Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Nelson McCormick
Cast: Brittany Snow, Scott Porter, Jessica Stroup, Dana Davis, Collins Pennie, Kelly Blatz, James Ransone, Brianne Davis, Johnathon Schaech, Idris Elba
RunTime: 1 hr 28 mins
Released By: Columbia TriStar
Rating: PG (Some Frightening Scenes)
Official Website: http://www.anighttodiefor.com/

Opening Day: 24 July 2008

Synopsis:

Donna's senior prom is supposed to be the best night of her life. After surviving a horrible tragedy, she has finally moved on and is enjoying her last year of high school. Surrounded by her best friends, she should be safe from the horrors of her past. But when the night turns deadly, there is only one person who could be responsible... a man she thought was gone forever. Now, Donna and her friends must find a way to escape the sadistic rampage of an obsessed killer, and survive a night "to die for."

Movie Review:

Going by pop culture, prom nights are highly excitable nights where youths celebrate a rite of passage, get drunk and high, and pop their respective cherries. Or so we're led to believe by the countless number of teenage movies out there which marks it as THE Event for any self-respecting youth to attend. With such a big deal out of it, and to discourage decadent behaviour, we have the horror element put into movies, you know, where the non-virgin gets to be sacrificially knifed for the screen, and the profanity spouting teenager get his just desserts, often early in the movie.

This Prom Night had a relatively scary trailer which could frighten your five year old kid sister into submission, but the movie alas, will find her laughing hard at it. This is like the mother of all PG rated horror movies, with cartoony violence, and having its characters shed so little blood, you'd think that everyone's anaemic. Sure the killer knives his victims so mercilessly, but all you see are paper cut stains on dresses. And you'd probably swear at one more waking up from a dream, or one more magical appearance at windows / mirrors / behind the doors. It does get repetitive on your nerves, and makes everything else in the genre look like masterpieces in their own right.

Brittany Snow plays Donna Keppel, the resident scream queen, only that she doesn't get to exercise her lungs in fear that her dress will get into a wardrobe malfunction. She covers her mouth, smartly as she does when confronted by adversary so as not to give her position away, but depriving the sadists in us who come watch such movies to hear the heroine scream at every juncture. And while some characters here exercise street-smartness, there are those, including the cops, who fail to heed warning signals, or are too cock-sure and implemented plans that a layman would find fault with.

Prom Night had a really boring programme lineup, with rock and hip hop dance numbers played repeatedly one after another, and the only highlight of the event was the crowning of the prom king and queen, which to some characters seem like the be-all and end-all. In fact, this event is so revered that absolutely nothing, not even a killer-stalker on the loose, could warrant it to be cancelled, or have the would be victim pulled away to safety for fear of traumatizing her for life, because her prom night was marred by an attempt to whisk her from a psycho. Right.

In fact, this could have been a comedy or a spoof of the genre, and it'll probably garner a higher rating. Scenes just get glued together so haphazardly, that visits to the characters' suites seem like a must every 5 minutes. The Prom Night's at the hotel's ballroom, but the suites seem to be a more popular venue not for getting it on, but to go for the perennial toilet break, chit-chat sessions, patch-up opportunities, and of course, a very happening place to stuff bodies.

This movie had everything wrong from the get go with cardboard characters and a showing of hand so early, that out went any attempt to add suspense and tension. I'd recommend that this movie be skipped for sanity reasons, and for the targeted teenagers, you're better off organizing and attending one of your own. But of course if you're looking for cheap thrills and cheap laughs, don't say we didn't warn you of the cliche formulae applied lavishly, and the very low, almost bloodless body
count.

Movie Rating:



Review by Stefan Shih

(A disgrace to the genre and a bad name to Prom Nights)