Prom Night (2008)

This straight-faced, straight-forward suspense thriller is nothing like the kitschy 1980 blood-soaked slasher starring scream (and prom) queen Jamie Curtis and master of the non sequitur Leslie Neilson, but all things considered this Prom Night is not all bad.

Relegated to a PG-13 rating from the very beginning, director Nelson McCormick (whose work on series like Prison Break and Nip/Tuck I've quite liked) does his level best to present the bloodless killings as wickedly as possible without causing any nightmares in his target preteen audience. (It strikes me as odd that both Prison Break and Nip/Tuck are much more brutal and gory than Prom Night, yet they're on commercial television… but only the Shadow knows what mediocrity lurks in the hearts of the MPAA.)

While bland, there's really nothing inherently wrong with Prom Night. Johnathon Schaech, contrasted against his fallow cookie-cutter costars, crackles as the crazed killer, Mr. Fenton — an obsessive high school teacher who falls in love with his bubbly blonde student, Donna (Brittany Snow). Schaech's full-on creepy, giving his all in a mustache-twirling yet grounded performance which calls for him to slink, stalk, deceive, chase, stab and slash.

The sordid story begins as it should, with several slayings, then segues to "three years later…" as Donna is preparing for prom. She's got all her friends (read: Fenton's future victims) with her: her flirtatious best bud Lisa (Dana Davis), Lisa's horndog boyfriend Ronnie (Collins Pennie), her own main squeeze, the stylish, athletic and ever-loving Bobby (Scott Porter), and the requisite bickering couple (Jessica Stroup, and Kelly Blatz) you want to see die, horribly. Then there's the rival for the coveted rhinestone crown, the rich, bitchy and beautiful Crissy Lynn (Brianne Davis), plus a few adults who may or may not cross paths with the tetched teacher's deadly weapons. Once the bodies start turning up, Det. Winn (Idris Elba) joins the fray.

This fright flick falls somewhere in the middle of the recent rash of remakes — it's not as good as Halloween, but it's not as bad as When A Stranger Calls, if you're looking for points of reference — and on its own merits it stands as a serviceable thriller. Prom Night is not quite biting enough (in a good way, or a so-bad-it's good way) to make a lasting impression, but if you're just looking for a few jump scares and some "omigod!" moments, you could do worse.

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson

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