Urban Legends: Bloody Mary

Urban Legends: Bloody Mary Information

Urban Legends: Bloody Mary is a 2005 horror film starring Kate Mara, Robert Vito, Tina Lifford, Jeff Olson, Tamala Jones, Michael Gregory Coe, and Ed Marinaro.

Released direct-to-video, it is the third and final installment in the Urban Legend film series, but it moves further away from the original film and abandons the slasher element of the preceding films in favor of a supernatural element.

Plot

On November 5, 1969, three high school footballers tried to drug and kidnap their prom night dates. Their plan works with two of the girls but the third, Mary Banner (Lillith Fields), tries to escape. The football captain chases her into a storage room and punches her, knocking her out. He panics and locks her body in a trunk, thinking she is dead. She wakes up later locked in the trunk, eventually dying inside it.

Thirty-five years later, this story is told among three school girls during a sleep over. One of them, Samantha (Kate Mara), had written an article in the school paper critical of football players' academic achievements and subsequently she, her friends, and her brother David (Robert Vito) are treated as outcasts by the rest of the school. They also jokingly conjure up Bloody Mary and in the next morning all three are gone. After having been missing for one day, they reappear, waking up in an old deserted mill, with no knowledge of how they got there. While most suspect a hoax on the girls' part, Samantha and David suspects that it is a prank by football players.

While Samantha is haunted by visions of a dead girl bleeding from her head, several pupils die under mysterious circumstances resembling urban legends; for example, football player Roger (Brandon Sacks) burns in a sunbed, Heather (Audra Lea Keener), girlfriend to football captain Buck (Michael Gregory Coe), has spiders erupting from a swelling on her cheek, driving her to cut her face with a mirror, and football player, Tom (Nate Herd), is electrocuted while urinating on an old electrical fence, his ring finger being bitten or cut off. Buck blames these deaths on the Owens siblings. Before her death, Heather made up with Samantha and tried to tell her that this happened before. In her homework, Samantha finds notes sent to Heather about the disappearance of Mary Banner and the homecoming kidnappings of 1969, as well as notes referencing the events of the previous films. Browsing the school paper's archives, they find out that Mary was never found, that another victim committed suicide years later and that the third, Grace Taylor (Tina Lifford), still lives in town.

They visit Grace, who claims that Mary, or rather, her "life force", is exacting revenge on the children of the five people involved in the kidnappings but cannot (or will not) reveal the names of the perpetrators. While Samantha is prone to believe her, David remains sceptical and thinks that Grace is the killer. While sneaking around in Grace's house, he also found out that Grace produced or collected artwork on Urban Legend and identifies Grace as the originator of the notes sent to Heather. The siblings go to warn Buck, who admits that he and his mates orchestrated Samantha's disappearance and blames her for the death of his friends. He also reveals that his father, the football coach, was one of the kidnappers in 1969 but did not hurt Mary. Samantha, however, suspects that the coach was the one that killed Mary as she saw him put flowers on her headstone earlier. Her stepfather, who overheard her, tells her to reveal any solid evidence she has.

Meanwhile, an upset Buck tries to relax by drinking and watching movie in a motel. Falling asleep, he wakes up from hearing a dripping sound and discovers the corpse of his dog. He is attacked by Mary, who crawls out from under his bed and kills him with his broken bottle. Different rumours about his death are spread immediately.

Both siblings are trying to find clues about the fifth remaining perpetrator; Samantha by browsing through old photographs, David by visiting Grace again. Grace still refuses to reveal the names but directs him to the school archives. Going through the archives, he finds out the identity of the fifth person and rushes home, but finds Sam gone and is suffocated by a hooded man. Samantha meanwhile has visions of Mary again, revealing that the girl was not dead when being locked in the trunk and also her whereabouts. She also visits Grace, who tells her to find and bury Mary's corpse and reluctantly agrees to drive Samantha to the school. While Grace is waiting in the van, Samantha finds the storage room and the trunk with Mary's corpse in it. The hooded man also appears and enters the storage room but Samantha locks him inside while carrying Mary's remains outside to the van.

Finding Grace unconscious, Samantha drives the van to the cemetery, where she begins to dig a grave for Mary under her headstone. Her stepfather, whom Samantha had phoned, also appears and helps her digging but suddenly hits her with the shovel. Pursuing his stepdaughter through the graveyard, Mr. Owens (Ed Marinaro) reveals that he was the one that locked Mary in the trunk and that he also killed his stepson, David. He finally captured her and is about to decapitate her when Mary, in her living form, appears. Smiling towards Samantha, she kisses him, then reverts to her ghastly form and drags him with her into the grave.

When Samantha wakes up, the grave is surrounded by police and medical personnel retrieving her stepfather's corpse. It is announced that Mr. Owens has died of a heart attack while trying to dispose Mary Banner's remains.

Cast

Kate Mara as Samantha Owens
Robert Vito as David Owens
Tina Lifford as Grace Taylor
Michael Gregory Coe as Buck Jacoby
Lillith Fields as Mary Banner
Nancy Everhard as Pam Owens
Ed Marinaro as Mr. Owens
Audra Lea Keener as Heather Thompson
Don Shanks as Coach Jacoby
Jeff Olson as Sheriff Thompson McKenna
Tamala Jones as Deputy Lorena Foremen
Nate Heard as Tom Higgins
Brandon Sacks as Roger Dalton
Haley Evans as Martha
Olesya Rulin as Mindy
Odessa Rae as Natalie
Haley McCormick as Gina Lotnick

Urban legends used in the film

The following urban legends are mentioned or depicted in the film:

Martha introduces the 1969 homecoming kidnappings as an urban legend.
Samantha refers to the legend suggesting that eating Pop Rocks and drinking soda explodes your stomach.
Martha refers to the tale about a guy getting his arm stuck in a soda machine and then being buried under the machine. This later almost happens to Buck.
Samantha, Martha and Mindy conjure up Bloody Mary.
Roger is burned on a sunbed.
Heather wakes up and discovers a swelling on her cheek. After she pops it, hundreds of spiders emerge from her cheek.
Tom is electrocuted when urinating on an electrical fence.
Buck's bottle contains the finger cut off from Tom's body.
Buck is soothed by his dog licking his fingers but later finds its corpse with the note "People can lick too".
Buck is attacked by Mary who is hiding under his bed.
David jokingly suggests that somebody removed Buck's kidneys.

Reception

On the meta-critic site Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 40% among critics and 42% among audience.

Original sequel

In 2007 Sony sold the rights to the franchise and a fourth installment was planned, called Urban Legends: Goldfield Murders. However, after being impressed by the DVD sales of Urban Legends: Bloody Mary, Sony bought back the rights to the franchise. The film was later released under the title Ghosts of Goldfield.