Who doesn't know the legend of Bloody Mary? You know, say her name in front of a mirror three times and she will appear (and, quite likely, either kill you or snatch you into her world). It's so ingrained into our culture that I for one would not tempt fate by performing the ritual myself. Unless you've lived your entire life under a rock, the basic premise of this film will be quite familiar to you.

This is, rightly or wrongly, a handicap this film must try to overcome. It's hard not to feel as if the last thing we need is yet another Bloody Mary film rehashing old folklore and cinematic haunts. Fortunately, The Legend of Blood Mary comes at the legend from a slightly different angle. Unfortunately, questionable acting and some really annoying directing do much to hamper one's enjoyment of the film.

In this version of the game, you first mark yourself and/or others (by writing names on the mirror) before calling Bloody Mary to come out and play. That's what the Bloody Mary game website says to do, anyway. The site also provides some background on Bloody Mary herself. Having refused to divulge the name of her unborn child's father, poor Mary Worth paid the ultimate price at the hands of her Puritan, Salem-like community, with her own personal Arthur Dimmesdale supplying the crudest cut of all. Who can blame her for wanting revenge?

Ryan (Paul Preiss) is one of Mary's indirect victims -- although it's hard to feel too sorry for a young man this boring and annoying. Eight years ago, his sister Amy (Rachel Taylor) played the game, and he's been plagued with nightmares ever since her disappearance. His girlfriend Rachel (Irina Costa) asks Ryan's former professor Father O'Neal (Robert J. Locke, obviously a graduate of the Hayden Christensen School of Acting), an untraditional priest and archaeologist, for help. Through his personal investigation, we learn what happened to Amy and her friends.

And wouldn't you know it? A new archaeological dig right there on campus brings the story of Bloody Mary full circle.

Ryan is too aloof and self-absorbed to be likable, but Father O'Neal is a bigger problem, in my opinion. You can never lose yourself in the story because Locke is never able to bring his character to life. It's not that he's a terrible actor, it's just that his manner never changes, no matter how odd the situation. Some aspects of the truths he discovers should prove a little problematic for a priest, but I don't think his expression would have changed if someone dropped a cement block on his foot.

I also have to call director John Stecenko out for artsy-fartsy shenanigans. If you want to shoot characters from weird angles, that's OK, but this guy goes way overboard with the close-ups. I don't want to look at Locke's beard when he's speaking, and I certainly don't want to see shifting close-ups of that beard as his monologue rambles on. Overall, this is your better-than-average Bloody Mary film, but it's not nearly as good as it could or should have been -- and the damages responsible for that are self-inflicted.