Prom Night (2008)

User Rating:

3.7/10   

Director:

Nelson McCormick

Writer (WGA):

J.S. Cardone (written by)

Release Date:

11 April 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

A Party To Die For.

Plot:

Donna's senior prom is supposed to be the best night of her life, though a sadistic killer from her past has different plans for her and her friends.

Plot Keywords:

Dream Sequence | Mirror | Hotel Suite | Hotel Staff | Murder

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Brittany Snow	...	Donna Keppel
Scott Porter	...	Bobby
Jessica Stroup	...	Claire
Dana Davis	...	Lisa Hines
Collins Pennie	...	Ronnie Heflin
Kelly Blatz	...	Michael
James Ransone	...	Detective Nash
Brianne Davis	...	Crissy Lynn
Kellan Lutz	...	Rick Leland
Mary Mara	...	Ms. Waters
Ming-Na	...	Dr. Elisha Crowe (as Ming Wen)
Johnathon Schaech	...	Richard Fenton
Idris Elba	...	Detective Winn
Jessalyn Gilsig	...	Aunt Karen Turner
Linden Ashby	...	Uncle Jack Turner

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence and terror, some sexual material, underage drinking, and language.

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English | Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | SDDS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:M | Ireland:15A | USA:PG-13 (certificate #41474) | Canada:13+ (Québec) | South Africa:13V | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | UK:15 | Sweden:15 | Iceland:16 | Singapore:PG | South Korea:15 | Malaysia:U | USA:Unrated (unrated DVD version) | Finland:K-15 | France:-12 | Philippines:R-13 (MTRCB) | UK:18 (special edition DVD) | Singapore:NC-16 (DVD rating) | Netherlands:16 | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Biltmore Hotel - 506 S. Grand Avenue, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Alliance Films

Goofs:

Continuity: At the beginning of the movie, Donna and her friends are seen at the hair salon getting their hair done and recolored. However, near the end of the movie, which is that same night, her brunette roots can clearly be seen through her blonde hair.

Quotes:

Lisa: What color is your dress?
Donna: It’s a champagne color. Then it’s a little sexy.

Movie Connections:

Features The Matrix (1999)

Soundtrack:

I Believe In Your Victory

Less scary than the kid toucher episode of Webster

Prom Night is shot with the artistic eye someone gives while finely crafting a Lifetime original film. You know the one. This October, Lifetime takes a break from the courageous tale of a woman surviving (insert disease name here) to tell the somewhat creepy tale of a woman pursued by a stalker ex-boyfriend. It's dramatic … it's sappy … it's immensely dull. It does nothing to further a genre, tell an original story, or strive for ANY sort of newness. Prom Night shares this plight. Watching the killer poke holes in his victims, we sit silently as they slump to the floor with not a drop of blood spilled. It occurred to me that this was the cleanest killer in movie history.

Our director is working with a fairly good-looking killer so he is forced to pour on the camera angles to make him appear creepier. Think about Matthew McConaughey coming at you with a knife. You'd probably go … "OH! Good lookin guy is going to kill me? Naaaa." Not scary even for a second, so the director throws Schaech into shadows and over the shoulder in the mirror. This mirror shot is repeated to the point of sickness as it practically becomes a fetish of the creator. You'll get 15 jump scares in this film, 2 of which made my date jump (I might mention she is afraid of EVERYTHING). I'd also mention she decided to take a nap halfway through the film and at one point threatened to leave me.

As if this film were not disjointed enough, it appears to be cut to shreds. I'm not saying it looks like key points were left on the cutting room floor as the crew scrambled to salvage some semblance of a horror film; I'm saying as the film moves from scene to scene, you often get a jarring jump. This is the kind of thing you'd expect when a film catches fire and a projectionist is forced to splice ends together, cross his fingers, and hope for the best. The editor should be shot.

With a plot you can pack into two sentences, one stray spray of blood, an emo killer, and the tension of a very special episode of "Silver Spoons", we're left with no reason to support horror this weekend … at least on the big screen. In fact, this is the sort of film that should be punished. Is it really that hard to make a scary movie? Was this crew even aware they were making a horror film??!! A complete waste of my time and yours. I bit the bullet to get you this review. Don't let my sacrifice be in vain. DON'T GO INTO THE MOVIE!!!