‘Prom Night’ is awful filmmaking

By Tanner Boyd

Published April 15, 2008

If you’re an aspiring filmmaker and are looking for an easy way to discredit your film before showing it to audiences, follow these two simple steps. First, make your film a horror remake from the ‘80s. Second, dull the rating from the original R to a boring PG-13. Mix these, along with bad acting, a formulaic script and really bad covers of old songs to generate a surefire future Wal-Mart bargain-bin dweller.

“Prom Night” follows this formula perfectly, producing one of this year’s most easily forgettable films. Loosely based on the 1980 film of the same name, “Prom Night” tells the story of Donna Keppel (bubble gum sweetheart Brittany Snow) and her friends as a former teacher terrorizes them during their senior prom. The teacher and Donna have some past history in the form of a violent obsession that led to the slaughter of her family. Now, recently escaped form an institution and looking to find his old high school sweetheart, the maniacal teacher (Johnathon Schaech) is willing to go through anything and anyone to be reunited with Donna.

The “obsessed teacher” storyline is the biggest difference between the original and the remake. In the 1980 version, the killer wasn’t unmasked until the end of the film and the murders were gory and over the top. In the new version, the thrills are limited to cheap “gotcha” moments, and the characters are offed without creativity. While one could argue that the toned-down deaths are used to keep the story realistic, it would have been nice to see director Nelson McCormick pay some kind of gory homage to his predecessor.

If McCormick truly wanted to keep the film realistic, he did a terrible job of portraying a typical senior prom. Instead of the cheap streamers and terrible catering that adorned my prom, the teenagers in “Prom Night” are treated to a gala straight out of “My Super Sweet 16.” Every prom cliché is utilized and amplified to ridiculous extremes. When the girls aren’t turning down their boyfriends’ attempts at mid-prom coitus, they’re engaged in bratty catfights more appropriate for a Disney Channel original movie.

The annoying archetypes lead the audience to cheer for the killer to lay waste to the entire senior class, not just Donna’s posse of peers. The death lineup is easily predictable, stifling any chances for the film to shock.

Like so many horror remakes, the original is better. 1980’s “Prom Night” is a perfect example of the exaggerated, outrageous slasher flicks of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. “Prom Night” offers a plot best suited for the Lifetime Network and murders that are tamer than “Law & Order.” You can laugh at the original because it doesn’t take itself seriously, while you find yourself laughing at the remake for the exact opposite reason.

If you’re looking for a good slasher flick to enjoy with a group of friends, stick with the classic and pass on this farce. Plus, what’s a slasher film without Leslie Nielsen?