The Prom Night remake is a “by the numbers” horror slasher flick that fails to give any scares and barely holds your interest.
While technically a remake of the 1980 Jamie Lee Curtis horror film, the plot has been tweaked for an update, but stays grounded in the traditional formula. It might put some fear into the PG-13 audience (even unrated there is just about a minute more footage), but diehard horror fans might be bored within the opening minutes of the film.
The film follows Donna (Brittany Snow) as she prepared for her senior prom and what should be the night of her life. Like most teenagers, she has to deal with finding the perfect dress, and the right hair style. She also has to deal with a loon of a former teacher (Johnathon Schaech) who turned into a stalker, killed her parents, and tried to gut her – to show his love, I guess.
The local cops managed to catch the bad guy when he slaughtered Donna’s family, but (like most horror movie stalkers) he busted out of the nut house in time to have another date with Donna. Although he has been locked up for several years, he knows exactly where the prom is being held, and where Donna is now living with her aunt and uncle.
He also has that great horror villain ability to move silently through the hotel completely unnoticed as he slices and dices anyone who gets between him and his woman! The bodies start piling up as Donna is on the dance floor completely unaware her friends are being hacked to death in the hotel suite they have reserved.
The cops (played by Idris Elba and other wasted actors) finally catch onto the loon in the baseball cap (Michael and Jason have nothing on this killer’s disguise), and get Donna out of the hotel so that she can have a final showdown with former teacher in the privacy of her own home.
Although I am making fun of Prom Night for following the horror genre formula so closely, I am actually a fan of horror films and slasher movies like the Halloween series and Friday the 13th films.
The problem with the new Prom Night is it did nothing to separate itself from the formula or to give the viewer any real reason to stay interested in the film. It has been years since I saw the original Prom Night and I am sure it would seem dated by today’s standards. At least, it had Curtis to keep you interested.
Brittany Snow does a decent job in the film, but she was more annoying than suspenseful, and I found myself hoping the bad guy would get her. Schaech does a decent job silently moving around the film and looking creepy at all the right moments, but he never really comes across as scary. It probably doesn’t help that you are kind of glad he is killing off the side characters – since most of them are annoying too.
Blu-ray’s 1080p Picture is crystal clear, but that kind of hurts this film – since the blood sprays (what few there are since we are dealing with a PG-13 HORROR film) looks way too fake to be believable. The actors look good and the filming is solid. It is just not enough to hold your interest thanks to the bland story and strict following of the slasher formula.
The Unrated Blu-ray (which is literally like one minute longer than the 88 minute theatrical release) comes with some decent special features including deleted scenes, a gag reel (which provides some laughs), behind the scenes features, and commentary.
There is also an interactive poll on where is the best place to hide the body for those with BD-Live capabilities and a Bonus View Picture-in-Picture Storyboard Track for anyone who really enjoyed the film.
Prom Night will no doubt appeal to its targeted audience, but diehard horror fans might feel the film is way too light, and much too predictable.
Prom Night (Unrated) [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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