Prom Night (1980)
Hello Mary Lou: Prom
Night II
Prom Night III: The
Last Kiss
Prom Night IV: Deliver
Us from Evil
Prom Night (2008)
Prom is so overrated.
I didn’t even want to go to mine.
I only went my senior year (with someone I didn’t even care to go with)
because my mom wanted a picture. I hated
high school in general (I wasn’t exactly the most popular person either). Anyway, I decided to revisit the Prom Night franchise, even the 2008
remake I know I hated, enough to only give it 1 ½ stars out of 4 (when I used
to give star ratings) and to include it on my ten worst films of that
year. But, since I have OCD, usually
whenever I watch a film that’s part of a franchise, I like to watch all of
them, and sometimes my opinion on a movie may change over time (yes, even if I
remember hating it). The original Prom Night starring Jamie Lee Curtis and
Leslie Nielsen definitely isn’t my favorite slasher movie. I don’t hate it, but it’s kind of boring even
as a teen movie and the kills are too few, not starting until after the hour mark
(not counting the accidental death in the beginning). Hello
Mary Lou: Prom Night II introduces the titular Mary Lou character in a
story that’s totally different than the first.
This takes a more supernatural approach although there are deaths in a
body count fashion and it’s ultimately an example of standard (yet watchable)
Eighties cheese. It also tries to
emulate, not nearly as successfully, that best prom-themed film known as Carrie, the original one directed by
Brian De Palma. I do love that possessed
rocking horse; it always seems to stand out the most whenever I think of this
sequel. I always thought of Prom Night III: The Last Kiss as my
favorite entry in the series, but it’s still not the greatest film out
there. Sure, it may be flawed like the
rest of the films, but it’s a slightly stylish teen body count movie and I’m
particularly a fan of the ‘Prom Night in Hell’ scene at the end. Whereas my buddy and fellow queer, Ron
Oliver, he who directed several Are You
Afraid of the Dark? and Goosebumps
episodes among other things, wrote Prom
Night II, here he wrote and
directed. Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil takes place in the same
universe as the preceding two entries and concerns a seemingly possessed priest
that escapes a certain kind of confinement and ends up targeting a group of
four teens that ditched their prom.
There are an equal amount of bland kills as there are passable ones in
this entry, making it a typical slasher film that isn’t anything special (much
like the first film). Lastly, I hated
the remake probably as much as I did in 2008.
While the original film was largely boring, this one was as
by-the-numbers as they come. It was
bland, uninteresting, dull, unimaginative, uninspired, insipid, lackluster,
flat, stale, lame, you get the idea (I used as many synonyms for bland as I
could). And at least the original had a
bit of mystery with the whodunit aspect; here you knew who the killer was right
away and the kills were all predictable while lacking flair. Prom
Night (2008) is one of many examples
belonging in the definition of ‘unnecessary remake.’
In conclusion:
While it’s definitely not the best franchise out there (it seems like I
say that about a lot of franchises), it certainly has its place in the history
of horror cinema. I don’t think any of
them are spectacular and the only one I completely detest is the 2008
remake. One thing that is for sure, I
have more fun with these films than I did at my own prom that I don’t even
remember too much about; I don’t remember having any fun either. Fuck prom!
And high school! I would never go
back. 6/3/2020
---Sean O.
6/5/2020
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