The Sad State of Horror Films - Prom Night

Recently I had the unfortunate experience of watching the film Prom Night. The worst thing was that I wasn't expecting anything good from the film, so my expectations were basically set at naught. Which is usually a good thing, for when your expectations are low you can often be surprised by having the film play out to be better than you hoped for. Not in this case.

I'm not sure exactly how the script for this film received funding, or even how it reached number one at the box office. Quite simply, it is one of the worst films I have seen in a long long time. Not only does it employ a lot of techniques to try and build suspense and horror, it horribly fails to employ any of them well, leaving a predictable and stupid mess of a film that has no redeeming features.

The film starts off with our heroine whom I can't remember the name of returning home from seeing a movie with a friend. I can't actually remember any of the characters name, as they are never developed. She goes inside, and for some reason most of her family is dead. She hides under a bed, then sees her mother get killed by some guy who apparently is looking for her, and decided "Hey, she's not here, so I might as well kill her family to pass some time." Is this backstory? Nope its a stupid dream sequence, she wakes up. It turns out to be actually what happened awhile back. Suddenly she is going to the prom with her friends, and suddenly the deranged guy has predictably broken out of jail and is coming to get her.

On top of this extremely simple and predictable plot, the filmmakers/writers failed to establish any characterization whatsoever. What was the killers motive? Apparently he used to be her high school teacher and became obsessed with the main heroine for some reason. He shows his love by killing her family in an attempt to get to her. Of course this is logical, because of course she is going to go with him after such an ordeal. The heroine is also underdeveloped, and we are shown absolutely nothing about her personality or character, except that she is a blonde girl going to the prom with some guy, and that she is still affected by having her family killed by her teacher.

All the characters in this film are lifeless husks. You have the heroine with her couple of friends, and they have some boyfriends. You have the unmotivated killer, the chief of police with his helping hand, and the stupid hotel receptionist. No details are established about the characters, except perhaps for the most basic of human emotions. Frankly I don't care about some stupid high school kids who are graduating, and their old high school teacher who sneaks around in a baseball cap and has a knife.

Later in the film, during the prom, it is established that the kids have booked a couple of rooms up in the hotel the prom is being held at. The killer also has a room, and manages to get himself a master key. The film tries to throw as many excuses as it can muster for random kids to go upstairs into the room, to either be killed or scared by the guy creeping around. "I left my purse up in the room", "I'm mad at my boyfriend, I'm going upstairs to cool off", "We're both going upstairs, even though they're crowning the King and Queen of Prom and we know we're in the runnings and if we don't come back people will know something is wrong." It becomes more and more ridiculous each time they go up there. The worst part is when the police evacuate the entire hotel, and the heroine decides to go up to the room alone for some reason. It simply boggles the mind.

In conclusion I have no idea how this film has become so successful. Is this what the masses expect from films these days, or were they just tricked into seeing the film through marketing? Apart from a very basic horror plot, the film is lacking of any characterization or developed story. It uses a lot of gimmicks to try and boost up the suspense, but fails miserably. Please don't go see this film, it isn't worth your time or quite simply anyones time.