Prom Night Review
Thanks for checking out our Prom Night review!
The General Idea
Plot outline from IMDB: Donnas senior prom is supposed to be the best night of her life, one of magic, beauty, and love. Surrounded by her best friends, she should be safe from the horrors of her past. But when the night turns from magic to murder there is only one man who could be responsible, the 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 their Prom Night.
The Good
The villain was very off-putting (you could hear people in the audience mentioning this to one another). He was usually stone faced, but was able to just creep you out with his stare; this is a good quality for a movie killer to have. With a better script and more true to type slasher film, Johnathon Schaech would make a great killer; here his ability was underutilized and his “creepiness” went to waste.
The Bad
The kill scenes in this film were far too convenient. The killer was able to destroy anyone he wanted to at will; and usually without a hitch. This killed suspense; you knew no one was getting away and that the killer would have no obstacles until the end of the film. The complete lack of surprise overall was a shame, everyone knew how this one was going to play out, and was sad it did just that.
You don’t see any of the slash action and there is next to no blood. I am not kidding - people are lying dead with slit throats and you see a few drops of blood. It was like the corpses were already drained of their juice by giant leeches (I wish that was the case). It appears that in order to lessen the rating of this film they deliberately closed the tap on the blood and gore. Slasher films need blood like comedies need jokes.
This film seemed very long at 88 minutes, I am guessing it was due to its repetitive nature. We would have a dance scene at the prom, a scene with the friends talking about their future and/or relationship problems, a shot of the cops in the hotel - and then the killer would stab somebody. Rinse and repeat until the end.
Overall
I don’t think PG 13 horror films are the greatest idea unless you have incredible vision and the talent to pull it off. This was a forgettable and lackluster movie. Watching my cat give birth (just 2 days ago) was a more macabre experience. I would suggest you skip this one and out of 10, I would give it a 3.
10 Comments, Comment or Ping
Kristina
Congrats on the kitty birth! How are the kittens?
And I have no interest in this movie, but they were smart to release it during prom season. My sister’s prom is next week, and she and a bunch of her dumbass friends are going to see this.
Apr 12th, 2008
doug nagy
All the 3 kittens are healthy as can be and mom is beaming with pride and hasn’t stopped purring since it began. 1 was born naturally - one got stuck so we had to have a c-section for the other 2 but all worked out well!
Apr 12th, 2008
Kristina
Good! Glad to hear everyone’s healthy.
Apr 12th, 2008
James
Nice to hear the kittens made it! : )
On a down note, this sorry sack of a film was #1 over the weekend and took in $22.7 million!
I loved this blurb as well:
“Audiences today, they’re so savvy in regards to what they want to see or don’t want to see. Particularly a younger audience, they pretty much make up their own mind,” said Rory Bruer, Sony head of distribution.
Oh brother……. 0_o
Apr 14th, 2008
ETS
Thank you for enduring such a movie so as to provide us with a review. Also, congratulations on the kittens! If I had not already decided to stay away from this film, reading your review would have helped me make the decision. Although I love all sorts of films, I find myself avoiding many these days, especially horror films. They just seem to recycle the same formula, over and over, without attempting to make any drastic, and possibly interesting, changes. So now, I just tend to avoid these films altogether. I often end up having to look outside of the U.S. to find a good horror film. I recently came across an interesting blog that was talking about how PG-13 horror films just never seem to work out, because the PG-13 rating becomes a target for the movie companies so that they can get their films out to a larger audience. It becomes more about business than art. He also argues that horror films pretty much need some sort of blood, gore, or at least some kind of shock value in order to be a good film. I thought this was interesting because you mention how the movie seems to have held off the realistic side of things (such as the lack of blood despite a slit throat) in order to keep the PG-13 rating. And, as use said, a slasher film needs blood. The term alone, “slasher,” already implies that there should be blood. But how do you feel about the need for blood in general in a horror movie? Do you think it’s necessary to make it a good film? It’s expected with most horror films, but I feel like it’s not necessary to be successful. It will require good story telling and suspense to achieve it, but I still think blood doesn’t need to be a factor. But it should not be absent if what’s going on in the scene requires it. Because it’s true, it does seem far less believable when a dead body with a large open wound lays there without a pool of blood.
Apr 14th, 2008
NYCKing87
LOL, I knew this flick would suck balls. Nuff said.
Apr 14th, 2008
promnitefan12
um this movie was amazing.
dont hate.
omg i loved it so much.
the beggining was really sad and horrific though.
Apr 20th, 2008
promnitefan12
i disagree with yall.
i think the movie was amazing and brittney snow did really well.
the beggining was sad and horrific, but i still thought it should get some good reviews.
Apr 20th, 2008
ScaredofHorror
I get easily scared of horrow movies. In Prom Night it had scary moments but it wasn’t the worst i’ve seen. They could have make more suspens but i think it was okay for a PG-13 movie. I think that Brittnay snow was good for the part but it ended up like any other movie. Everybody dies other then the victim. Like said there was also no blood. The should have been more .. i mean come on if someone get’s stabed then there must be atleast a buttle of blood… i don’t know. It wasn’t the best and it wasn’t the worst. I would give it a 6!
Apr 21st, 2008
Mark A. Salinas
I would say stay away from this movie and save your money. I guess it is kind of cool if you haven’t see hundreds of slasher movies. Nothing new with this movie, wait until it comes out on TV.
Mark Salinas, MN
Apr 21st, 2008
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