plate and it will always be.

[MariahN 11]

ok, just watched the movie but haven't listened to the show yet.

Does anyone bring up the obvious calls to other prom/dance related movies here? The stars motif definitely echoes Carrie and Kelly's red dress with the black polka dots looks SO much like Rizzo's from Grease.  Is this Canada trying to understand American proms? 

[gigi-tastic 2322]

7 hours ago, taylorannephoto said:

I finally saw the movie, and Mary Lou Maloney is a feminist icon.

I fully endorse Mary Lou for prom queen of the world 2020

[Robert Denby 103]

I have to say, the attendance at New Wave Girl’s funeral was disappointing. And poor Michael Ironsides, having to live with both the responsibility of taking a life and early-onset male pattern baldness...

[Chopping MAL 15]

I think another problem Vicky had was that her boyfriend was married. In the second diner scene it appears that the actor has on a wedding band and they left it in. Unless that is an odd looking class ring that he's wearing on his ring finger.

[Robert Denby 103]

Computer geek: “There’s a lot of advantages to a girl whose head spins around.” Really? 

[Robert Denby 103]

After watching this movie, I really want a Diet Pepsi. 

[Chopping MAL 15]

9 hours ago, Robert Denby said:

Computer geek: “There’s a lot of advantages to a girl whose head spins around.” Really? 

That was such a crazy line! It was treated like some kind of sexual innuendo, but it just doesn't work.

[theworstbuddhist 572]

10 hours ago, Chopping MAL said:

I think another problem Vicky had was that her boyfriend was married. In the second diner scene it appears that the actor has on a wedding band and they left it in. Unless that is an odd looking class ring that he's wearing on his ring finger.

That's his right hand, which when I went to high school in the 80s could mean that you were in a committed relationship. Maybe it could now too? Dunno.

12 hours ago, MariahN said:

ok, just watched the movie but haven't listened to the show yet.

Does anyone bring up the obvious calls to other prom/dance related movies here? The stars motif definitely echoes Carrie and Kelly's red dress with the black polka dots looks SO much like Rizzo's from Grease.  Is this Canada trying to understand American proms? 

As near as I can remember, our proms are much like yours. But I suspect that like most movies made in Canada, they were mainly trying to pass the location off as somewhere in America without getting too specific.
 

[The Working Dead 12]

17 hours ago, RyanSz said:

That's one thing I never understood about Nightmare 2 or this, in that these bodies are literally torn to shreds for the villain to come into the real world to exact their revenge, but once you look back at the character they tore through, they are back to normal as if nothing happened. While it's just in the chest in Prom Night 2, in Nightmare 2 the lead character is just strimbles of skin once Freddy uses him as a doorway, there isn't even any blood on the room surfaces.

I honestly try to think of Nightmare 2 as little as possible. But here in Prom Night 2 I think the physics work a little differently. In fact, I don't think Mary Lou actually came out of Vicki at all.

When Vicki is found in the trunk at the end of the movie she's soaking wet, which implies to me she's been stuck in the nether realm since the moment she was sucked into the blackboard. I think Mary Lou actually just manifested a replica of Vicki's body so she could walk around without drawing too much attention to herself. So when she shed Vicki's skin she was really just taking off a costume, and then after she was "defeated" Vicki was let out of that nether realm and reappeared in the trunk, which appears to be some form of doorway to wherever Mary Lou has been chilling since the 50s.

[Dangorman77 6]

I wanted to point out that when we first see Vickie looking in the mirror she is wearing a cross. Then at the first diner scene her awful boyfriend gives her the exact same thing. I she a collector of crucifixes or something. 

Also in the second diner scene how and why did Craig change his clothes and get his hair cut between leaving Vickie's house and getting to the diner? 

[Easeup47 1]

In the episode Jason and Seth mention this movie possibly having Christian themes. I would say this movie is clearly anti-religion. 

When the priest goes to Michael Ironside’s home to warn him about Mary Lou, he claims that he is protected because he is a priest. Later, when Vicki/Mary Lou comes to the confessional, he tries to stop her from attacking him by holding up his crucifix and chanting. Mary Lou is completely unphased by this and tells him there is no God Before killing him with his own crucifix. 

This scene also has one of the funniest lines in the movie when Mary Lou complains that one of the worst parts of the afterlife is that there’s “NO FUCKING WINGS”. 

 

[pscudese 701]

I was so surprised that Bill, the boyfriend who lit Mary Lou on fire, was not Vicki’s father. It was a natural assumption, because right after the backstory of the fire, the first adult male we see is Vicki’s dad. Also this would have been a more interesting story if Mary Lou is getting revenge on Bill through his daughter.

And finally, what kind a sociopath is Bill in that he works as a principal of the school where he murdered a former girlfriend?!

[gigi-tastic 2322]

15 hours ago, Chopping MAL said:

I think another problem Vicky had was that her boyfriend was married. In the second diner scene it appears that the actor has on a wedding band and they left it in. Unless that is an odd looking class ring that he's wearing on his ring finger.

I assumed that Vickie got HIM a promise ring for reasons? Because you know with her mom there's no way she's going to be raised that sex before marriage is ok. Maybe they went to a creepy purity ball or is that just for father's and dsughters? Because I'm sure kissing dad would be stoked for that....

[TomPretty 29]

I am surprised the gang never brought up the handsy science teacher .... OR the fact that this movie clearly ripped off Carrie, The Exorcist, and even a little Christine. Five Stars

[TomPretty 29]

2 hours ago, Easeup47 said:

In the episode Jason and Seth mention this movie possibly having Christian themes. I would say this movie is clearly anti-religion. 

When the priest goes to Michael Ironside’s home to warn him about Mary Lou, he claims that he is protected because he is a priest. Later, when Vicki/Mary Lou comes to the confessional, he tries to stop her from attacking him by holding up his crucifix and chanting. Mary Lou is completely unphased by this and tells him there is no God Before killing him with his own crucifix. 

This scene also has one of the funniest lines in the movie when Mary Lou complains that one of the worst parts of the afterlife is that there’s “NO FUCKING WINGS”. 

 

Yeah at first I thought she meant wings for flying but now I think it could be chicken wings?

[theworstbuddhist 572]

3 hours ago, pscudese said:

I was so surprised that Bill, the boyfriend who lit Mary Lou on fire, was not Vicki’s father. It was a natural assumption, because right after the backstory of the fire, the first adult male we see is Vicki’s dad. Also this would have been a more interesting story if Mary Lou is getting revenge on Bill through his daughter.

And finally, what kind a sociopath is Bill in that he works as a principal of the school where he murdered a former girlfriend?!

This kind.

 

[RyanSz 3140]

8 hours ago, The Working Dead said:

I honestly try to think of Nightmare 2 as little as possible. But here in Prom Night 2 I think the physics work a little differently. In fact, I don't think Mary Lou actually came out of Vicki at all.

When Vicki is found in the trunk at the end of the movie she's soaking wet, which implies to me she's been stuck in the nether realm since the moment she was sucked into the blackboard. I think Mary Lou actually just manifested a replica of Vicki's body so she could walk around without drawing too much attention to herself. So when she shed Vicki's skin she was really just taking off a costume, and then after she was "defeated" Vicki was let out of that nether realm and reappeared in the trunk, which appears to be some form of doorway to wherever Mary Lou has been chilling since the 50s.

I now kind of want an alternate ending of this to be her waiting for her boyfriend in the car and she just has a single bandaid on her chest where Mary Lou came out of and he's all freaked out because of what he saw happen to her body. And she just brushes it off as no big deal in a very Rafi kind of way to healing oneself, similar to other remedies he had on The League.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x3Zo5YKyPs

[Cam Bert 8145]

So Mary Lou has many interesting powers. Paul and the gang talked about how weird it was she was able to kill not-Real Genius via electricity via the computer. However this glosses over the even more incredible power she has in that scene. Half a school away not-Real Genius is changing the results on the computer and she can sense it! She literally feels it the moment it is changed and then proceeds to grab an outlet to electrocute him. Does being a evil spirit also give you a Spider Sense that is tuned into prom king and queen status? In addition even though he types it into the computer she somehow uses her powers to change it back to herself anyway. If Mary Lou could change the results at any time why would she even need to try to get not-Real Genius to pick her anyway?

[tomspanks 9039]

3 hours ago, Cam Bert said:

So Mary Lou has many interesting powers. Paul and the gang talked about how weird it was she was able to kill not-Real Genius via electricity via the computer. However this glosses over the even more incredible power she has in that scene. Half a school away not-Real Genius is changing the results on the computer and she can sense it! She literally feels it the moment it is changed and then proceeds to grab an outlet to electrocute him. Does being a evil spirit also give you a Spider Sense that is tuned into prom king and queen status? In addition even though he types it into the computer she somehow uses her powers to change it back to herself anyway. If Mary Lou could change the results at any time why would she even need to try to get not-Real Genius to pick her anyway?

Because this way she gets to murder!

[Cam Bert 8145]

50 minutes ago, tomspanks said:

Because this way she gets to murder!

See I thought it had more to do with if she doesn't win officially her spirit can't move on, but yes murder makes more sense.