The age-old question remains. Is Mary Gilmore (Cristina Ferrare — JW Coop, The Impossible Years) a serial killer or a vampire?
VCI Entertainment announced this past week that director Juan López Moctezuma’s 1975 American/Mexican joint film production, Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary, will be heading home on June 7 for genre fans to enjoy as part of the Bloody 70's Horror Double Feature.
This new widescreen 2K restoration is double-billed with writer/director René Cardona Jr.’s Blood Feast (aka: The Night of a Thousand Cats) … which is also a newly-minted 2K restoration with the proper 2.35:1 aspect ratio (for the first time).
Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary was filmed in Mexico in order to take advantage of both the exotic beach locations and lower production costs. When it opened theatrically in the states, it was on a market-by-market basis with the 35mm prints “bicycled” from one distribution center to the next (a common practice for indie films).
With that said, we are introduced to Mary on a dark and stormy night (of course), when her van breaks down, she becomes stranded and has a spooky encounter with a beach bum by the name of Ben Ryder (David Young — S.O.B., Double Exposure, Nightbreed). They end up sharing an abandoned house for the night and at this point Moctezuma gives us a flashback sequence that gives us a clue as to what Mary the artist, Mary the serial killer … Mary the blood-drinker … is all about.
The balance of the movie is Mary’s relationship with Ben. When not with him, she is busy slitting people’s throats — strangers, lovers, both male and female — and then drinks their blood. You are constantly wondering when is Ben going to meet the same fate as all of the others who cross Mary’s bloody path.
What makes Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary a genre fan favorite is that you have a bi-sexual serial killer (the film was threatened with the dreaded X-rating) who is perfectly at ease with both the sexual encounters and her lust for blood. Some, and perhaps rightly so, call this a vampire tale, but it is really more akin to watching Aileen Wuornos at work.
Mary has a little mouse, a sex toy in Ben … will he make it to the end?
Author and film historian Dr. David Wilt provides insights in a newly-minted video session.
The second-feature here is René Cardona Jr.’s 1974 (filmed in 1972) creep-out horror tale, Blood Feast, which features Hugo Stiglitz as a wealthy eccentric who flies around in his helicopter (in Mexico) scooping-out the sweet young things … want to go for a ride? As soon as he gets them “home,” he takes advantage of them, and then they become cat food.
He has 1,000 cats (well, who is counting) caged up and with the help of his assistant, Dorgo (Gerardo Zepeda), he “toys” with the beauties that he entices home and then murders them (in various creative ways), keeping the heads (a little hobby of his) and he then feeds what remains to the feral cats that he keeps.
The big question on everyone’s lips, what happens if the cats get loose!!
There is also a newly-prepared video session with Dr. David Wilt included with Blood Feast as a bonus feature.
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