Le bal de l'horreur 3: Dernier baiser avant l'enfer

Prom Night III continues with the Mary Lou storyline, but takes it in a lighter and more humorous direction. Mary Lou (Courtney Taylor) unleashes herself from hell using a nail file to cut the chains. It's from there that she begins to stalk a student named Alex (Tim Conlon). Her mission is to get Alex to be with her forever. There is just one thing standing in her way. Alex's girlfriend Sarah (Cynthia Preston). She starts to kill some of the people that get in his way for success. When he struggles in biology, she finishes his test and then turns his bio teacher into a human banana split. A guidance counsellor questions Alex's grades, so she kills her off using battery acid. This goes on and on and each time Alex has to dispose of the bodies by burying them in the football field. With Prom Night looming, the police eventually find the corpses and of course point the finger at our lead character. Will Alex escape and send Mary Lou back to hell, or will she claim her man and get rid of Sarah?

Prom Night III definitely has the best special effects of all the films in the series. The banana split murder in particular is pretty unique and visually well done. There is just something about this one that seems kind of cheap. It's like a cheap version of part II. The actress that plays Mary Lou in this one is different from the previous installment. She isn't as good as the Mary Lou from the second film. She was darker and more sinister in part II. In The Last Kiss, they try hard to make her seductive and humorous, much less evil and dark. The performance isn't as good.

I also don't understand the decision making from the lead character Alex. He knows this dead chick is killing all these people, and instead of telling anyone else, he just continues implicating himself by burying the bodies. This movie also has a 60's and 70's 'Grease' feel to it as well with Alex's leather jacket and the greased back hair. Prom Night III seems to suffer with a personality disorder. It tries to be funny, tries to be supernaturally spooky, and tries to add a bunch of different elements to it as well. It's all over the place and not as good as part II.

Mary Lou is completely different from the vixen we knew her as in "Hello Mary Lou". The ending is also very bizarre, but original at least. Prom Night III doesn't take itself very seriously, and neither do I.

5/10

"Prom Night III: The Last Kiss" is the third installment of the series, following Part II, which was virtually unrelated to Part I. Mary Lou continues her rampage again at Hamilton High School. This time, Mary Lou's ghost falls for a teenage football player named Alex. She begins appearing to him, and she seems to be able to give Alex what ever he wants, when he wants it. But what he isn't aware of is that Mary Lou is an evil spirit, and she begins killing off all of his enemies and rivals, and he ends up losing his girlfriend too. Since Mary Lou is a ghost and nobody can see her, Alex is the only link to the murders and he becomes the prime suspect.

I'm not sure if this sequel was intended to be scary or funny, because to me it was a heck of a lot funnier than it was scary. The whole setup of the movie is a bit random, and there are some genuinely funny scenes. Cheesy, but funny. Prime examples of this campy humor are when when Mary Lou appears to Alex at an ice cream stand in the biology classroom, and when Alex wakes up naked in the school and has to wrap himself in a flag. There are lots of gory scenes throughout the movie, but none of it is really taken seriously and the special effects aren't great. The acting was alright, and the plot was unrealistic. But it's what you would expect from a movie of this type.

Overall, "Prom Night III: The Last Kiss" is a campy but funny horror flick. It's not scary at all, it turned out to be much more funny than terrifying. It's an okay way to pass an hour and a half. 5/10.

if nothing else, you could tell the directors and actors were having some fun with it, not to mention providing a few of the funnier lines to come from a spoof splatter flick like this....

"honey, mental illness is a terrible thing, it can stay hidden for years and BANG! who knows what sets them off? you remember what happened to your father"

i'll agree that the plot could've fit into a peanuts strip, the canadian accents were a little thick at times, and that there's more than a small handful of complete disregards to the original. for instance, mary lou was originally killed in the 70's, however they've moved that back to the 50's so they could add the classic 50's rock n roll and killer wurlitzer jukebox motif.

and one last thing, their interpretation of hell, both thematically and visually was one of the funniest things i've ever had to fast forward through.

you know what though? rent it. watch it. it's as self-effacing as any scream movie without calling itself out for more cheap laughs.

This is very much a horror/comedy mixture (both genres being equally present this time, taking it a couple comedic steps further than the previous installment in the "Prom Night" series, "Hello Mary Lou"), and as such it's pretty entertaining. Our beloved Mary Lou character returns from hell, though played by a different actress (Courtney Tayler) in this sequel. She falls in love with average student Alex Grey and immediately goes on a killing spree for him, disposing of all the competition (like irritating jocks) and annoying high school teachers. A few amusing kills - not unlike the inventive ways of killing Freddy Krueger started to portray in the later "A Nightmare On Elm Street" sequels - and a funny ending make this one an okay, albeit silly 90 minutes time-waster.

Now I know I am likely in the minority here (based on ratings of each individual Prom Night movies), but I think this is the best and my personal favourite of the series. A sequel really to HELLO MARY LOU: PROM NIGHT II and not the original as Mary Lou Maloney returns for new blood at Hamilton High. Ron Oliver penned this script as he did in part 2 and co-directs with Peter Simpson who produced each Prom Night movie. Mary Lou is played by Courtney Taylor this time and is more angry, more violent and sexier than ever. This time she is after 'Average Joe' Alex Grey (Tim Conlon), who she starts setting his life up pretty well as long as he can just return it with love. Problem is she leaves corpses in her wake. Interesting, clever and original deaths along with a great sense of humor make this one I really have enjoyed over the years. It is more of a comedy-horror film. Also starring Canadian and former boxing great George Chuvalo as Alex's teacher Mr. Walker. Give it a chance and maybe you will enjoy it, too.