While it wasn’t a box office splash by any measure – it grossed a mere $2.7 million – Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II stands as an iconic example of the 80s horror movie genre. Seamlessly blending in themes from across generations, it excels because of its ability to fuse them together into a unique package that encapsulates the 80s so well.
It begins as a period piece familiar to many audience members at the time: high school in the 1950s. The titular character is about to be crowned as the queen of the prom, but she instead slips off and commits an act of sexual deviance. Her wronged boyfriend seeks revenge and she literally goes up in flames. She returns 30 years later as a vengeful spirit and possesses a teenage girl to wreak sexy, paranormal havoc.
Right from the start, we see the framing of the “wholesome” Reagan era: a woman who had it all throws it away due to her carnal lust and is punished for it. Religious overtones are present throughout the film, evoking the Satanic Panic fueled by films like the Exorcist a decade and a half prior.
In its 1950s and 1980s high school settings, its depiction of the high school hierarchy struggle, the good versus evil theme, its sometimes garishly exaggerated deaths and overt sexualization, and the unfolding possession, Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II pays appropriate homage to some of the most classic horror films that preceded it. Even in the sense that it is a sequel without the actors of its more-successful precursor (none other than Jamie Lee Curtis and Leslie Nielsen), and that it spawned a third entry, the movie is an excellent representation from its era that gets too-often overlooked in favor of more well-known entries.
