Prom Night: Eine gute Nacht zum Sterben

Now I haven't seen the original version, but I can tell you that it's probably better than the remake. The movie's PG-13 rating takes almost all of the thrill and suspense out of the film.

The beginning of the movie starts off sudden, but afterwards there's a nice drought of action until the first prom killing. The PG13 rating makes the death scenes quite bland and boring. You won't see the victims actually getting attacked, but you'll see silhouettes and blood smears. That's about it.

The characters in the movie make it seem like you're watching a movie of The Hills. The girls are the classic "dumb blonde" stereotypes while the men are the typical "hard jock" stereotype. Any angst there is between the characters is very dry and holds no real meaning to the overall movie.

The plot is very predictable, I sat through the entire movie correctly guessing what was going to happen next and when something good was going to happen.

All in all, this is a good movie if you're looking for some good laughs, but overall don't expect to be extremely happy with the final product. Personally I'd wait for the movie to come out on DVD. If you've seen any other slasher film, chances are you could guess every next move in this movie.

Good grief I can't even begin to describe how poor this film is. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't expecting much to begin with. Let's face it, a PG-13 slasher flick is pre-destined to be missing the ummm... slashing, so no one should be surprised by the lack of gore. But it was the level of incompetence and cliché on display in all the other aspects of this movie is what really blew me away.

We have a protagonist who is quite simply so completely useless that you find yourself rooting for the bad guy. And here's a turnup for the books... SHE NEVER CHANGES - hence breaking the cardinal rule of basic screen writing - character development. If you think by the end of this film the poor little girl is going to turn around and finally kick some arse then think again.

On top of this, we're handed possibly the least intriguing (and definitely the least scary) killer ever to grace the genre. I'm not joking when I say that Dora the Explorer has scarier villains than this movie.

Finally, because all the potential for tension or gratuity is removed by the inept (and apparently thirteen-year-old) director, what could possibly be left to fill up 2 hours of screen time?

Closets, that's what.

Lots and lots of closets: big closets, small closets, mirrored closets, closets to Narnia, so many damned closets you'll not want to dress yourself for another year. In fact this movie should have just been called "CLOSET", and had a picture of a big scary coathanger on the DVD case. On the back it could have had a photograph of the audience falling asleep and a quote by Roger and Ebert - something to the extent of: "what the f*@! did we just waste our time watching!"

...let me count the ways.

1. A title-only 'remake' that pulls out every cliché in the slasher handbook.

2. A plot so predictable that it becomes quite pathetic.

3. A completely weak execution of all attempts at suspense or thrills.

4. A PG-13 rating that insures no gore, violence, or sex.

5. A villain that is not frightening or even mysterious.

6. A cast of characters that are so thinly written and stereotyped that we couldn't possibly care about them.

7. A lack of any effectively creepy atmosphere (much unlike the original Prom Night).

8. A script of dialog that's beyond poor - it's mind numbing.

9. A series of cardboard performances (not sure whether to blame the actors or the lousy aforementioned script for that).

10. A completely inept teen-targeted slasher remake that's not brave enough to attempt to have an imagination - or even to show a puddle of blood.

It's a no-brainer horror fans, save your money.

BOMB out of ****

I'm not particularly fond of remakes, or to steal the modern jargon "retellings", but this film truly peeved me off. The original Prom Night, while not in my humble estimation a masterpiece, still realized what it was... horror. There are some simple things to remember when making a horror film. Suspense is crucial to maintaining the interest of the audience. Sorry folks, but a white knuckle film this was not! The scares were cheap, and foreshadowed terribly. (A good example of scare which has been done to clichéd excess now, is the cat jumping out of the closet, followed soon there after but a now unexpected appearance by the villain of the film) This film couldn't successfully pull that off, so how could I expect it to fulfill any of the other conventions of horror film. There needs to be a likable hero or heroine. This film doesn't have one. The person I most identified with was the head detective. His calm demeanor, but level headed approach to the escape of a killer was what more films of this ilk should have. Common sense approach to events that occur. (If you're running from an Axe wielding psycho, you turn and sprint in the opposite direction. Not jog, whilst looking back ever three seconds, gaging the killer's progress, only to trip over every branch and inanimate object in your path.) If you friend disappears, you don't go looking for them alone. And if you suspect foul play you tell someone, not investigate yourself. These clichés are tired and well overplayed. In the horror genre in general, and in this film in particular.

I am so tired of these crappy movies being made for the teen audiences. I'm a teen and i hate these movies because its basically an episode of the oc with a few pop outs scenes. I also, like many people hate the PG-13 trend going on right now. Its simply not a horror movie with out boobs and blood, thats just the way it is. But i have to say that i have some hope for the unrated cut. But please, if you are a teen, grow some grapes and see an actual r rated horror movie, i don't care if you have to sneak in, i snuck in to see avpr. Also, i don't know why that there was not even one scary scene in the whole thing. Even though the remake of when a stranger calls was not very good at all it still had some great suspense in it.