Prom Night
Movie Details
Donna's senior prom is supposed to be the best night of her life. After surviving a horrible tragedy, she has finally moved on and is enjoying her last year of high school. Surrounded by her best friends, she should be safe from the horrors of her past. But when the night turns deadly, there is only one person who could be responsible--a man she thought was gone forever. Now, Donna and her friends must find a way to escape the sadistic rampage of an obsessed killer, and survive a night "to die for."
| Genre: | Horror |
| Running time: | 88 minutes |
| Release date: | 04/11/08 |
| MPAA Rating: | PG-13 for violence and terror, some sexual material, underage drinking, and language |
| Distributer: | Screen Gems |
| Website: | http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/promnight/ |
| Release Notes: | Nationwide |
Cast & Crew
| Starring: | Brittany Snow, Brianne Davis, Kellan Lutz, Kelly Blatz, Andrew Fiscella |
| Directed by: | Nelson McCormick |
| Written by: | J.S. Cardone |
| Produced by: | Neal H. Moritz |
Review
This remake of the 1980 slasher film is at least a different story than its predecessor, but it's not very good one.
Story
Poor Donna Keppel (Brittany Snow). Some years back, her parents and brother were slaughtered by Richard Fenton (Jonathan Schaech), a teacher who had developed a psychotic fixation on her. Richard went to an insane asylum, but he broke out and now he's back in town just in time for Prom Night, where he resumes his pursuit of Donna and knocks off some of her friends for good measure. Bringing up the rear is dogged Detective Winn (Idris Elba), desperately trying to nail Fenton as the body count mounts. Sooner or later--and it's much later, unfortunately--Donna will come face to face with Fenton one last time.
Acting
With characters as one-dimensional and dumb as these, there's not much the cast can do except stand around in their prom outfits, waiting to get killed off. As the deranged killer, Schaech stares, glares and skulks around. Leading lady Snow widens her eyes and worries accordingly throughout, while Elba tries to inject a little intensity into the stock role of the cop on the case.
Direction
Working from a bad screenplay by J.S. Cardone, first-time helmer Nelson McCormick displays little enthusiasm--either for the genre or for this particular film. The scare tactics are hackneyed, and usually involve characters surprising each other--a gag that gets really old, really quickly. When one character mutters "This is getting silly. Enough already," we couldn't agree more. And we'd add "boring" to that statement. It should be noted, however, that there's an awfully high body count for a film rated PG-13, even if the film isn't as bloody as one might expect. McCormick and Cardone have re-teamed on the upcoming remake of The Stepfather, and if their collaboration here is any indication, horror fans may have reason to be afraid--very afraid.
Bottom Line
Hollywood.com rated this film 1 star.