Prom Night (2008 film)

High school freshman Donna Keppel returns home one evening to find her father and younger brother have been murdered. She hides under her bed where she then witnesses her mother stabbed to death by Richard Fenton, her former biology teacher who had become obsessed with Donna.

Three years later, Donna lives with her Uncle Jack and Aunt Karen. She and her friends prepare for their senior prom. Meanwhile, Detective Winn, who imprisoned Fenton three years later , learns Fenton has escaped from prison.

Knowing Fenton will come for Donna, Winn arrives at the hotel with his partner Detective Nash. After a fight with her boyfriend, Donna's friend Claire goes up to the friends shared room to be comforted by Donna, who later leaves Claire alone, both not knowing Fenton has broken into their room with a hotel maid's master key. Fenton soon finds Claire and kills her, and later her boyfriend Michael when he comes up to the room to make up with Claire. Later, Donna's other friend Lisa and her boyfriend Ronnie bump into Fenton on their way up to their room; Lisa recognizes him but does not know where she has seen him before. Soon after, she realizes it’s the assailant and flees the room to warn Donna, only to be trapped in the stairwell by Fenton. He chases her into the basement where he finds her and slits her throat.

Winn finds the body of the man whose name Fenton has been using in his car trunk in the parking lot. Winn then goes up to the room booked under the victim's name and finds the housekeeper's body. He sounds the emergency alarm and has the hotel evacuated. Donna quickly goes back up to her room to retrieve her mother's shawl, but runs into Fenton. After a short altercation, Donna escapes. Winn orders the SWAT team to search the hotel, but they find no sign of Fenton.

Donna and her boyfriend Bobby are escorted back to Donna's house, where Winn orders back up to keep Fenton away. Inside, Donna experiences a bad dream and awakens suddenly. She then discovers Bobby is dead after having his throat slashed. She sees a shadow in the hallway and retreats to her closet to hide, only to find it is Winn coming upstairs. Before she can leave, Fenton appears in the closet, prevents her from screaming and prepares to kidnap her. Donna begins to fight him and a violent struggle ensues. As Fenton is about to stab Donna, Winn returns and shoots Fenton several times in the chest, killing him.

As Donna mourns over Bobby's body and is joined by her Aunt and Uncle, Winn consoles her and tells her it is finally over.

The film was originally announced in 2004 with the script being written by Stephen Susco.[4] The final script was written by J. S. Cardone. The budget for the film was $20 million.[3] It was produced by Original Film and Newmarket Films in association with Alliance Films, which holds the rights to the original franchise, along with sequel rights.

The film was mostly shot in Los Angeles,[5] with overhead shots taking place in Newport, Oregon.[6]

Prom Night was released by Sony Pictures and Screen Gems. The film grossed $20,804,941 in 2,700 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #1 at the box office in its opening weekend and averaging $7,705 per theater. It grossed $43,869,350 in the U.S. and a $12,728,210 in other territories for a worldwide total of $56,597,560.[3]

Prom Night was panned by critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 9% based on 68 reviews. The critical consensus states: "A dim and predictable remake of an already dull slasher film, this Prom Night fails to be memorable."[7] On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 17 out of 100 based on 12 reviews, indicating "overwhelming dislike".[8]

Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "This is as listless, mindless and utterly useless a piece of corporate brain-clog as one is likely to come across for quite some time."[9]

The DVD and Blu-ray Disc was released on August 19, 2008 in theatrical (88 minutes) and unrated (89 minutes) versions. Both formats contain deleted scenes and an alternate ending. It was released in Australia on Blu-ray and 2 Disc DVD Edition on August 27, 2008. In F.Y.E. stores in the U.S., the unrated edition came with a bonus disc called "Body Count: Investigating the Murders of Prom Night," a 22-minute documentary about the murders of various characters in the film, as well as various techniques the director used to make the murders scarier. The home media release also includes interviews with Nelson McCormick (director) and other members of the cast of the film.

• Official website
• Prom Night at IMDb 
• Prom Night at AllMovie
• Prom Night at Box Office Mojo
• Prom Night at Metacritic
• Prom Night at Rotten Tomatoes