Bloody Mallory

Bloody Mallory
Directed by	Julien Magnat
Written by	Julien Magnat Stéphane Kazandjian
Starring	Olivia Bonamy Adrià Collado Jeffrey Ribier
Music by	Kenji Kawai
Release date(s)	2002
Running time	94 min.
Country	France / Spain
Language	French

For other uses of the word Succubus, see Succubus (disambiguation).

Bloody Mallory Movie Cover Version 1.

Bloody Mallory Movie Cover Version 2.

Bloody Mallory is a 2002 French film directed by Julien Magnat and written by Magnat and Stéphane Kazandjian. The film stars Olivia Bonamy, Adrià Collado, Jeffrey Ribier, Laurent Spielvogel, Valentina Vargas, Julien Boisselier, and Thylda Barès. The film's score was composed by Kenji Kawai.

The film itself is a mix of horror, action, and comedy in a style highly reminiscent of American television shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Xena: Warrior Princess.

Overview

• Release Date: July 17, 2002
• USA DVD Release Date: September 13, 2005
• MPAA Rating: Rated R for violence/gore and language.
• Runtime: 94 Minutes
• Director: Julien Magnat
• Writer: Stéphane Kazandjian, Julien Magnat
• Studio: Alquimia Cinema, Bee Movies, Canal Plus Ecriture, Canal+, Fidélité Productions, Film Office, Gimages 5, Mars Films, Natexis Banques Populaires Images 2
• Genre: Action, Comedy, Horror
• Plot Tagline: Evil has a new enemy.

Cast

Olivia Bonamy	Mallory
Jeffrey Ribier	Vena Cava
Laurent Spielvogel	Le pape
Valentina Vargas	Lady Valentine
Julien Boisselier	Le mari
Thylda Barès	Talking Tina
Ludovic Berthillot	Le molosse
Thierry Perkins-Lyautey	Inspecteur Durand
Sophie Tellier	Morphine The Succubus
María Jurado	L'infermiere
Dominique Frot	Prisonnière nue
Olivier Hémon	Chef de brigade
Philippe Visconti	Garde du corps
Justine Pouvreau	La jeune nonne

Plot Summary

Mallory is France's answer to Buffy...sort of. Buffy was blonde; Mallory has flaming orange-red streaked hair. Buffy dressed in pastel skirts and flowery halter tops; Mallory wears red and black vinyl with combat boots. Buffy hung around with two other high school students--geek Xander and witch Willow; Mallory hangs with a mute, telepathic juvenile named Talking Tina, a blue-haired drag queen and explosives expert named Vena Cava, and the head of Commando Operations, Inspector Durand. Buffy took directions from her mentor Giles; Mallory consults the Necronomicon. Buffy was single; Mallory killed her husband with an ax on their wedding night when she found out he was a demon about to sacrifice her. What Buffy and Mallory do have in common is that they fight vampires and other evil creatures.

While speaking to a crowd in Paris, Pope Hieronymous I has been kidnapped. The Ministry of Secret Services has called Anti-Paranormal Commando Operations leader Mallory [Olivia Bonamy] to find him, much to the dismay of Carmina Belladone, the Vatican's press attache. After watching a videotape of the actual kidnapping, Mallory believes the masked kidnappers to be the living dead, but Belladone thinks they were just terrorists in bulletproof vests. She's not about to buy rubbish about "living dead" nor does she like Mallory and her band of superstitious mercenaries.

It's not going to be an easy mission. On their last assignment fighting ghouls, Vena Cava wound up in a neck splint, and Talking Tina was bitten by baby ghouls and now lies in a coma that the doctors say could be permanent. Worst of all, Inspector Durand was killed. Before embarking on the search for the Pope, Mallory invokes the spirit of her dead husband [Julien Boisselier] who is now a wandering demon in limbo. He is able to identify the kidnappers as evil spirits who have vowed obedience to Abbadon the Dark, the exterminating angel who fell from God's grace during the Original Fall. Rumors are circulating about him in limbo, demon hubby says. They say that he's preparing to free the fallen angels and destroy all of creation.

Mallory gets a list of all supernatural events occurring in France over the past five years. Plotting them on a map of France, she notices that they form a pentangle. Using that pentangle, she heads south from Paris in her pink and black hearse to a spot where 5,000 inhabitants disappeared some 15 years ago. Along the way, she is surprised when a bat lands on her windshield and it turns out that Talking Tina has possessed it. Using her negative energy detector, Mallory is led to a gate in the middle of a forest. Passing through the gate, she finds herself in another dimension, so she gets back in her car and drives through the gate. When she comes to a crossroads and has the choice of going to the Crypte des Vampires (Vampire's Crypt) or the Relais des Loups Garou (Werewolf Inn), she heads towards the vampires.

Mallory stops at a gas station that sells Fresh A+. Talking Tina detects telepathic waves coming from behind the station. Mallory checks it out and finds several humans being held in cages. After releasing them, she discovers that one of them is Father Carras [Adrià Collado], one of the Pope's bodyguards who also disappeared when the Pope was kidnapped. Carras doesn't know where the Pope is, but he decides to teem up with Mallory. Tina takes over the hulking body of the gas station attendant, and they're on their way again.

Meanwhile, Vena Cava [Jeffery Ribier], who was left behind in Paris, has been searching for Mallory with her locator. She found the gate, went through it, and meets up with Mallory just as Mallory, Tina, and Carras are attacked by hordes of cloaked ghouls. Vena jumps on top of a cement post, aims her thick-soled boots, and shoots silver bullets. Well, she thought they were silver bullets. Guess that the salesman lied. In order to get away from the ghouls, the four Commandos jump into a well where they find a secret passage. Labyrinth though it is, they manage to find the Pope [Laurent Spielvogel] when Tina leans on a wall and it breaks through. While the Pope complains, Carras releases him. Mallory notices the lack of guards and becomes concerned that releasing the Pope was a bit too easy.

Unbeknown to the Commandos, they have been being watched by the vampire Lady Valentine [Valentina Varagas] and the succubus Morphine [Sophie Tellier]. Cautiously, the Commandos head back through the labyrinth, looking for the exit. Suddenly, they come upon a green dragonlike monster that chases them until they deadend in a small room and the door closes, shutting out the dragon. When they spread out to look for an exit, a wall of spikes drops down in the center of the room, trapping Vena, the Pope, and Tina on one side and Mallory and Carras on the other. While the Pope continues to kvetch, Vena finds a lever under a floorstone and turns it. The wall begins to move. It's going to crush Mallory and Carras. Vena turns the lever the other way, and the wall stops. Then it begins to move in the opposite direction. If not stopped, it's now going to crush Vena, Tina, and the Pope.

Vena grabs her tube of blue lipstick and aims it at one of the other walls. The lipstick explodes, creating a hole. First she pushes the Pope through the hole. Then Vena follows. Unfortunately, the hole isn't big enough for the gas station attendant to fit through, so Tina transfers herself into Vena's body. The gas station attendant is crushed. While Tina looks for another body to possess (she can't get into the Pope for some reason), Mallory and Carras come across some writing carved into the wall. It's in Latin and Carras can read it after making a rubbing. It tells the story of how God locked the fallen angels in an abyss but Abbadon escaped. A prophecy says that he will reincarnate as a human every 100 years "until he is the one God entrusts with the keys to His Kingdom." Mallory and Carras put 2+2 together and realize that Abbadon is none other than the Pope.

Separated from Vena, Tina, and the Pope, Mallory and Carras search for them. They come upon a young man in chains. Carras wants to release him, but Mallory notices the bite marks on his neck. As they fight over whether or not to destroy the man, Lady Valentine appears. In front of Mallory and Carras, she sinks her fangs into the man's neck and drinks him dry. Mallory recognizes her immediately as the Pope's press attache, Carmina Belladone ("always sucking up"). Lady V then turns on Mallory. Mallory puts up a fight, but Lady Valentine is immortal. Not even a pole through her heart can stop her. Lady V captures Mallory and Carras and takes them to her castle in the sky, where Vena is already being held in chains.

The Pope is there, too. He explains to them that his kidnapping was actually an elaborate ruse to lure Mallory to him. Now that she's out of the way, he plans to destroy the world of sinful humans to make room for the fallen angels who were created by God in His image, perfect and immortal. Wanting her to witness his ascendancy, he has Mallory placed in spiked handcuffs and suspended from the ceiling rather than destroying her. Mallory reminds him that she never works alone, so the Pope/Abbadon calls in Morphine the succubus, who can assume other personas. Morphine metamorphs into Mallory, kills the Minister of Secret Services, and convinces the Army General to send his troops to the Loire valley, leaving Paris unprotected.

Morphine then pays a visit to Tina in her hospital bed. Tina [Thylda Barès] has managed to get back into her own body, so when Morphine shows up, they have a telepathic showdown. Tina wins. Because her body is still weak, Tina takes over the body of a young nurse and returns to help Mallory. In the meantime, Mallory's demon hubby comes to her to enjoy the spectacle but, perhaps out of a sense of guilt or maybe even love for Mallory, he informs her that the mixing of their blood when she killed him has actually imbued her with power. He compels her to use this power to free herself. Mallory focuses, and the handcuffs break away. Mallory kisses demon hubby. The next thing she knows, she is kissing Carras.

Tina advises Mallory and Carras about Morphine killing the chief and having the troops sent to the Loire. The three of them hurry back to Paris, where the Pope/Abbadon is invoking the Powers of the Universe and the Forces of the Ether to open the Gates of Hell, where he intends to send all humans (which doesn't sit well with the vampire Valentine). On a makeshift altar in front of him lies Vena, awaiting sacrifice. While ghouls chant "Abbadon! Abbadon!" Carras and Tina sneak up. Tina sends a telepathic message to the ghouls to kill themselves and to one ghoul to cut the ropes that bind Vena. They then turn on the rest of Abbadon's followers while Mallory concentrates on Lady V.

Suddenly, a line of protective green fire goes up around Abbadon. Carras pulls out the rubbing he made and reads, "He who crosses the Line of Peril shall confront his worse enemy. Only inner faith will triumph over this ordeal." Mallory looks to Carras, but he throws away his cross. His faith has crumbled, and he cannot help. The deed falls to Mallory. Concentrating all her faith, Mallory steps across the flames. An ax takes shape in her hands. Suddenly, she is facing herself in her wedding gown and herself as an executioner. "You can't escape the Evil inside of you," says one of them. "Good and Evil are two faces of the same monster," says the other. They take swings at Mallory with their axes. Mallory tosses away her ax and ducks. Mallory the bride and Mallory the executioner cancel each other out, and now it's just Mallory and Abbadon face-to-face.

The sky opens up, and Abbadon attempts to force Mallory back, but she struggles to approach him. When it's apparent that there is no stopping her, Mallory grabs the edict from Abbadon's hands and eats it, mumbling, "Fut toi!" She tosses Abbadon down the stairs, the sky closes up, and Abbadon and Lady V tuck tails and run. "I lost the battle, but not the war!" screams Abbadon as he goes through a door into the interstellar void, tumbling...tumbling...

Epilogue: Mallory visits the grave of her demon hubby and gives him back his wedding ring, releasing him from limbo (re: Necronomicon, chapter 112). Lady Valentine moves to the island of Izu, Japan and becomes a special correspondent on the television. The Commandos head for Japan.

Casting

According to interviews present on the Region 1 DVD, Valentina Vargas was reluctant to appear in the film, but strong campaigning by director Magnat convinced her to sign on.

Influence and references

Magnat has admitted to being highly influenced by the visual style and hyper-reality of anime and manga. This influence is most apparent during the final scenes of the first battle of the film between Mallory and the undead attacking the church.

Mallory's appearance, especially her bright red hair and revealing uniform, is highly reminiscent of the main character in the film Run Lola Run.

The Necronomicon, a work featured in the horror fiction of H. P. Lovecraft, is referenced several times as if it were a legal document, including the citing of paragraphs and sub-sections relating to the conditions of summoning a demon.

A vindictive living doll from a 1963 episode of the Twilight Zone is called Talky Tina.

External Links

• This film at Wikipedia
• Bloody Mallory at the IMDb
• Bloody Mallory at Rotten Tomatoes