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Bloody Mallory (2002) A comic bookish horror picture with some wild ideas, but perhaps too
many derivative notions to establish its own identity. Mallory (Olivia
Bonamy), a young bride who had to murder her demon husband in self-defence
(and regularly consults with him in limbo), reinvents herself as a bare-midriffed,
red-headed warrior babe who roams France in a pink hearse with a gang
of anti-paranormal commandos, taking on sundry threatening ghouls, demons
and vampires. When the newly-elected Pope Hieronymous (Laurent Spielvogel)
is kidnapped in Paris and whisked away to a phantom village that has
been taken over by mosters and psychos, Mallory and her sidekicks –
a strutting drag queen (Jeffrey Ribier) with guns in her platform shoes
and a body-hopping mute telepath – track down the pontiff, though
a not-unpredictable reveal is that the Pope is actually the demon Abaddon,
who has a scheme to wipe human life off the face of the Earth and bring
back the fallen angels. The film has a video game-like structure, with
perils and fights in subterranean magic corridors, and moves fast enough
not to be boring. Mallory's complex relationship with her dead husband
provides some emotional core, there are amusing anti-clerical jibes
and Valentina Vargas is fun as an aristocratic French vampire who seems
set up as Mallory's continuing nemesis, showing up during the end credits
in an in-joke that hooks into the continuity of the Ring
films. Directed by Julian Magnat. First published in this form here. Visit Kim's Official Website at www.johnnyalucard.com
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