(I skipped this one in the last list, so I'm making it its own post.)
Prom Night is a remake of an '80 Jamie Lee Curtis movie of the same name.
The plot features high school senior Donna Keppel, who witnesses the death of her family at the hand of her science teacher, who is obsessed with her. Fast forward a few years later, and she is preparing for her prom. The teacher has been in prison since the murders, but escapes several days before the prom. (How he knows the date of the prom or where Donna now goes to school is unknown.) As Donna and two other girlfriends are getting their hair done, taking pictures with their dates, and arriving to the prom in a limo, the teacher is on his way to the hotel housing the prom, coming after Donna. The group of 6 friends rents a room at the swanky hotel and make several trips to and from the room during the night. The teacher finds out what floor they are staying on and wreaks havoc by killing off lots of people, including the housekeeper, and the other two girls. The police finally notify Donna's aunt and uncle about the teacher and how Donna is in danger. The police crash the prom and evacuate the hotel, but the teacher sneaks out unnoticed in a concierge uniform. After killing nearly anyone else who stands in his way, including the police officer guarding the house Donna is in, the teacher gets into the house and finally has Donna in his clutches. Donna is saved by a very dramatic, last-minute gunshot by the commanding officer for the police department. Afterward, Donna presumably goes on to live a somewhat normal life and also presumably never wears a corseted dress again.
Even though this is a straight-out remake of the original Prom Night, I've never seen the original. From what I understand, like most remakes, this remake is a pitiful representation of the original. On IMDb, for example, the original has a 5.2/10 rating, while the remake has a 3.7/10 rating. Neither rating is really spectacular, but the original still has a higher one.
I'm not sure how I'd rate this movie on my own accord. It's a really straight-forward teen "thriller" with a little sex, a little jumpiness, and a decent soundtrack. I apparently liked it enough to purchase/request it back in '08, so I feel like that says something about it. Watching it the other day, however, I see why it may have such a low rating/fan following. It's not campy or anything, it's just sort of weak. IMDb lists a genre of this movie as mystery, even though there is no mystery to the movie past the first 20 minutes. We know who the killer is, and why he's trying to get to Donna. In addition, every cliche is used in this movie, from the token blacks getting 86'd to the main character forgoing their meds to the bad teen acting that's trying to seem "real." It's all there. I think that makes it entertaining, but it doesn't make it a good movie, by any means.
If I had to rate it, I'd probably give the movie something like a 4/10. Definitely not a stellar movie, but good enough for background housecleaning noise. I don't think you'll be scared to go to your prom after seeing it, though.
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