Le Bal de l'horreur

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!"

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.

***Three Out of Ten Stars***

Where does one begin to try to explain what a complete debacle of a disgrace this film is? Right off the bat, you know you're in trouble when a film production needs eight different producers to get off the ground. This means you have eight different people pulling in eight different creative directions, even if they delusion-ally believe they're all headed in the same direction; they're not. I don't need to re-numerate all the negative aspects of this film which have already been posted on this web site. What I will say, is what a terrible shame Sony dropped $20,000,000 on this waste of a film. Imagine the long line of creative, budding horror film makers that would've jumped at the chance to work with a mere $5,000,000; and in turn, undoubtedly, producing a unique and artistic horror film creation. But instead of adding to the artistic ingenuity of the horror genre, Sony drops this pile of crap in our laps. Thanks for nothing Sony.

So, Prom Night was supposed to be a horror and thriller movie. I'm a big wuss and was scared to see this movie at the beginning, but upon seeing it, it is neither horror or thriller.

I was basically making fun of the movie in my seat because it was so predictable. You could predict what was going to happen next. The young actors were alright at playing their characters, but I'd have to say the killer was definitely at the top of the game - acting wise.

Yes, I'll give props for the plot because it was good, but it's not thrilling or scary. There were almost zero "jump-in-your-seat" scenes. So, don't waste ten dollars seeing it in theatres, wait 'til it comes to DVD.