Prom Night (2008 film)

Prom Night is a 2008 slasher film directed by Nelson McCormick. It is the sixth and final installment of the Prom Night film series. It is a reboot film, mainly taking inspiration from the original 1980 film. The film stars an ensemble cast including Brittany Snow, Scott Porter, Jessica Stroup, Dana Davis, Collins Pennie, Kelly Blatz, James Ransone, Brianne Davis, Johnathon Schaech, and Idris Elba.

The movie's score is composed by Paul Haslinger of Tangerine Dream fame.

The film was released on April 11, 2008, by Screen Gems. The film received negative reviews from critics for its lack of originality, screenplay, editing, direction, plot, and performances. Despite this, it was also a box-office success, grossing $20,804,941 in 2,700 theaters in the United States and Canada.

Plot
High school freshman Donna Keppel returns home one evening to find her father and younger brother have been murdered. She hides under her brother's bed where she then witnesses her mother stabbed to death by Richard Fenton, her former biology teacher who had become obsessed with Donna.

Three years later, Donna lives with her Uncle Jack and Aunt Karen. She and her friends prepare for their senior prom. Meanwhile, Detective Winn, who arrested Fenton three years earlier, learns Fenton has escaped from the mental hospital.

Knowing Fenton will come for Donna, Winn arrives at the hotel with his partner Detective Nash. Fenton breaks into the friends' shared hotel suite, where he first kills Donna's friends Claire and Michael. Later, Donna's other friend Lisa and her boyfriend Ronnie bump into Fenton on their way up to the suite; Lisa recognizes him but cannot recall from where. Soon, she realizes it is the assailant and runs to warn Donna, only to be trapped in the stairwell by Fenton. He chases her into the basement, where he slits her throat.

Winn finds the body of the man whose name Fenton has been using in his car trunk in the parking lot. Winn then goes up to the room Fenton booked and finds the housekeeper's body. As he has the hotel evacuated, Donna goes back up to her room to find Lisa and retrieve her mother's shawl, where she runs into Fenton and escapes. The SWAT team search the hotel but find no sign of Fenton.

Donna and her boyfriend Bobby are escorted back to Donna's house, where Winn orders back up protection. Inside, Donna discovers Bobby's throat was slashed. She retreats to her closet to hide, only to find Fenton inside already. He prevents her from screaming as Winn enters her room. They struggle; as Fenton is about to stab her, Winn shoots Fenton several times, killing him.

As Donna is joined by her Aunt and Uncle, Winn consoles her and tells her it is over.

Production
The film was originally announced in 2004 with the script being written by Stephen Susco. The final script was written by J. S. Cardone. The budget for the film was $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.

The film was mostly shot in Los Angeles, with overhead shots taking place in Newport, Oregon.

Release
Prom Night was released by Sony Pictures and Screen Gems. The film grossed $20,804,941 in 2,700 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #1 at the box office in its opening weekend and averaging $7,705 per theater. It grossed $43,869,350 in the U.S. and a $12,728,210 in other territories for a worldwide total of $56,597,560.

Reception
Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 9% based on 68 reviews. The critical consensus states: "A dim and predictable remake of an already dull slasher film, this Prom Night fails to be memorable." On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 17 out of 100 based on 12 reviews, indicating "overwhelming dislike".

Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "This is as listless, mindless and utterly useless a piece of corporate brain-clog as one is likely to come across for quite some time."

Home media
The DVD and Blu-ray Disc was released on August 19, 2008, in theatrical (88 minutes) and unrated (89 minutes) versions. Both formats contain deleted scenes and an alternate ending. It was released in Australia on Blu-ray and 2 Disc DVD Edition on August 27, 2008. In F.Y.E. stores in the U.S., the unrated edition came with a bonus disc called "Body Count: Investigating the Murders of Prom Night," a 22-minute documentary about the murders of various characters in the film, as well as various techniques the director used to make the murders scarier. The home media release also includes interviews with Nelson McCormick (director) and other members of the cast of the film.