Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Prom Night

Prom night is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. The title is similar to campy, but better movies. The story is dull and pointless for half the movie. The killings aren't scary or realistic. The killer looks like the Unabomber, but does nothing surprising.
A pocket knife is the uninspired choice for a killing weapon. And there are large plot holes. Apparently the parents of those kids don't care that their senior prom is being held at a friggin' hotel. I guess they don't mind surprise pregnancies and dropouts.
The dialogue is cheesy. The black girl got complimented on her looks so many times that I began to question the truth of those statements. The prom itself contained so much sickeningly sweet sentimentality that I left the theater in search of snacks instead of enduring the lame dialogue and melodramatic moments.
The prom was glitzy, and unnecessarily so. Despite comments that so-and-so spent a million dollars on it, I didn't buy it. Their prom looked like the academy awards. Perhaps if you're on the rich side of California, it may be similar, but it stretches credibility to the extreme, especially with the addition of a hotel. I've never been to a prom and I didn't believe this one. It was that bad.
Cheap shots were abundant. The killer wasn't scary at all, so I never got truly worried about them. The blood was minimal and fake, as if the director were trying to keep a PG-13 rating on a horror movie.
The scenes of boys and girls being together in hotel rooms made the plot holes obvious to everyone. A sensible parent wouldn't let this sort of mischief happen at the prom, unless they're a fan of unemployment and teen pregnancy.
Everyone acted dumb in the story, too. The hotel manager reacted slowly to the missing staff people, with no explanation. He obviously didn't look busy.
The killer was shown too many times, doing stupid things that made me pity the guy rather than fear him.
The cop was also slow. The info dump at the police station was irritating, even with interruptions. I've seen this same story framed better in other movies.
The female protagonist was dumb. You'd think, when an entire hotel is being evacuated under suspicious circumstances, she'd wonder if the killer was around, even if she were taking medication.
The killer didn't need to kill the guy sent to check on the maid. He could have easily told him a better lie or "I don't know," and go on his way. People aren't that clever, so he would have gotten away with it. That would have made it scarier.
If he posed as a cop, that would have been better, too. Or if he had worked with the cops. None of that happened, though. He was just an ordinary human killer. He wasn't even a terrorist or tied in with the government to give it that international thriller feel.
The preppie prom thing was annoying. The rock and roll soundtrack was inappropriate. The prom "scrapbook" looked like a movie company made it, which was cheesy in and of itself.
Too much screen time was given to the prom deejay, and he didn't even get killed.
The ending was a disappointment. The girl fought back a little and the cop magically pops in and shoots the killer. It's disappointing because she didn't struggle enough with the guy. It wasn't scary and I didn't worry about her that much.
Overall, it was campy, melodramatic and fake. I don't know who picks out these screenplays for production, but this is the poorest choice ever.

No comments: