Review of Bloody Mallory (2002) by Alex Z — 28 Oct 2010

Freshman French feature film director Julian Magnet's "Bloody Mallory" qualifies as a campy but colorful supernatural saga. This profane, R-rated chiller about an elite anti-paranormal commando squad of misfits that battles the demoniac forces of evil with special weapons is a lot of goofy fun. Nothing in here is remotely scary, perhaps yucky. The head chick-in-charge is the eponymous heroine who dresses like a cyberpunk slut with her hair dyed red and totes around a huge automatic pistol modified with lots of attachments. The French Ministry of Secret Service employs Mallory (Olivia Bonamy of "Jefferson in Paris") and her paranormal pal. They tool around in a shocking lipstick pink hearse. Accompanying her on this mission is Talking Tina (Thylda Bares of "Amazon"), a mute girl with telepathic powers who can enter the bodies of her opponents; Inspector Durant (Thierry Perkins-Lyautey of "The Code"), the head of this government paranormal commando outfit, and a tall drag queenl, Vena Cava (Jeffrey Ribier of TV's "Highlander") with long nails and platform shoes that have machine guns built into them so she can fire off bursts from either her toes or her heel.

"Bloody Mallory" opens with Mallory's back story as she plunges an axe into the man that she was going to marry. Somehow, the groom turned into a ghoul and Mallory dispatched him with extreme prejudice. Unfortunately, she wound up with some of his tainted blood. She becomes a Laura Croft type in a tight-fitted, slutty-style ensemble. Mallory and her people are called in after several ghouls assault four nuns in a Catholic Church. As it turns out, the nuns have been impregnated and they give birth to slimy ghoul soldiers. Things really come to a head when the ghouls abduct the Pope (Laurent Spielvogel) and heroes have to rescue him. There is one scene straight out of "Star Wars" where our heroes are confined to a room and a heavy wall with studs in it descends from the ceiling and separates them. Initially, the wall closes in to crush Mallory and Father Carras, but Vena Cava reverses the wall so that it comes toward her, Talking Tina, and the Pope. Vena produces a harmless looking lipstick container and it sprout a missile that blasts a hole in the wall for them to escape.

Magnet deserves some praise for making this pastiche of fantasy, horror, and actioneer so lightweight and giddy that you cannot help but tolerate it. Three lensers contributed to the atmospheric cinematography that emphasizes the use of the Dutch tilt angle to give the action a surreal, off-kilter effect.