PROM NIGHT (2008)

Ah…the early 80’s. Horror movies were all the rage and the slasher film was in its heyday. Halloween, Friday the 13^th and COUNTLESS rip-offs (many of which were actually quite good) flooded the cinemas and home video Beta market. It was hard to distinguish one from another – except the ones which starred Jamie Lee Curtis. Terror Train and Prom Night are probably two of the better known horror/slasher films to emerge from this time. While Terror Train was an entertaining, old school “whodunit” murder mystery, with ample doses of blood and violence thrown in, Prom Night benefitted from the casting of Jamie Lee Curtis and not much else. To be fair, it was pretty standard horror stuff (even back then) – teenagers keep a secret and one-by-one they are hunted down and killed by an anonymous killer. Prom Night had some great scenes, a likeable cast and a great twist ending. While certainly not bad, it just seemed to come up a bit short.

Enter 2008 and the age of the remake. Since a great deal of success had been attained by reworking “classics” (most notably, horror films) for several years, Sony’s Screen Gems thought the time was right for a Prom Night redux. Given Screen Gems’ history of releasing “teen friendly” films which usually carried a PG-13 rating (often considered a death sentence for horror movies), fans sat in bewilderment as one of the underground classic slasher films was now being given the watered-down, “big-budget” treatment on the silver screen. However, I eagerly awaited the release of this redo - curious to see what would be done to remake the original which, in my opinion, wasn’t all that great to begin with.

While both horror fans and critics unanimously dislike this movie, I once again find myself in the very small (nonexistent?) minority that actually liked this movie. Much more than the (gasp!) original.

Even with the lack of any blood, graphic violence, or nudity, make no mistake – Prom Night (2008) is a great little thriller. The story is simple, yet effective; a mentally-disturbed teacher becomes obsessed with one of his students and follows her to the prom to kill all of her friends in order to be with her forever. That’s it. No overblown story with motives and contrived situations. That’s needed for certain horror films, but not here. Prom Night (2008) is a full-throttle horror film that never lets up on the action for its full 90 minutes. The cat-and-mouse tension is very entertaining, the kills are bloodless (but effective) and the characters are likeable. What’s more to want in a tamed-down slasher film? Not much - I really liked this one.

Stumble across the original 1980 version and the 2008 remake and torn between which to choose? I vote Prom Night (2008) – it’s the night to die for.

My Rating - 8 out of 10