(Re) Making a Monster - Day 24

Prom Night (1980)

Even among hardcore fans of the Prom Night series, it’s generally accepted that the first one is just okay and that Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II is the real gem of the franchise. That’s not to say that Prom Night is without its charms, it’s just not full of what people generally think of when they wax nostalgic about slasher films.

Six years ago four kids played a cruel trick on a little girl that resulted in her death and in fear they ran away without revealing that they had inadvertently caused it. Now, someone is picking these four kids off on the night of their senior prom. Could it be the child molester who was framed for the girl’s murder who just recently escaped from prison? Could it be… some unrelated person? Or is it probably just her twin brother who was around the day she died and probably witnessed her death even though we didn’t actually see it? Boy it sure would be weird if he was revealed to be the killer and when they pulled off his mask he was inexplicably wearing lipstick, wouldn’t it?

The one big compliment I’ll give this movie is that it handles its characters well. All of the characters, except for the bully girl, are likeable and their deaths are genuinely horrifying because you really don’t want them to die. I’ve seen a lot of dead teenagers in a lot of horror movies but it’s rare I actually mourn their once-hopeful futures, but this movie did that to me.

Prom Night is a pretty middle of the road slasher movie. The killer’s not terribly inventive, the kills are mostly bloodless aside from one gag involving a severed head, and the mystery is pretty easy to piece together. If you want a weird, creative post-Halloween horror movie starring Jamie Lee Curtis then just watch Terror Train.

Prom Night (2008)

Prom Night 2008 is about Donna, a girl whose entire family was murdered by a teacher who became obsessed with her. He’s been locked in prison and Donna is finally coping with what happened, but on the night of her senior prom her dark suitor has escaped and will stop at nothing to make her his.

Is it a good remake?

We’re dealing with another remake-in-name-only. You’ve got a prom, you’ve got a killer on the loose, you’ve got loveable characters who suffer tragic deaths and that’s about all the connective tissue. With that said, yeah Prom Night is a good remake. It got shit for being gory and for not hiding the identity of its killer but that’s actually more effective because it’s not a matter of whodunnit but rather who’s going to be able to survive this because none of the main cast are expendible. They’re all unique and fleshed out characters who just want to celebrate their last big night together before they go their seperate ways, they love and care for each other and it’s a genuine tragedy when they start getting picked off.

Does it stand on its own?

Gods, yes. This movie is rated PG-13 but make no mistake, it’s brutal. Not only is the killer particularly violent in the way he kills people (with some help from the sound department with some cringe-inducing stabbing noises) but this movie is shockingly mean in who bites it and when, like Jack Ketchum novel levels of mean. For Prom Night, watching the people you love die and the movie sells that premise beautifully.

This film was directed by Nelson McCormick, who went on to direct the under-rated The Stepfather remake and features a pretty solid cast of actors. Brittany Snow is a very capable lead and she’s got a lot of help thanks to a pre-superstardom Idris Elba as a police detective who’s basically the secondary protagonist.

We fucked up, folks, this is a good movie.

Watch, toss, or buy?

Buy it.