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Released by: 3D Circus
Released on: February 22, 2013.
Director: Juan Lí³pez Moctezuma
Cast: Christine Ferrera, David Young, John Carradine, Helena Rojo
Year: 1975
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The Movie:
NOTE: Bill Olsen at Code Red has stated that this release from 3D Circus is unauthorized and that this release breaks valid copyright laws. Obviously anyone reading this is free to spend their money as they see fit, but that, along with the ropey quality of this release, should make it easy for anyone who cares about a quality release of this movie to skip this disc and wait for the Code Red disc that is supposedly in the works and sourced from film elements in HI-Def (this is according to a post Bill made on Latarnia).
Directed by Juan Lí³pez Moctezuma, the man best known for bizarre and surreal horror films like Alucarda and The Mansion Of Madness, 1975's Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary doesn't quite take on the same levels of insanity as those two pictures do. In fact, compared to those other films, Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary feels like Moctezuma light, though there are touches here and there that would seem to be coming from the same place as the other movies mentioned.
The storyline follows a beautiful young woman named Mary (Christine Ferrera) who makes a decent living as a painter of strange, sometimes macabre, images. When she meets a young man named Ben Ryder (David Young), they quickly fall in love but what David doesn't realize is that Mary is… different. See, she'll hang out and have a cup of coffee or cook up some breakfast with you, but what she really needs to survive is human blood. So while she and Ben are enjoying their whirlwind romance, she's sneaking off and stabbing people in the neck and then sucking out all of their sustenance.
The cops in the area aren't stupid. They realize by the time that they find the second body drained of its blood and contaminated with a knock out drug that something is up, and they suspect that it might have something to do with the new stranger in town, Ben. They track him down and question him but can't prove anything. Mary, meanwhile, is being stalked by a man dressed up like The Shadow (John Carradine) and yielding a knife - what he wants of her is anyone's guess but Ben is bound and determined to stop him from getting to her. While all of this is going on, Mary's art career is on the upswing thanks to the efforts of Greta (Helena Rojo), a sexy lesbian art dealer who has a thing for her.
Shot in Mexico where it takes place the movie has an interesting semi-exotic vibe to it in spots, particularly when we head to the beach. Upon the arrival of Mary and Ben, we see a small group of young Mexican men head into the surf and beat up a shark (this is a real shark, those sensitive to animal cruelty in films may want to take note), then drag it onto the shore and leave it there along with a few turtles that they tip over onto the backs of their shells. Ben flips the turtles over and helps them get back into the water while Mary chastises him for his sympathy, noting that as soon as they get into the ocean the sharks will smell their blood and they'll be done for.
A little bit of sex and nudity, a little bit of bloodshed and a whole lot of atmosphere can go a long way towards overcoming a modest budget and Moctezuma manages to do just that by using those traits right. Carradine's character could have been played by more or less anyone, in fact there are long and obvious stretches in the movie where his character is being played by a stuntman, but it's cool to see him in the movie and he's fun in the role. Ferrera is the real reason to want to watch this one, however. Mary is sexualized from very early on in the movie, we understand why most of those around her want her as she is made to be very beautiful, mysterious and alluring. Ferrera handles this well. Not only does she look the part but she has an interesting sort of confidence to her that gives off a nice screen presence. Her very soft lesbian scene with Rojos is interesting as it's one of the few times in the film that she seems caught off guard and unsure what to do with herself as Rojo's character undresses her and becomes the aggressor. The rest of the time, she's quite content sneaking around behind Ben's back and murdering various bit part players for their blood and then coming back and lying right to his face about it. At the same time, we never get the impression that she wants to do this and we feel that if she were given the chance to walk away from it and have a normal relationship with the man she loves, that she would do just that.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary arrives on DVD in 1.33.1 fullframe in a transfer that leaves quite a bit to be desired. Sourced from a tape source, the framing looks okay so the 1.33.1 aspect ratio would seem to be correct but detail is soft and fuzzy and there are a few tape rolls obvious during playback. There are also some wonky compression issues in the darker scenes that are hard not to notice. With that said, the better lit scenes are pretty watchable if a bit on the faded side in terms of color reproduction. So yeah, it's tape sourced and it doesn't look great but after the first few minutes pass, it's watchable enough.
The English language Dolby Digital Mono track isn't bad, actually. Dialogue is pretty easy to understand and follow and the score sounds decent enough. Some mild hiss is present here and there but otherwise this sounds fine. Not exciting, but fine. It should be noted that just past the half way point there's a stretch of dialogue spoken completely in Spanish, despite the rest of the movie having been put into English here. There are no subs for this short stretch of the movie, but even if you don't speak Spanish you won't have any trouble figuring out what's going on.
So the main extra on this disc is a 3D version of the movie (the disc comes with a single pair of red/blue glasses) that works about as well as any other oddball 3D conversion you've seen on DVD. As the movie wasn't shot for 3D, there isn't as much depth here as, say, Friday The 13th Part III or something like that. In some scenes it works better than others. Aside from that there are trailers for Dr. Tarr's Dungeon (aka The Mansion Of Madness), Don't Open The Window (aka The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue), Alice, Sweet Alice, Night Of The Sorcerers, Night Of 1000 Cats, Carnival Of Souls and Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (also aka The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue). Animated menus and chapter selection are also included.
The Final Word:
Though Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary doesn't have any of the surreal touches that Moctezuma's better known pictures do, it's an interesting and reasonably well made slice of seventies horror weirdness. The film is fairly well shot, features some nice atmosphere and okay moments of tension and it's got a pretty cool cast on top of that. The presentation here isn't going to win any awards but the movie itself is worth seeing.
