''Bloody Mallory'' is a 2002 film directed by

Julien Magnat Julien Magnat is a film and television screenwriter and director. He is best known for '' Bloody Mallory'' (2002) and '' Faces In The Crowd'' (2010). __TOC__ Life and career Magnat was born in Ardèche, France. He earned an international baccal ...

at his

directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many film makers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

, and written by Magnat and

Stéphane Kazandjian Stéphane is a male French given name an equivalent of Stephen/Steven. Notable people with this given name include: *Stéphane Adam (born 1969), French footballer *Stéphane Agbre Dasse (born 1989), Burkinabé football player *Stéphane Allagnon, ...

. The film stars Olivia Bonamy, Adrià Collado,

Jeffrey Ribier Jeffrey may refer to: * Jeffrey (name), including a list of people with the name * ''Jeffrey'' (1995 film), a 1995 film by Paul Rudnick, based on Rudnick's play of the same name * ''Jeffrey'' (2016 film), a 2016 Dominican Republic documentary film ...

Laurent Spielvogel Laurent may refer to: * Laurent (name), a French masculine given name and a surname ** Saint Laurence (aka: Saint ''Laurent''), the martyr Laurent ** Pierre Alphonse Laurent, mathematician ** Joseph Jean Pierre Laurent, amateur astronomer, discove ...

Valentina Vargas Valentina Vargas (born December 31, 1964) is a Chilean actress. She began, and spent most of her career working in France. Biography Vargas began her career in the dramatic arts by joining the workshop of Tania Balaschova in Paris and later at ...

Julien Boisselier Julien Boisselier (born 26 May 1970) is a French actor. Life and career Boisselier was born and raised in Nantes before moving to Paris to study comedy at Le Cours Florent. He dated acclaimed French actress Mélanie Laurent, though the two e ...

, and Thylda Barès. The film's score was composed by

Kenji Kawai is a Japanese music composer and arranger. Known as one of the biggest names in the soundtrack world, he has worked on a wide range of mixed media productions, including anime, TV shows, films and video games. Among his credits are Toei's Kam ...

. The film itself is a mix of

horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction **Japanese horror, Japanese horror fiction ** Korean horror, Korean horror fiction *Horror film, a film genre *Horror comics, comic books focusing on ...

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

, and

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term ori ...

in a style highly reminiscent of American television shows such as '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and '' Xena: Warrior Princess''.

Plot

Mallory (Bonamy) is the head of an elite government-run strike force dedicated to combating the

supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

. Her team includes the

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part o ...

Vena Cava (Ribier), an

explosives An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An expl ...

expert; a mute, pre-teen

telepath Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...

capable of possessing others named Talking Tina (Barès); and an armed governmental agent named Durand (Perkins-Lyautey). They are dispatched to protect a

convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglic ...

from an assault by a pack of

undead The undead are beings in mythology, legend, or fiction that are deceased but behave as if alive. Most commonly the term refers to corporeal forms of formerly-alive humans, such as mummies, vampires, and zombies, who have been reanimated by ...

monsters when they are attacked by an unknown assailant. The battle leaves Durand dead, Vena Cava injured, and Tina in a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...

. Simultaneously, the newly elected

pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

(Spielvogel) is kidnapped by strange, masked attackers who resist the bullets of the pope's bodyguards. Mallory is approached to rescue the pope, a job she reluctantly accepts when she realizes there may be a connection between her team's assailant and the pope's kidnappers. Tracking the kidnappers to a pocket

dimension In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a mathematical space (or object) is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus, a line has a dimension of one (1D) because only one coor ...

containing an entire village that had vanished off the map several years earlier, Mallory and her team are joined by Père Carras (Collado), a priest trained in the martial arts and one of the bodyguards present at the time of the pope's kidnapping. Their search for the pope eventually leads to Lady Valentine (Vargas), a centuries-old

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...

who survived being beheaded during the French Revolution, and her mission to summon

Abaddon The Hebrew term Abaddon ( he, אֲבַדּוֹן ''’Ăḇaddōn'', meaning "destruction", "doom"), and its Greek equivalent Apollyon ( grc-koi, Ἀπολλύων, ''Apollúōn'' meaning "Destroyer") appear in the Bible as both a place of de ...

, a

fallen angel In the Abrahamic religions, fallen angels are angels who were expelled from heaven. The literal term "fallen angel" never appears in any Abrahamic religious texts, but is used to describe angels cast out of heaven"Mehdi Azaiez, Gabriel Said ...

that will cover the world in darkness.

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.

Release

''Bloody Mallory'' was released in France on 17 July 2002. It was released in the United States in the second quarter of 2004.

Influence and references

Magnat has admitted to being highly influenced by the visual style and hyper-reality of

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

and

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is use ...

. 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 ''Run Lola Run'' (german: Lola rennt}, lit. "Lola Runs") is a 1998 German experimental thriller film written and directed by Tom Tykwer. The story follows a woman named Lola ( Franka Potente) who needs to obtain 100,000 Deutschmarks in twenty ...

.'' The ''

Necronomicon The ', also referred to as the ''Book of the Dead'', or under a purported original Arabic title of ', is a fictional grimoire (textbook of magic) appearing in stories by the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and his followers. It was first mentio ...

'', 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.

References

External links

* * * {{Amg movie, 271446, Bloody Mallory 2002 films French action comedy films 2000s French-language films 2000s action horror films 2002 comedy horror films 2000s action comedy films LGBT-related superhero films French superhero films 2000s superhero films Superheroine films French films about revenge 2002 directorial debut films 2002 LGBT-related films 2000s exploitation films 2000s French films