Dominique Swain stars in this odd horror movie, which manages to hold your attention despite not much actually happening for a very long time.
The premise sees a group of old friends reunited for a weekend get together at a secluded cabin. The group plays catch up and reminisce as it becomes apparent that life has gotten in the way of their relationships. This leads to a series of revelations where we learn that full-time jobs, studying and living in other Cities has led to a number of the group turning to others for comfort. During one of the less confrontational catch up sessions, the gang decides to play Dead Mary, whereby each person takes a turn to go into the darkened bathroom with a candle and say the titular words three times, in the hopes of disproving that Dead Mary will appear in the mirror. When one of the group, Matt takes his turn however, it appears as though a few eerie moments in the bathroom has actually been a lot longer and this is when things start to get spooky, as it appears Dead Mary is on the loose and knocking off the friends one by one by inhabiting the body of one of the young adults. Tensions flare further as no one knows whom to trust.
The film is incredibly well shot with gorgeous establishing shots making a non-event creepy, yet beautiful at the same time and this rings true throughout. The cast members are all likeable and do good jobs at making what could essentially have been walking stereotypes (slut, jock, stoner, sex-fiend, bookworm, doormat etc) normal people with character traits. The movie also benefits from great effects work, a real uneasy vibe, good editing and sound work.
Where it fails is in it’s pacing, the film is on for well over half an hour before there is even so much as a hint that this could be a horror movie.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Dead Mary could actually be viewed as an unofficial remake of The Evil Dead and the comparisons to that film, as well as Cabin Fever are inevitable. However, it lacks the main ingredient of each of these previous films – originality.
