Prom Night… Not The Best, That’s For Sure!

A 2008 slasher film directed by Nelson McCormick, Prom Night became a new hit. The film was a remake of the previous Prom Night film series, taking a majority of the inspiration from the original 1980 version.  Starring a large amount of actors, Prom Night was known as an amazing remake. 

After enjoying a night out at the movies with her friend, Donna (Brittany Snow) gets returned home by her friend Lisa (Dana Davis). Once pulling up to the house, the girls say their goodbyes, and briefly discuss Donna’s plans to not try out for cheer this year. Upon entering her house, Donna hangs up her coat and calls for her family. No response. Thinking she heard someone in the house, Donna turns around but sees no one. She begins to head towards the stairs, where she walks past the couch, and lying on the floor is her dead father, looking to be murdered by a cut to the throat. Donna does not see this initially, and walks up the stairs, tripping over her brother’s baseball bat. She takes the bat to her brother’s room, where she finds him lying on the bed. Donna begins to explain to him that she tripped over it in the hallway. Requesting he turns down the TV, Donna pokes him after a period of no response, where she reveals the slit in his throat. Letting out a scream, she hears running from her parent’s room along with a man yelling, “Where is she?!”. Quickly, Donna hides under the bed, and suddenly she sees her mother run into the room, with the killer, Mr. Fenton (Johnathon Schaech), who is Donna’s former biology teacher, right behind her. Mr. Fenton pushes the mother down, asking where Donna is. Informing him she doesn’t know, he hits her, causing her to lay flat on the ground. Asking her one more time, Fenton stabs the mother five times in the stomach. Witnessing her mother’s death, Donna holds in her scream. After some time, Donna realizes the killer has left the house, so coming up from under the bed, she runs downstairs to try to flag down a police car. Right before the camera cuts, Donna hears a voice in her ear saying, “I did it for us!”. Turning around, she screams as she realizes it was the killer. 

Starting out with a killing really set the tone for the movie. It evoked fear right off the bat, letting the audience predict what might happen next. This brought about more fear than horror, but these are types of movies that let you get in deeper. Experiencing your parent’s death is tragic enough, let alone having to watch it. This scene gave us the ability to form a connect with Donna right off the bat. It also kept you wondering and wanting more, as you have no idea as to why this family was killed. 

Later, Donna is now at her school psychiatrist’s room, and she just finished explaining the nightmares she has about the night her family died. Attempting to console her, the psychiatrist reassures Donna that the killer is locked up and far away. It is time for Prom, and Donna, Lisa, and Claire (Jessica Stroup) are at the beauty salon getting their hair done for prom. Like normal, the girls have their causal banter. Once the hairdresser is finished with Donna’s hair, she gives her a mirror to check it out. Suddenly, in the reflection of the mirror, Donna thinks she sees the killer of her family. Gasping and dropping the mirror, she looks behind her, yet she sees no one. 

This definitely brought in fear and creepiness, giving the sense that someone is watching you. This kept you in tune and made you want to pay more attention to see if you could catch the killer yourself. The fear in this pushed the movie along. 

Hours go by, and Donna is getting ready at her house for prom. As she walks into the bathroom to freshen up, she opens the medicine cabinet to put on makeup, when she thinks she hears a noise. Telling herself it was nothing, she screams when she sees the reflection of her aunt, thinking it was the killer. After they both had calmed down, Donna’s aunt asks her if she had been taking her anxiety medicine, when Donna replies no due to the fact that she feels as if they make her numb. Donna’s date, Bobby (Scott Porter), her longtime boyfriend, arrives at the house, where they two exchange flowers, take a few pictures, and head on their way to the dance. In the limo with all of her friends, Donna is having a great time going to the prom, taking bunches of pictures. 

Realizing it is now prom night, you expect something bad to happen based on the movie’s name itself. Donna’s repetitive “sightings” of the killer keeps the movie frightful and exciting. You are on the edge of your seat a majority of the time, and most of the movie has a dark tone, amplifying the fear factor. 

While the girls and their dates are at the dance, Detective Winn (Idris Elba), at the police station, is going over files when Detective Nash (James Ransone) comes in and hands him a fax. The fax claimed that the killer has escaped from prison. Once receiving confirmation that it is true, Detective Nash asks for the details. Explaining the background of the story and the obsession the teacher had with Donna, he reveals that she had recently been getting notes from him again. Ronnie (Collins Pennie), one of the girls’ dates, tells everyone he is going to get the key to the room they are staying in. When Ronnie reaches the desk, there is a man giving his information to book a room, explaining to the roomkeeper that his last name is Ramsley. Once the room is about to be booked, Ronnie requests his keys to room 312. After Ronnie walks away, “Mr. Ramsley” asks the roomkeeper to place him on the third floor as well. Returning to the girls, having no knowledge of the requests of “Mr. Ramsley”, Ronnie gives the girls their keys, where they then head up to the room to freshen up. Noticing that Donna and her friends are heading up to the room, “Mr. Ramsley” follows. After the girls reach their room, the man takes out his room key and cuts off the magnetic strip with his pocket knife. Claiming the room key stopped working to the housekeeper in the hall, he asks her to unlock his door for him. She obliques and enters the room. To distract her, “Mr. Ramsley,” asks for more towels. Upon her second entry, he grabs her, holding her mouth shut, and stabs her in the stomach. Stashing the body somewhere, he watches Donna and her friends head back downstairs. 

The fake name was very scary, as it made it seem like there was something bad on its way to happen. It just gave off very creepy feelings, as the man changed his room to be on the third floor because of Donna. Having him continuously kill also demonstrates how dangerous he truly is. This pushed upon your connection with Donna, as you were worried for her safety. 

Time goes by, and Claire and her date Michael (Kelly Blatz) have been arguing over leaving for college. Explaining her situation to Donna, Claire decides to go up to the room to just cool off. When she reaches the room, she heads for the bathroom, where she hears the door open. Calling out to see if Donna came up, Claire gets no response. She walks out to see if anyone is in the room, where suddenly she turns around and the killer stabs her in the stomach three times. Worried about why Claire hasn’t been back down, Michael decides to go up to check. When he arrives at the room, he thinks he hears Claire in the bathroom, telling her to come out. When Claire doesn’t respond, he decides to sit on the bed to wait for her. Hearing the door creak, Michael thinks it’s Claire, except, it was actually the killer, who pops out and stabs Michael instead. Down in the lobby, the person at the front desk explains that he can’t get a response from the housekeeper on floor 3 to another housekeeper. Reassuring the front desk worker, the housekeeper says he will check for her when he gets to that floor. When the housekeeper arrives on the floor, he sees the killer leaving Donna’s room, and heading for his own. The housekeeper asks “Mr. Ramsley” if he has seen the housekeeper recently, and he pretends that she is in his room making his bed. The housekeeper follows him in and is then stabbed as soon as he gets past the entrance. 

Everyone downstairs is talking about how long Claire and Michael have been upstairs, but it was just announced that it is time to reveal the prom king and queen! Ronnie decides it is a good time for him and Lisa to have some alone time, so they head up to the room. On the way up, Lisa bumps into the killer, who ducks his head quickly. Staring at him for a few seconds, Lisa tries to remember where she has seen that face before. Once in the room, they lay down, and begin making out. In the middle, Lisa suddenly stops, signifying that she is surprised and scared, explaining that she needs to go find Donna. Lisa runs out of the room, and tries to catch the elevator as fast as possible. Realizing she must take the stairs, she sees the door to the stairs open, with the killer walking out. Running to another set of stairs, she trips as she begins to get down them. Lisa runs to the base of the hotel, the construction level, trying to escape from the killer who has been following her. Thinking the coast is finally clear, Lisa runs to get to the first level, where she accidentally runs right into the killer, who slits her throat on the spot. 

A few minutes later, Detective Nash gets Detective Winn to follow him and a police officer to the parking lot. The police officer leads them to a car, where he opens the trunk revealing a dead body. Explaining the story of how a person ended up missing the day the killer escaped, the officer reveals the dead body is James Ramsley, the name of the person the killer checked into the hotel as.  Right before the king and queen are announced, Detective Winn sounds the evacuation alarm. As everyone is leaving, Donna tells Rick that if Bobby begins looking for her, she ran up to the room to get her mother’s shawl. When she reaches the room and is rummaging to find her belongings, she drops something. As she bends over to pick it up, the killer is right behind her, yet when she stands there is nothing there. As she closes the closet door, Donna sees his reflection in the mirror. He tells Donna how much he misses her, and Donna screams, running around the room, and locking herself in a separate part of the room. Grabbing a fire extinguisher, the killer breaks the door, causing Donna to hide under the bed, once again. Trying to scoot further from the edge, Donna bumps into something, Claire’s dead body. Trying not to scream, she lets out a small sound, which lets the killer know where she is. As the killer looks under the bed Donna is not under, she is given the chance to run. Once she escapes from the room, she runs into the Detectives, frantically explaining that the killer is in her room. They escort her outside, although they don’t see the killer in the room. Reunited with Bobby, they get into the police car, where Donna then explains that Claire is dead. 

Leaving Donna to be back under the bed was perfect to tie in the beginning of the movie. It suggested that more killing was to come. It also caused fear, as it is hard to fit under a bed, especially trying to then escape from that. These scenes have a lot of action, causing your heart to race. All of the factors kept the movie enhanced, and there was not much confusion, just worry. 

The Detectives bring in a SWAT team and search the hotel. The killer has not yet to be seen, but they notice blood dripping from Donna’s room, where they open the AC vent, revealing the dead housekeeper. The body falls out but has no clothes on. They realize that the killer took the clothes to act as a housekeeper to escape the police. Calling Detective Nash, Detective Winn explains that the killer escaped and he is on his way to Donna’s house. The house is completely guarded, and 20 minutes later, suddenly the phone lines to the house have been cut. Sound asleep, Donna and her boyfriend are in Donna’s room. Donna wakes up, and heads to the bathroom to take her anxiety medicine. Heading back to the room, Donna tries to hug Bobby, but he doesn’t move. Pushing him over, she notices the slit in his throat. Letting out a small shriek, she covers her mouth. Outside of the house, Winn uncovers that Nash is also dead. Winn heads into the house, and seeing a shadow, Donna heads to the closet. Realizing it is Winn, she begins to come out when suddenly, the killer grabs her and covers her mouth. Trying to escape his hold, Donna bites his hand and tries to run away. Failing because she fell, he regained control over her, and Donna started kicking and screaming. Hearing her yells, Winn came in right before the killer was able to stab Donna, and shot him dead. 

This movie was a great turn-on horror. It did not have the stereotypical running from a demon. Escaping from regular people seems to be more scary as it is something we could relate to more. It was easy to develop connections between the characters, making the movie more impactful. There was not a single time when there was no fear in my body. The scary sides were perfect along with the killing. One was not too much in comparison to the other. I would suggest this movie to everyone, as the fear is perfect if you want to get your heart racing.