When I was in high school, I enjoyed the original Urban Legends for its “educational value.” Plus, playing Bloody Mary at slumber parties in my friend’s old bathroom, claw-foot tub and all, was equal parts scary and fun. For these reasons, I  checked out Urban Legends: Bloody Mary.

Summary

A flashback to the fifties shows us a girl named Mary (Lillith Fields) who was locked in a chest and left for dead after witnessing some teenage boys attempting to date rape her friends. Cut to today, where three teenage girls invoke the name of Bloody Mary at a slumber party and then are abducted by the football team for printing a negative story about them in the school paper. They are returned unharmed, but the boys are picked off one by one. One of the girls (Kate Mara) gets to work solving the mystery of Mary’s murder.

Where It Went Wrong

• The abduction takes place off-screen, making the details of the abduction a complete mystery. The boys don’t get into any trouble, except with Mary, of course.
• It’s been fifty years since Mary got locked in that chest, and no one’s noticed the smell? I know that there are unused places in schools, but really?
• The boys all die in urban legend fashion (e.g. peeing on an electric fence), which is cool, but is Mary murdering them? Since her body is at the school, I doubt she has the run of the town. Otherwise, she could just go tell her friend  (Tina Lifford) who’s still living in the town what’s up, or kill the guys that locked her up in the first place.
  

What to Watch Instead

• Ghost Ship
• The Ring
• Silent Hill
• The Last House on the Left
• Carrie
• Urban Legends

Verdict: Don’t Watch