Bloody Mary (2006)
Written and Directed by Richard Valentine
Story: A group of girls gather in the underground tunnels of a local insane asylum in order to preform ritualistic hazings. Each girl is sent down into the tunnels, unclothed, to face a broken mirrior. They are told to chant the words "I believe in Bloody Mary" several times, and then they resurface, shaken-up. When it comes time for the newest member, Natalie, to take her turn... things go awry. Bloody Mary appeares before her, and takes her life. The leader of the group, Jenna, calms the girls by telling them it was because Natalie did not follow the rules. However, their nerves start to shiver once more when Natalie's older sister (a reporter from a larger city) visits their small town in order to solve the mystery behind her sister's dissapearence. When she hears of this deadly "mirrior game", she can't help but wonder if this played a part in her sister's demise.
Acting: Nothing all that great offered up here. Most of the acting is what you would expect from a movie of this grade; although Jenna (the leader of the group) can play a violent bitch quite well, and her performance stands out amoungst the others.
Eye-Candy: Two different girls appear topless in a variety of scenes throughout the movie, though the view never wonders below-the-belt. One male cast member is completely nude in a short pan scene, in which we are shown his backside. Another male cast member is given a scene in which he runs around in nothing but a pair of tighty whities.
Special Effects & Gore: There are quite a few scenes in which gore is present. As Mary attacks cast members, we are given a minute-length scene of gore for each. Mainly the camera looks away from the carnage, and we are offered blood splatter. Afterwards, the resulting body is shown in a quick cut that lasts 5-8 seconds on average.
Grade of Movie: C+
Overall: I can't say it was terrible. If your into the legend of Bloody Mary, you might want to give this a look - although it doesn't exactly delve into the story all that much (A few minutes of backstory), and offers a different look at the original telling (Having Mary be a patient at the insane asylum, and dying due to escaping and starving to death while hiding in the underground tunnels). It has some genuinely creepy moments (the maximum-security patient who sings "Working on the railroad") and a decent helping of gore. It's more of a cult story then an urban legend. The ending did pull off a few twists if your into that, along with the token cliffhanger - although they weren't anything to the degree of those in the SAW franchise. They were more of "meh" twists, not really getting any excitement going. Directing was so-so, and it did have some sort of budget... though the whole thing looked very handheld.