Prom Night is a 2008 horror film from Screen Gems directed by Nelson McCormick and starring Brittany Snow. The film was released on April 10, 2008 in Australia, and on April 11, 2008 in Canada and the United States, followed by a worldwide release in May. It is a re-imagininghttp of a 1980 Canadian horror film of the same name.

Plot

In 2005, Donna Keppel (Brittany Snow) returns home to find her brother and father dead. She hides under the bed as Richard Fenton (Johnathon Schaech), her former teacher, killed her mother in front of her. Three years later, she has been in therapy and she tells her therapist (Ming Wen) about the recurring dream of that night.

Donna is now living with her aunt (Jessalyn Gilsig) and uncle (Linden Ashby), and is about to graduate from high school. She and her friends are getting ready to attend their senior prom that night. While at the salon with her friends, she thinks she sees Fenton watching her from across the street, but when a car passes, he's gone. Donna's boyfriend, Bobby (Scott Porter), arrives at her house, along with her friends Lisa (Dana Davis), Claire (Jessica Stroup), and their boyfriends, Ronnie (Collins Pennie) and Michael (Kelly Blatz). They take a limousine to the prom.

At the town's police station, Detective Winn (Idris Elba), who imprisoned Fenton three years ago, learns that Fenton has escaped from prison and warns Donna's aunt and uncle. At the prom, Fenton arrives at the hotel disguised as Mr. Ramsey, and takes a room on Donna's floor and kills the housekeeper to get the master key. On the dance floor, Claire has a fight with her boyfriend Michael and goes up to her room with Donna to calm down. After Donna leaves, Claire is alone and hears noises. She then sees Fenton, who proceeds to take Claire into a room, stabs her and kills her. When Claire doesn't return, Michael goes upstairs to see her. While in the room, Fenton hides, then kills Michael. Detective Winn arrives and warns the hotel staff to be on the alert. Fenton kills a hotel employee looking for the maid and takes his uniform.

Lisa and Ronnie head up to the room, Lisa bumps into Fenton in the elevator. While making out Lisa realizes that it was Fenton and runs off to warn Donna, but after taking the stairs she's caught by Fenton. She is chased down to the basement of the hotel where construction is taking place and she hides herself from Fenton, but after her boyfriend calls her name from the elevator, Fenton finds her and kills her.

Winn and his assistant Nash (James Ransone) find the body of a man named Mr. Ramsey in a car in the hotel parking lot. Winn goes up to the room and finds the housekeeper's body. Knowing for sure that Fenton is in the building, Winn sounds the emergency alarm and has the entire hotel evacuated. Donna goes back to the room to retrieve her mother's shawl and runs into Fenton. Realizing Donna is still inside Winn races back up to the room. Donna escapes Fenton, and Winn discovers the body of the employee Fenton killed earlier. Winn realizes Fenton left the hotel in the employee's uniform.

Winn now races back to Donna's house and finds Detective Nash dead in his squad car. Inside Donna returns from the bathroom to find Bobby's throat has been slit. She sees a shadow out in the hall and she hides in her closet, thinking the shadow is Fenton's. The person in the hall is Detective Winn and Fenton grabs Donna in the closet. Winn is about to open the closet but then hears a scream from Donna's aunt, from noticing the dead officer on the ground outside so Winn runs to her bedroom. Donna bites him on the hand and tries to escape out of the closet but trips on the floor. Fenton tries to hold her down but Donna continues to struggle and kick him. Winn runs in and shoots Fenton, killing him. Donna cries over Bobby's dead body and Winn tells her it's over.

Cast

* Brittany Snow as Donna Keppel

* Scott Porter as Bobby

* Jessica Stroup as Claire

* Dana Davis as Lisa Hines

* Collins Pennie as Ronnie Heflin

* Kelly Blatz as Michael

* James Ransone as Detective Nash

* Brianne Davis as Crissy Lynn

* Kellan Lutz as Rick Leland

* Mary Mara as Ms. Waters

* Ming Wen as Dr. Elisha Crowe

* Johnathon Schaech as Richard Fenton

* Idris Elba as Detective Winn

* Jessalyn Gilsig as Aunt Karen Turner

* Linden Ashby as Uncle Jack Turner

* Jana Kramer as April

* Ginsyn Crim as Young Tara

Production

The budget for the film is $20 million. It was produced by Original Film and Newmarket Films in association with Alliance Films, which holds the rights to the original franchise, along with sequel rights. It was released in the United States by Screen Gems, in Canada by Alliance Films, and in Australia by Sony Pictures. The film was shot in South Pasadena, California.

Critical reception

Prom Night was not screened in advance, and received mostly negative critical reviews. The main criticism is that it lacks any suspense or gore. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 8% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 59 reviews. On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 17 out of 100, based on 12 reviews. The film received little positive reviews.

Box office performance

In its opening weekend, the film grossed $20,804,941 in 2,700 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #1 at the box office and averaging $7,705 per theater.

In Australia, Prom Night opened at the #3 position making $854,514, just behind Superhero Movie and The Spiderwick Chronicles. In the United Kingdom, Prom Night opened at the #4 position making £507,985, just behind Sex and the City, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Superhero Movie. The film has a domestic gross of $43,869,350 and a foreign gross of $12,728,210 for a worldwide total of $56,597,560. It is currently ranked 14th on boxofficemojo.com's Horror Remake list.

DVD release

The DVD was released on August 19, 2008 in theatrical (88 min.) and unrated (89 min.) versions. It was released in Australia on Blu-ray and 2 Disc DVD Edition on August 27, 2008. In FYE stores in the US, the unrated edition came with a bonus disc called "Body Count: Investigating the Murders of Prom Night", which is a 22-minute documentary about the murders of various characters about the film, as well as various techniques the director used to make the murders scarier. Includes interviews with Nelson McCormick (director) and other members of the cast of the film.

References