'Prom Night' a PG-13 slasher that lacks thrills
This week's horror remake revisits a beloved Jamie Lee Curtis-led slasher movie from 1980, ignoring its two sequels as well as much of the initial film's template.
Viewers might get the feeling that the filmmakers, including TV-bred director Nelson McCormick, simply used the old title as an inspiration.
Sure, "Prom Night" had a more indicative name than other lesser vintage slashers (say, "The Prowler," "Madman" or "Just Before Dawn"), but a title is not enough.
Like the original, the remake begins with a flashback, commencing here with Ben Taylor's indie-electro cover of The Zombies' "Time of the Season" (even the music is recycled!). Teenager Donna (the "Hairspray" remake's Brittany Snow, who mainly registers emotion by clapping her hands to her mouth) comes home from a movie to find her father and brother murdered. Donna hears the killer still in the house and hides under the bed, only to helplessly watch as her mother is killed.
Turns out the psycho is Richard Fenton (Johnathan Schaech), a former teacher of Donna's who was romantically fixated on her.
Three years later, Fenton's in a psych ward and Donna, now living with her aunt and uncle, prepares for her prom. She's coming along, but still plagued with paranoia that Fenton is coming to get her.
Naturally, Fenton infiltrates the hotel that hosts Donna's outrageously expensive-looking prom. He picks off random hotel staffers and friends as he attempts to get the object of his unrequited obsession alone.
Meanwhile, detective Winn (Idris Elba of "The Wire"), who caught Fenton when he killed Donna's family, hunts for the unbelievably slick madman.
So, the original film's "mystery" killer is jettisoned in lieu of an identified madman.
His distractingly unmessy stabbings take place offscreen or are otherwise obscured to protect the film's PG-13 rating.
The only thrills left for this "Prom Night" are cheap startles and endless sequences where characters shuffle cautiously, calling "Hello? Who's there?"
It doesn't even have the camp appeal of the old movie's disco-era hair and clothing mistakes.
The flashy non-horror prom sequences are smothered by a constant barrage of pop and hip-hop music.
Although someone had the good taste to include Bloc Party, these scenes give "Prom Night" the gravity of a Disney Channel movie.
It's less modernized than sanitized.
"Prom Night"
1 star
Starring: Brittany Snow, Scott Porter, Jessica Stroup, Dana Davis, Idris Elba
Directed by: Nelson McCormick
Other: A Screen Gems release; Rated PG-13 (violence and terror, some sexual material, underage drinking and language); 88 minutes