Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary (1975)

Best movie of this year hands down!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

More exploitation than horror, MARY, MARY, BLOODY MARY is a visual treat. Not only because the leading lady, Cristina Ferrare, is downright gorgeous but the Mexico location offers an abundance of locales providing eclectic situations to keep the viewer interested and entertained, and the characters always have something to do, and somewhere to go.From beaches to highways, villas and art galleries, here's a low-budget flick that, despite an abundance of wooden acting, will keep you in entranced during every single frame.Mary is a surreal artist about to enjoy a show displaying her strange artwork. When not painting, she hangs around with a handsome drifter, who becomes the only person she doesn't sink her teeth into… Actually, that's the one thing that separates this from all other vampire flicks. Mary doesn't use her teeth (and her teeth aren't fangs): Instead she stealthily carries a finger-sized dagger that she stabs her victims with and devouring them of blood.After a few kills, including a fisherman and in one delectable scene, a bisexual female art collector, the police begin to catch on – each corpse is not only bled from the neck and sucked dry but were drugged beforehand, using the same chemical.But Mary's not the only killer on the road… John Carradine plays a mysterious masked man that travels around leaving his own bodies behind, including a sexy hitchhiker. He's also after Mary, who becomes more of a heroine after this new darker menace is introduced. She's now more vulnerable as she falls deeper in love with her boyfriend, who doesn't know her dark secret.After a car chase replete with a 1970's slick soundtrack (think STARSKY AND HUTCH meets a game show theme), there's a showdown along a rolling hillside where John Carradine reveals his true identity and battles our heroine in a prolonged wrestling match… he has a knife and she her own wits… resulting in a fitfully bloody finale that includes her one true love being put to the test.The direction is creative, relying on a stockpile of the usual close-ups and zooms from this era, and the pacing is suspenseful. Although the love scenes with Mary and her pretty boy boyfriend drag; you'll wish she'd either take off to find more victims or turn him into lunch.Not scary in the conventional sense, MARY is more creepy and sadistic. And fans of vampire flicks will have to put some rules aside. Other than the non-biting technique, this particular sexy vamp roams the daylight hours. In fact that's where most of the bloodletting takes place, so you can see Cristina Ferrare even better! For More Reviews: www.cultfilmfreaks.com

I rather liked this small budgeted movie from the 70's about a woman who acts like a vampire in terms of feeding on blood but in no other way. Mary is an artist who kills men - and a woman - for the blood in their bodies. The sunshine doesn't bother her, apparently Crucifixes hold no spell over her, or garlic or any other vampiric safeguard we have seen in movies before. But that really is not what the film is about. It is about Mary finding herself and something/someone she loves - maybe. If I do not sound too convincing, it is because it is not too direct in what it is trying to do. Mary has other problems. It seems her father holds some sway over her, even though they have not seen each other in many, many years. He is the one that gave her this insatiable thirst to feed on the living. Character actor legend John Carradine plays the role with gusto, and at least several stunt doubles as he drives cars maniacally, runs up hills, and fights like a street kid. I do have to say that watching the cloaked and masked figure of Carradine do all these things was quite amusing, especially later when he pulls the mask down and we see this somewhat feeble old man that was John Carradine. That leap of credibility aside and several other leaps as well, Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary has some interesting things going for it. It is a precursor to Martin, perhaps Romero borrowed from here. Christine Ferrare looks lovely, and I thought she did an OK job with the role. She was quite good at looking bewildered. Maybe that was not intentional but worked for me. The settings in Mexico and Southern California have that cheap 70's feel that always injects some nostalgia into me. That was a decade for films like this that I grew up watching late at night(on the weekends) and all summer long. The murders too are for the most part pretty unsettling. The opening flashback scene and the one with the fisherman were particularly well-shot. I loved the eerie paintings too. But before you get the impression I thought this was a great film, Ferrare is very limited in her acting range, the rest of the actors often more so, Carradine's character is ridiculous, and the second half of the film plunges into total unreality - I shook my head again and again. Notwithstanding these very real problems, because of the atmosphere, the weird, interesting story, and the nostalgic feelings it gives off - I give this film a qualified thumbs up!

Of all the films that my buddy and i rented (back in our high school days) for our late night horror movie marathons, this one stands out as the most memorable.To this day we still discuss the bath scene, the chase-scene set to bongo music where the characters run in entirely opposite directions yet meet each other, and the classic (and i mean CLASSIC) scene where the two main characters are walking along the beach, and a bunch of mexicans can be seen kicking the hell out of a SHARK in the background..Was it a fake shark? Was it real? What the heck was it doing there?Who knows...But it WAS there.. My friend and i rewound and watched it about 27 times.Mysteriously, after we rented this film, it disappeared from our videostore.. I had been worried that we had dreamt the whole thing.. Nice to know there are others who have seen it!

*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*Another $3 special from Blockbuster. Another faux vampire movie. Mary, (Cristina Ferrare), is an artist living in Mexico. People around her start showing up with all of the blood drained from their bodies. Is Mary a vampire? Why must all of her lovers die? Why must the vampire legend be destroyed again? Yes, this is another one of those B-movies that makes vampirism a disease. So Mary needs blood and she gets it from whoever crosses paths with her. Hat pins and kitchen knifes are her favorite blood transfusion devices. A mysterious guy in a black outfit chases her around Mexico. Could it be her long lost father trying to do her in? Let's just say John Carradine is credited as "Mary's Father". A fake vampire showdown is on the way.I don't like movies that mess with the monster legends. Whenever vampires are walking around in broad daylight, the movie is heading for a disaster. This movie is as lame as you would expect. The only thing positive I can say about it is that Ferrare is hot. She gets topless and has a bath scene with another woman. Other than that, there's not much going on here. No coffins, crucifixes, or vampires. Just a really bloodthirsty woman named Mary. Blah, Blah, Bloody Blah.