Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!
Plot Summary: With the death of a murderous woman, a local holiday arises as a time for mischief and parties. But is the woman truly dead?
Review: I probably liked this film much more than I should, but despite the cliched nature to most of the story, it's fairly entertaining. Also, it stars one of my lifelong crushes, the lovely Danielle Harris, whom I have mentioned several times since she's one of the few "scream queens" still out there. Rest assured, I plan to get to many more of Ms. Harris' work at some point, but many of her films are near impossible to get ahold of. I'd like to add she is definitely not wasted, and I could not imagine a better use for her in a low budget film such as this. Even though it's never really expressed, there's definitely this '80s slasher vibe to the whole experience, perhaps even unintentional. So, there's some menstrual disorder that can make women crazy (aren't they all anyway?! Thanks, I'll be here all night!), which I cannot remember the name because the movie only mentioned it once written on a file, which makes some girl go berserk, out of the blue, and murder her family. This is a real disorder although it obviously doesn't make you a serial killer...as far as we know. So she is locked up in a mental institution like everyone seems to be; doesn't anyone ever simply go to prison for their crimes? After being raped by some guard, she becomes pregnant, which, for some reason, the staff allows her to keep, and the guard is only mentioned once more in passing (wtf? Nice to know this place has integrity). After giving birth, they inform the woman that the baby died which leads her to start another massacre of the staff as she escapes only to be gunned down by police. Although, is it standard procedure to shoot a naked, unarmed woman? Well, to be fair, she was carrying a decapitated head. In response to the massacre, over the next 20 years, the town starts their own makeshift holiday called, you guessed it, blood night, and the woman is renamed Mary Hatchet since that was her weapon of choice. Pretty much think of this event as similar to mischief night (October 30th) in the USA, for those familiar with that, except more emphasis on blood. I really liked this concept since it opened up many possibilities for the story, and, even though this isn't original, it hasn't been done in a while. So we're then introduced to a slew of one-dimensional characters that will obviously be used as fodder later; they are annoying, but thankfully only the level of annoying that you want them to die, but not so annoying you want to turn the movie off. A smaller group of the fodder first goes to the graveyard where Mary's grave resides to hold a pathetic excuse for a seance. This leads to one hilarious homage character, named Graveyard Gus, played interestingly by horror alumni Bill Moseley. His clothes, and much of his demeanor are an obvious tribute to Crazy Ralph from "Friday the 13th" which I'm not touching that franchise until the next actual Friday the 13th. Now, at first you might think this film is going the supernatural route, but not quite, although this graveyard scene could hold significance by the end. Eventually all of the fodder gather at someone's house which leads to the introduction of the final character, Alissa, played by the previously mentioned Ms. Harris. After what would appear to be a few hours of partying, we finally see our pool of idiots begin to dwindle with the killer jumping into action. Most get cut up decently, but they could have amped up the mayhem and gore for a movie like this. I'd like to say that the movie keeps you guessing, but it's painfully obvious that the killer is none other than our dear Ms. Harris; by the way, I was loving the sexy schoolgirl getup she had going on. But before the idiots figure this out, they attempt to run away conveniently running into Graveyard Gus again. Easily convinced that someone is killing their friends, and believing it's the ghost of Mary, Gus wants to go to the mental institute and reunite the body of the baby with the body of Mary. They quickly realize that the baby is not there and try to find the hospital's (institute, whatever the fuck!) records to gain some insight. For exposition purposes, the files tell the audience virtually everything, including things that most certainly would not be there, revealing that Alissa was, in fact, Mary's daughter. It's at this moment that Alissa shows up ready to dispatch of what's left of the idiots. While I don't mind Alissa being the killer, let's face it, Ms. Harris is just under 5 feet tall and not intimidating at all. No one tries to fight her until the very end even though they're a group and most are men! When it is down to the final two people, that's when the last guy does finally try to fight her, and, it shouldn't come as a shock, he easily kills her because she is a petite woman! So, it's over, right? Happy ending? Of course not! The ghost of Mary pops up and kills the surviving idiots! Now before you or I knock how stupid and nonsensical that ending is, it might actually be explainable with support from the film. Gus mentions that there were people allegedly killed by the ghost of Mary, the seance did have some weird shit happen, there were a few moments when there had to have been a second person helping Allisa, and then there's why Alissa even went crazy to begin with since her friend in the film mentions that she was always normal. Her motive is that she has the same menstrual disorder, but why would this afflict her now since she's supposed to be 19 or 20 at this point. Well it may have been because they stirred up the ghost in the first place or maybe even some kind of possession. Regardless, this is too much analyzation for this kind of a film! Overall, there's some seriously bad acting, weak characters, mostly tame deaths, and a questionable ending, story, and killer's motive. On the other hand, the makeup effects were good on ghost Mary, decent homages and a retro feel, having a female killer is always welcomed, and stars Danielle Harris as said killer. There are most certainly some great ideas here even if they aren't applied properly. This is worth a view for sure especially if you're a fan of Ms. Harris, as she quite easily steals the show. Or, give this a watch if enjoy these kind of cheap, low budget horror films, but, once again, don't go in expecting much.
Notable Moment: When Alissa is coming at the remaining kids with a pickaxe and they run away rather than trying to stop her as a group! Pure shenanigans.
Final Rating: 5.5/10
The ever endearing Ms. Harris:
