URBAN LEGENDS: BLOOD MARY

DVD Review by David Blackwell

DETAILS:   93 minutes, Making of featurette, previews

STUDIO:  SPHE

RELEASE DATE:   7-19-2005

ANALYSIS:   URBAN LEGENDS: BLOODY MARY is a very gory sequel in the URBAN LEGEND series.  Imagine if you placed Nancy Drew or a teenager Lois Lane in a horror movie and the result would be this one.    Kate Mara is the female lead, but the cute Lillith Fields steals the show as Bloody Mary.  The gory death scenes will satisfy gore hounds.   Director Mary Lambert knows what she wants and pulls it off in this very gruesome direct to video sequel.

Filmed in Utah, the latest URBAN LEGENDS film starts in 1969 when three women are kidnapped by their prom dates as a prank.   One of them, Mary (Lillith Fields), is hurt and left for dead.   Mary is never found.  Flash to the present day where a trio of female high school friends are kidnapped by some football jocks.   They are returned unharmed, but the jocks start dying in the way of urban legends.  Sam (Kata Mara who plays one of the females who was kidnapped) and her fratenal brother, David, start piecing together the clues.  Is someone behind the deaths or is the ghost of Mary exacting revenge in her own bloody way?

At least as good or better than the first URBAN LEGEND.   Really the best things about this one are the death scenes and Lillith Fields.  The scene with the spiders just gives me a real eeew feeling.

VIDEO:  1.85:1 (Anamorphic)

Colors and blacks are OK, but the picture is a little grainy.  Image detail is OK.  Not a bad transfer, but I have seen better and worse ones.

AUDIO:  English 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 DD

Subtitles:  English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Thai

Dialogue is clear as a bell.  Some right and left channel action is present.

SPECIAL FEATURES: 

Other than previews for KUNG FU HUSTLE, LAYER CAKE, THE MARKMAN, and the other two URBAN LEGEND movies, we are treated to a 15 minute Making of featurette.   The cast talk about how great it is to work with director Mary Lambert, complain about how cold it is at night during the winter in Utah, comments on how cute Lillith Fields is, a look at the Special Make-Up Effects, and other tidbits.   I liked the featurette well enough.

FINAL ANALYSIS:  URBAN LEGENDS: BLOODY MARY is a gruesome follow-up in the URBAN LEGEND series.   It should rent well.    Gore fiends will love the death scenes.   One of the better direct to video sequel offerings from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.   Bring on another URBAN LEGENDS soon.

this DVD Review is (c)8-4-2005 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com and look for additional content at http://www.livejournal.com/users/enterlinemedia