The film starts with a flashback sequence in which Donna describes a recurring dream to her psychologist. This is where we find out that three years ago, Donna came home from the movies to find her father and brother dead and witnessed the stabbing of her mother. Through the ramblings of a detective downtown at the police station, we later find out that the killer was Donna's science teacher Richard Fenton, played eerily well by Jonathan Schaech (most famous for playing the principled lead singer of the Wonders in That Thing You Do!). The police officials talk about the journals that Fenton kept, outlining his obsession with disturbing sketches and proclamations of his love for Donna.
The back story of Fenton's infatuation with her was the most interesting and scary part of Prom Night. Had the film stuck to that as the main focus, it would have made for an excellent thriller. But the film seemed much more like a prom movie that just happened to have a psycho killer, than a psycho killer film that just happened to take place around prom. Again, bad decisions from the movie studio.
The prom sequences were painful to watch, and made the 88-minute movie seem much longer. From the cheesy scenes in the limo to the completely unrealistic red carpet arrival, the prom was nothing like reality. Instead, it seemed like you were watching an episode of The Hills. Snow and her co-stars had zero chemistry, as their high school banter seemed extremely forced and awkward. The residual "third friend" was the worst actress of them all and quite predictably the first to be killed. It was sad that the horrible young actors got more screen time than the more established actors of the film, especially Schaech, who was truly fantastic as the psychotic killer.
The moral of the story of Prom Night is that the PG-13 rating hindered it from being a pretty good horror movie. If you're interested in watching optimum prom scenes with little fright, by all means go see this movie. But my suggestion would be to stay in and watch your TV for free, because a few episodes of Law and Order: SVU and The Hills will give you the same idea. C-
2008 Woodie Awards
