Prom Night 2008?!

July 21, 2009

Brittany Snow, Johnathon Schaech, Nelson McCormick, Post Prom Humpty Dance, Prom Night 2008, remake, Slasher films, Teen Horror, The Soup is Awesome

Why would I subject myself to watching a movie that is so highly revered as a pile of doo doo, you ask? Curiosity I guess. Or maybe I’m a sort of movie masochist that feels the need to watch every horror movie scraped from the very bottom of the barrel, even though I know (sometimes) that they won’t be any good. There are plenty of awful movies that are in some way, shape, or form, mildly entertaining, fun to watch, and some almost transcend the bad veneer with a sense of passion or skill from the people involved with the so-called bad films. Therefore, when I say bottom of the barrel, I am referring to films that are the direct definition of unoriginal and pointless. Movies that have no heart, and are just meant to cash in on the weak and easily influenced youth of today. Perfect example of this is the movie I watched last night, Prom Night. However, I think it only fair to myself as a film fan, namely a horror fan, that I don’t just close mindedly shut out a movie, but instead give it a fair shot, and a fair review.

First we meet Donna (Brittany Snow), who after coming home one night, finds her father and brother brutally murdered. When she realizes that the killer is still in the house, Donna hides under a bed, where she ends up witnessing her mothers death by a man asking where Donna is. Turns out that this has already happened and Donna is trying to cope with the vicious trauma she has gone through as she is telling this terrible tale to her shrink. But, who cares about some dude that killed your family when PROM!! is just around the corner! A chance to wear cute, sassy dresses and hopefully only have to give your boyfriend a hand job instead of giving it up completely. How exciting!! Almost immediately, Prom Night goes right into the lame getting ready for the big dance montage, complete with the “princess for a day!” walk down the stairs scene with the whole “you look beautiful” and all. I was even lucky enough to get the wacky and fun montage of the teens hanging out of a sunroof as their heading to the Prom, all while jammin’ out to some shitty pop song as the hot teens are ridin’ ditr-teh in the stretch. This Prom is already kicking so much ass!

Things don’t get any more original or realistic when Donna and her diverse group of pals roll into the prom. A prom complete with a red carpet, fans, and paparazzi?! Of course, this Prom is mad tight and at the nicest location possible with the budget of 5 million high school dollars that aren‘t being spent on books or teachers’ salaries. Donna and her clique are clearly in for the time of their lives; except for one thing…the man that killed Donna’s family and tried to kill her has surprisingly escaped from prison. We find this out thanks to Detective Winn (Idris Elba), the cop that arrested the killer when the murders had happened. Thankfully, Detective Winn conveniently takes the time to tell his newer partner, Nash (James Ransone) about what had happened in full detail. Turns out the killer was a high school teacher named Richard Fenton (Johnathon Schaech) who had become overly obsessed with Donna when she was just a freshman. Her parents of course put out a restraining order on Fenton to keep him away from the young girl, but Fenton doesn’t exactly take kindly to this and the result is him killing the family to get to Donna.

Now, Fenton is free again and heading to Prom…a Prom that is straight up and off the hook, with the DJ spinnin’ all the hottest beats as the teens are throwing down dance moves with style and pizzazz!! Convenience is key when the Prom is attached to a hotel that Donna and her group of friends happen to be staying at for the rest of the night. Fenton makes his way into the hotel, and through a series of yawn inducing events, finds out which room Donna and her posse are staying in. It is somewhere around this point that the first un-flashback kill happens. Fenton brilliantly fakes out a maid by saying his key card wont work; the maid lets Fenton in the room giving him the chance to kill her. Nevertheless, back to the dance where they are dropping confetti (and hot beats) everywhere!!! I love the pretty colors all around me! Weee! Got any booze?

As expected, Detective Winn and Nash show up to watch out for Donna from a distance, all while being oblivious to the threat that is just an elevator ride away. From here on out, Donna’s crew of sexy teens with tude, each find a way up to the hotel room and right into the clutches of Fenton, who disperses of each victim with a sick ass knife he bought at a swap meet. I will be brief for the sake of spoilers, though it is pointless to keep this film spoil free with it being completely and 100% predictable. Eventually things go awry when Det. Winn learns that Fenton is actually at the Prom (well, in the building attached) and he evacuates the kick-ass dance of my dreams…yup, that pig ruined Prom. Just as that shit was getting hot too!! Big problem now, is the cops lost sight of Donna and cannot find Fenton either…cat and mouse, commence!

Overall, the acting in Prom Night is actually decent. Brittany Snow as Donna is talent put to complete waste with a soulless character that left her with absolutely nothing to chew on. This is a good role to get her face out there more than it already has, as she has been very successful in the acting field. However, it’s not a role that will expand her acting abilities in anyway. Richard Fenton as played by Johnathon Schaech, has appeared in a ton of good and bad movies, and also has a fair share of genre films under his belt. I know him best as the creep from The Doom Generation that ate the cum off his hand. Just typing that made me wish I hadn’t written this post while eating some fruit on the bottom yogurt. I thought Schaech did a pretty good job as the killer, but his menace could quite possibly be related to the whole cum slurping thing that will forever plague my psyche. It definitely wasn’t the baseball cap and the brown blazer that Fenton wore that frightened me, that much I know.

Prom Night’s Director, Nelson McCormick, who just so happens to be doing The Stepfather remake has done a ton of television and is mostly competent in his hired gun directors role. Prom Night is clean looking and acceptably shot, with a few scenes that were noticeable as being somewhat impressive. However, there is little to no tension to be found whatsoever, and that blame could be placed on both the Director, and/or maybe even the film’s editor.

As far as the writing and the story goes, Prom Night is a massive failure that is as uncreative and predictable as any film I have ever seen. There are so many movie clichés to be found and I sure as hell will spend the time to go over some of them. Of course, I already brought up the stereotypical dope ass Prom that is nothing like any Prom that any person has ever been to. These are Proms that are only comparable to the parties thrown for the spoiled brats on the classy MTV series, My Super Sweet 16. You also are in for a scene where Donna expresses fear about her past tragedy to her hunky beau, wherein he tells her that he will never let anything happen to her, and he will always keep her safe and out of harm’s way. Sure you will tough guy; lets see you protect her from a swap meet knife-wielding loony. Uhh ohh, this is around the time that I talk about Donna and her friend’s special moment! They figure out that “this is it…the last hurrah” “high school is over” “it‘s the time of our lives and they‘re almost over for good.” But you know what, one of them will be at state, so he’ll be close, another will be home on holidays, so they can all still see each other…cause they are friends forever! Blah, blah, fucking blah. Then there‘s the great scene where Donna, as the only witness to the murders has to ID Fenton through a one sided mirror. Of course, Fenton magically senses Donna is there and stares at her through the mirror as he talks about their love for one another. Donna starts to bug out, repeatedly saying she wants to leave, when all she has to do was just walk away from the one-way mirror! Dumb ass. I could keep going, but you look tired and I have other shit to talk about, so I’ll move on and attempt to keep this post under epic length.

How are the kills? would be what you are now wondering. There are kills…that are done with a knife…uhhh, that’s about it. Almost every kill is off screen and in the hotel room. There wasn’t anymore than a quarter cup of blood used in Prom Night, and the only real bloodletting was in one of the few kills outside of the hotel room. It is a throat slice that was edited so fast, that it wasn’t really shown and the blood splats across the other side of a tarp. Great editing cause it looked like you saw the character get their throat slit, but it being the best kill is sad since it would be the weakest kill in any other Slasher. A kill just meant to fill a quota.

An in name only remake of the 1980 Canadian Slasher classic (?), Prom Night cost about 20 mil and made just a hair more than that back in the opening weekend alone, thus resulting in it being at the coveted number one spot. Prom Night eventually went on to double that budget in its full theatrical run domestically, making it a pretty successful film. Even though Prom Night was lambasted by critics across the board, still the tweens went out and saw it, resulting in Prom Night becoming the poster boy for what all true horror fans hate about the films that have been representing “our” genre in theaters. If Prom Night had failed at the box office, it would have only been barely noticed by genre filmgoers, instead, it became the target, and to some, the definition of what is wrong with the current state of theatrical horror. However, the movie is not completely what is wrong with cinematic horror; it’s the people that go to the theaters where a bulk of the problem lies. It doesn’t help any that Prom Night is a, dare I say it…remake. Egad! Even worse so is Prom Night is rated PG-13, a rating that to me doesn’t mean a film can’t be scary by any means, but we are talking about a movie that would have to be considered a Slasher film. For the sake of argument, Prom Night is not necessarily a remake since it really has nothing to do with the original except for the Prom setting and the idea of there being a killer. If it were called “The Big Dance” instead, then no one would probably even take notice. Then again, the idea of cashing in on the title of a Slasher film from the 80’s might be reason enough to drink down da hater-aid. So, fair enough on the hate I guess.

Prom Night is just shows what makes many current horror films successful. It isn’t us; the hardcore horror fans that are making these films huge…it is the general audience. I used to think that maybe horror fans where being too lazy to go out and support a film like Land of the Dead or The Devil’s Rejects and more recently Drag Me To Hell (essentially “our” films), resulting in them being unsuccessful at the box office, whether they were good or not. Now I am starting to realize, that there aren’t enough of us that are out there to see them, and the only way a film will do well in the mainstream market is if it attracts more than the horror crowd, i.e. the youthful texting teens of our present times. This is more or less the same reason why a movie like Trick ’r Treat or Midnight Meat Train did not get full theatrical runs when they were originally supposed to.

If you really pay attention to the box office, the films that seem to consistently do well are kid’s movies, whether they be animated or live action. I think that while in a way, horror fans can hate Prom Night for what it is; we also might have to come to terms with the film being essentially, made for kids. Not little kids of course, but teens. I wouldn’t be too worried about a 12 year old seeing this film as I saw WAY worse shit when I was that age. Prom Night has almost no blood, most of the violence is off screen, it has little to no swearing, the sexuality is no more than a kissing scene, and it has good-looking teens dancing to that hippity hop music that kids be loving these days.

So, what it comes down to, is even with all of the things that are wrong with Prom Night, it isn’t as bad as a lot of films I have seen. It isn’t any good if you’ve been paying attention, but it is a film that is essentially made for kids…not for a 32-year-old international sex symbol like myself.

Author | Matt-suzaka

When god created man, he also created Matt-suzaka, and while this is looked at as a mistake by many, his loyal dance troop, “Gold Explosion,” would feel otherwise. Now, armed with the sword of vengeance and a group of off-the-chain back-up dancers, Matt-suzaka defends humanity at Chuck Norris Ate My Baby.com

christine

"But, who cares about some dude that killed your family when PROM!! is just around the corner! A chance to wear cute, sassy dresses and hopefully only have to give your boyfriend a hand job instead of giving it up completely. How exciting!!"

You are so fucking funny. This may be your most hysterical blog to date. I LOLed countless times.

I have had this film on my instant watch queueueueueue forever! I may never watch it. I hated "When a Stranger Calls" and in my mind these films are very similar.
Jeff Allard

Thanks for taking the enlightened route on Prom Night '08, Matt! There's no mistaking the fact that it's a gigantic pile of shit but so was the 1980 Prom Night. I saw that on its network TV debut on NBC just six months (!) after it played in theaters and it was the perfect movie for me at the time. I always look at movies like Prom Night as 'training wheels' for young genre fans, serving as the first taste of 'adult' horror for fans in their pre or early teens. And while older fans scoff at these movies, they do end up meaning something to the generation that encounters them at the right age.

I may not have thought much of the new Prom Night but so what – it wasn't made for me in the first place. The new Sorority Row, on the other hand – now THAT I can't wait for!
Matt-suzaka

Christine: Thanks! That means a lot coming from you!

You can definitely skip this one, it's not really worth a watch unless it's on TV and your bored and there's nothing else to watch.

Jeff: Sorority Row does look great!

I completely agree with your comment. If I look back on some of the films that I loved as a kid, I realize that they aren't all great and a few are in fact, pretty terrible. But when you I was a kid, they kicked so much ass!

It's all just a stepping stone to bigger things and the films we loved growing up were also panned by older genre fans at the time. Slasher films would be the perfect example. In fact, Slasher films and Torture Porn have so much in common. But that's a rant for another day!

I will say, as i get older, the movie snob in me becomes less and less with every passing year, and that is turning out to be a good thing as a fan of film.
Emily

I'm finding it harder and harder to knock on PG13 horror just for being PG13, but it does hurt that this made money and Drag Me to Hell bombed. I guess if that film had been marketed to tweens that shop at Sasssy (wait, I don't think that store exists anymore; I'm so out of touch!) then maybe it would have done better. But Jeff does make a good point. It's good to "ease" the youngins into horror sometimes, so perhaps some of the lighter fare–especially if it's somewhat female friendly–is necessary now and then.

The original Prom Night is a terrible movie, although it does have one genuinely suspenseful scene, a generous serving of the man candy that is Leslie Nielson, and JLC doing outright disco.

OH! And so hiding under the bed from a raging killer actually works? Life just got so much easier.

Love the review as usual.
Ashlee

Amen, Matt! Funny and insightful. You said more eloquently what I've been thinking and shouting on a wooden box in the park for years.

I so very badly want to point fingers in the direction of teenagers who refuse to see the error in their cinematic lower standard ways and the hungry hungry hippos over at Alliance, but something tells me there's more to this sad state of what is now being called horror.

You're right. Overall, they're looking for the general audience to pack conglomerate pockets negating all quality and creativity.

But remember when horror was really, really good? And it made a lot of money at the same time?

Why can't we go back to that?

Fucking tweens…
Matt-suzaka

Thanks Emily!

I really have never had an issue with PG-13 horror as some great films are rated that way…like The Sixth Sense or The Others for example. Both movies are very effective as horror films without the “typical” R rated aspects. You can make a film scary with tension, atmosphere, good filmmaking techniques, and a films tone as opposed to blood, guts, and boobs.

Some film’s on the other hand should be rated R (or at times PG-13) based off of the source material, whether it be a book, graphic novel, or whatever the case may be. I do dislike when a film is toned down just to get the more accessible rating so it can cater to a larger audience, and I hate it because I feel like all film’s should be made for me…Mr. Selfish. I dislike the fact that a studio takes it upon themselves to compromise a filmmakers vision for profit…it isn't fair to the filmmaker or us as fans either. I guess that's what DVD director’s cuts are for. In the end, it all just depends on the movie and what its creators are trying to achieve with said movie that makes a rating okay or not.

Prom Night is a shining example of a film that is not made for us, but because it’s a horror film, horror fans feel the need to think it’s for them and only them…not young teens. It is the proverbial gateway drug to what would be the new generation of horror fan’s that aren’t ready for some of the more hardcore stuff, or the classics. Everyone has to start somewhere.

And there's a store called Sassy?! I'm so there!
James

Alas, growing up in Northern Ireland I have been denied all the excitement of PROM. I do like a good slasher movie though. By the sounds of things maybe I should check out the original 80s flick, with lovely, lovely Jamie Leigh? Besides I hate the look of Donna and her diverse group of pals. I hope they die. Oh wait…
Great review Matt. Up there with your finest.
Matt-suzaka

Thank you very much, and I‘m happy that you enjoyed the post Ashlee!

I’m glad that I am not the only one that thinks this way and it’s almost hard to point the finger at today’s youth when a lot of their lackluster taste has to do with the entertainment that is forced upon them even at a very young age. You see it in their music, their movies, and the television that they watch. I’m not saying that there isn’t good stuff out there for kids and teens to enjoy, but a majority of what they get is watered down for the ease of consumption. They are told what is cool, what to like, and it will probably carry over into their adulthood, which is very unfortunate.

While I can wax intellectual about the current state of theatrical horror, saying that it is just a different time, and we may be slightly out of touch, the bulk of the films that have come out of this time period really suck. The big horror series is Saw, a series that I could care less about because it is not all that great. Sure, the Nightmare, Friday, and Halloween sequels weren’t always great, but at least the originals were fantastic films at the time and still are to this very day. Saw will not go down as a horror classic because it just was not that great of a film as opposed to the original Nightmare, or Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Comparing even the remakes of the 80’s and the remakes of today will garner the same result. Sure, Dawn of the Dead was a great remake, but outside of that film, there really aren’t any other great remakes, let alone classics. Back in the day, we had films like Cronenberg’s The Fly and Carpenters The Thing remake that are two of the greatest horror film ever made!

Another thing that shows a bit of a difference between now and the “old days” is I love classic horror film’s of the 20’s and 30’s, and always have since I was a kid. I think that most horror fan’s in my age range feel the same way about these film’s too. Nowadays, a lot of them there youngsters look back on movies like Chainsaw or The Evil Dead and think that those film’s are “cheesy” or “corny.” So, where my graduating class can appreciate the classics that came before, many younger kids could give two shits about the film’s that had come before they were born. However, that just goes back to how the youth has been somewhat brainwashed and have become narcissistic through the media that surrounds them constantly. No attention span at all anymore, and that is a big part of why film‘s have changed as a whole…everything has to be cool and good looking to be liked and shit better move fast, or you‘ll lose them. And that is all to be blamed on media…not those damned kids! I should also say that there are still plenty of great films that come out from time to time; you just have to look outside of the cinema (and the U.S.) to find them sometimes.
Matt-suzaka

Damn! Wish I had seen your comment before I just posted that epic response to Ashlee's, James!

Check out the original Prom Night before the remake, but even that film isn’t all that great, just decent would be suffice. I like it for those nostalgic reasons that always come up when discussing film’s of this ilk, but it isn’t anything to write home about. Though, retro Jaime Leigh always makes a movie just a little better now doesn’t it?!

As for Prom, it’s kinda funny that for girls, it’s all about memories and being beautiful on what is their special night, but for the guys, it’s all about hanging with their friends, getting drunk, and hopefully laid! Once again proving that guys are nothing but dicks, and girls are too damn sentimental!

Thanks for the comment, James, and I’m happy you enjoyed the post!
Emily

Matt, every movie should indeed be made for you.

As far as current horror, the U.S. just isn't producing what we'd like right now. However, I'll always throw out a quick defense to the Saw series. It's not great, but overall, each of the film's is made with more intelligence than ANY Friday the 13th.

There are random examples of solid American horror films, like The Ruins, but at tihs particular moment in time, we simply look outside our borders for 'great' films like Martyrs or The Descent.

The question of kids today with older films is an interesting one. I hope it's not terribly true, but I wonder how much the availability of every film and quick turnaround to DVD shortens attention spans to only wanting new releases.
Matt-suzaka

Kids just have too much to keep them occupied these days…

I do get down on Saw quite a bit, but I should try to give the whole series a chance some time. I have only watched half the first film, in which I turned it off in annoyance, and I have watched most of the third film. Therefore, I at some point will sit and watch the entire series, and maybe even post about them…well see. I also cannot argue with Saw being smarter than any Friday film, while I love the Friday movies, they aren’t made with any in depth thought, but they sure as hell are a lot of fun!

Since you bring it up, I really like The Ruins and it is one of the better films to come out over the past few years. Thing that sucks about that movie, is horror fans saw trailers for it and caulked it up as yet another good looking teen horror film not worth a damn and shot it down before even giving it much of a chance. I went to see it, and thought it was great, and maybe as time goes on, more horror fans will take notice of the films quality. It is another of many unfortunate box office failures, and it’s too bad.

In addition, if every movie were made for me, every movie would be Uncle Sam!
Emily

And a quick recommendation: The Ruins is a fantastic novel. I'm so hesitant to read horror fiction because it's so often written so poorly, but The Ruins is truly disturbing.