Prom Night (2008 film)

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Prom Night
Directed by	Nelson McCormick
Produced by	Akiva Goldsman
Written by	J.S. Cardone
Starring	Brittany Snow Johnathon Schaech Scott Porter Dana Davis Jessica Stroup
Music by	Paul Haslinger
Cinematography	Checco Varese
Editing by	Jason Ballantine
Distributed by	United States Screen Gems Canada Alliance Films Australia Sony Pictures[1]
Release date(s)	April 10, 2008 April 11, 2008 June 06, 2008 June 05, 2008
Running time	90 minutes
Country	Canada United States
Language	English
Budget	$20 million
Gross revenue	$47,750,545[2]
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Prom Night is a 2008 American/Canadian slasher film from Screen Gems directed by Nelson McCormick and starring Brittany Snow. The film was released on April 10, 2008 in Australia, and on April 11, 2008 in Canada and the United States, followed by a worldwide release in May. The film is a remake of the original 1980 film of the same name, although the director said that the only similarities between the two movies is the title.^[3][4] The film is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for "violence and terror, some sexual material, underage drinking, and language."^[5]

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Release dates 5 Critical reception 6 Box office performance 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Plot

The plot summary in this article or section is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the article. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot.

As the film opens, high school student Donna Keppel (Brittany Snow) is in the car with her friend Lisa. They are driving home from the movies. When she goes into her house, she sees her brother dead. She then runs under her bed in her room because she hears the killer. She witnesses her mother murdered by Richard Fenton (Johnathon Schaech), a teacher at her school who has become obsessed with her. Three years later, Donna, about to graduate and living with her aunt and uncle, is in therapy and taking Klonopin (a sedative) to deal with the trauma of losing her family and her persistent nightmares. Donna, her boyfriend Bobby (Scott Porter), her friends Lisa (Dana Davis), Ronnie (Collins Pennie), Michael (Kelly Blatz) and Claire (Jessica Stroup) make plans to attend their senior prom together.

Meanwhile, Detective Winn, the police officer responsible for imprisoning Fenton, learns that Fenton has escaped three days before Donna's senior prom and decides to stake out Donna's prom.

At the prom, which is being held at the Pacific Grand Hotel, Donna and her friends get keys to a suite in the hotel. Fenton is already at the hotel. He gets a room in the hotel and kills the housekeeper to obtain the master key, then hides in Donna's hotel room. She hears noises and calls out but no one answers. She opens the door and Claire, who has been in a fight with her boyfriend, surprises her. Claire says that she will be back down when she fixes her make-up. After Donna leaves, Claire hears noises and checks to see if it is Donna. Fenton then grabs her around the throat, pushes her into the bedroom and despite her screams for help, she is stabbed and killed.

Detectives Winn and Nash, Winn's partner, find the body of a man named Ramsey supposedly registered at the hotel. It turns out that Fenton killed this man and stole his car, clothes and wallet to get a room.

Up in the suite's bathroom, Fenton is looking at pictures taken when Donna was in the limousine. Claire's dead body is lying on the bathroom floor. Michael comes into the suite to see if Claire will accept his apology. He sees the closet door closing while checking the bathroom but doesn't find Claire. He goes up to the closet and opens it and sees Fenton's face. Fenton jumps at him and stabs him to death.

Back downstairs, Donna, Bobby, Lisa and Ronnie are sitting at a table, and they notice that Claire and Michael have been missing for a while. The hotel reception can't contact their suite's maid so they get a employee to go and see where she is. He asks Fenton if he has seen the maid and Fenton says that she is in his room. The man goes in and Fenton kills him to obtain his uniform.

Lisa and Ronnie head up to the suite and Lisa bumps into Fenton in the elevator. She realizes that it is Fenton when Ronnie and her are having a romantic moment. She panics and says she has to get to Donna to warn her. She leaves Ronnie confused and frustrated because he was just about to propose. She runs out of the room and rushes to the stairs. While she is running down the stairs, her heel snaps off and she falls and hits the floor. She sees Fenton at the top of the stairs and runs down the rest of the stairs into a part of the hotel under construction. Lisa walks through the room and sees an elevator. She runs over to it and presses the button. She looks behind her, and Fenton is not there. She turns back around and he is standing in front of her. She screams and falls over, and then Lisa gets up and runs away, closing a door behind her. She hides under a table. Ronnie comes down in the elevator looking for her but she does not yell because Fenton is standing close by with a knife and would kill Ronnie if she did. Ronnie then goes back up and Fenton walks away. Ronnie walks up to Donna and says he can't find Lisa so Donna goes to look for her because Ronnie has to get on stage for the announcement of prom king and queen. Back on the construction floor, Lisa thinks Fenton is gone, so she gets out from under the table and walks towards the elevator. She accidentally knocks over some paint tins which create a lot of noise. She starts to run backwards, and backs right into him and he grabs her and slits her throat.

Detective Winn heads up to the room registered to Fenton's victim, (Mr. Ramsey). He is in there cleaning the blood off his knife. Winn doesn't find Fenton but he finds the body of the maid in the bathtub. Now knowing for sure that Fenton is in the building, he triggers the emergency alarm to evacuate the building and tells his associate to find Donna and put her in protective custody immediately. Downstairs, the prom king and queen are about to be announced when the alarm goes off. Detective Nash comes in and tells everyone to evacuate the hotel. Chrissy gets angry and snatches the paper from the teacher and sees that Lisa and Ronnie were the prom queen and king.

While everyone is leaving, Winn is looking for Donna, who is in the bathroom looking for Lisa. She comes out and asks what is going on. A guy tells her that they have to go outside. Donna left her mom's shawl in the suite and asks him to tell Bobby that she will meet him outside. Donna goes upstairs to retrieve the shawl. By now the whole hotel is outside. Donna enters the suite looking for Lisa and Claire but no one is there. She goes over to the closet and gets her shawl. While she is there, Fenton is behind her. When she goes to the door, Fenton is there. Donna cries and backs away, falling over a chair. She gets up quickly and runs into the bedroom, locking both doors. She looks through the peephole and sees Fenton. He gets a fire extinguisher and bangs the door with it, trying to get through. Donna screams and goes into the next room. Fenton has busted a hole in the door and enters the room, looking for Donna, who is hiding under the bed. Fenton first goes into the other room. Donna sees Claire's body next to her under the bed.

Outside, Detective Winn is looking for Donna and a guy tells him that she went back to the suite to get the shawl and Winn races upstairs. Back in the suite, Fenton picks up her shawl. He walks back into the bedroom and bends down, looking under the bed that Donna isn't under. Donna gets out and runs out of the room and runs into Winn and Nash. Donna is hysterical, distraught and crying. She tells them that Fenton is in the suite and Claire is dead under the bed. Winn searches Donna's suite for Fenton but he isn't there. Donna makes it outside safely. Ronnie is outside and asks Donna if she saw Lisa. Donna says no and tells Ronnie that Claire's dead. Nash drives her back to her house with Bobby. Winn and a police team search the hotel for Fenton but he is not there. They find Lisa's body on the construction floor. They tell Ronnie and he is distraught.

Donna gets home and hugs her aunt and tells her that it is all happening again.

Winn finds a hotel employee's body up in the ceiling and realizes that Fenton escaped wearing the hotel employee's uniform. He rushes back to Donna's house to warn her. He calls Nash, who is stationed outside Donna's home, on the way and tells him to get into the house. He sees that the house's phone line has been cut.

Donna goes to the bathroom and takes some pills. She looks behind her and sees that the window is open and shuts it. She goes back to bed. Winn arrives to find Nash dead in his car, throat slashed. In Donna's room, she thanks Bobby for staying. When he doesn't reply, she rolls him over and sees that his throat has been slit. She gasps and gets off the bed. She sees a shadow out in the hallway. Thinking it is Fenton she hides in her closet. She sees that it is actually Winn and is about to come out when Fenton, who had been hiding in the closet, grabs Donna and puts his hand over her mouth to stop her screaming. Winn does not know she is in there. He is about to open the closet but Donna's aunt screams so Winn goes into her room instead. As Fenton is about to leave the closet with Donna, she bites him and runs but Fenton grabs her leg and she falls over. She struggles and kicks him in the face and screams for help. Fenton is about to stab Donna when Winn comes back in and shoots Fenton several times, killing him. Donna gets up and goes over to Bobby's dead body, sobbing. She hugs Winn and he tells her that it's over. Her aunt and uncle then come in and take her out of the room, and the end credits roll.

[edit] Cast

• Brittany Snow as Donna Keppel
• Johnathon Schaech as Richard Fenton
• Dana Davis as Lisa Hines
• Jessica Stroup as Claire Haynes
• Scott Porter as Bobby Berberich
• Collins Pennie as Ronnie Heflin
• Kelly Blatz as Michael
• Brianne Davis as Crissy Lynn
• Jana Kramer as April
• Joshua Leonard as Bellhop
• Idris Elba as Detective Winn
• James Ransone as Dectective Nash
• Kellan Lutz as Rick Leland
• Rachel Specter as Taylor
• Ming-Na as Dr. Elisha Crowe
• Jessalyn Gilsig as Aunt Karen Turner
• Linden Ashby as Uncle Jack Turner
• Regina Ring as Alicia Keppel

[edit] Production

The budget for the film is estimated at $20 million. It was produced by Original Film and New Market Films in association with Alliance Films, which holds the rights to the original franchise, along with sequel rights. It was released in the United States by Screen Gems, in Canada by Alliance Films, and in Australia by Sony Pictures.

[edit] Release dates

• April 10th: Australia
• April 11th: United States & Canada
• April 24th: Singapore
• May 8th: Russia
• May 9th: Finland
• May 9th: Spain
• May 9th: Sweden
• May 15th: Argentina
• May 15th: New Zealand
• May 16th: Iceland
• May 30th: Italy
• May 30th: Lithuania
• July 18th: Turkey
• June 5th: Germany
• June 6th: United Kingdom
• June 6th: Central America
• June 12th: Netherlands
• June 25th: Belgium
• July 16th: France
• July 29th: Egypt
• August 8th: Venezuela

[edit] Critical reception

Prom Night was not screened in advance, and was heavily panned by critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 8% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 52 reviews.^[6] On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 17 out of 100, based on 12 reviews.^[7] The movie received an average score of 28.0% from 20 film critics according to Movie Tab. ^[8]

[edit] Box office performance

In its opening weekend, the film grossed $20,804,941 in 2,700 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #1 at the box office and averaging $7,705 per theater. In Australia, Prom Night opened at the #3 position making $854,514, just behind Superhero Movie and The Spiderwick Chronicles. The film has a domestic gross of $43,818,159 and a foreign gross of $3,932,386 for a worldwide total of $47,750,545.^[2]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official site
• Prom Night at the Internet Movie Database
• Prom Night at Rotten Tomatoes
• Prom Night at Metacritic
• Prom Night at Box Office Mojo
• Prom Night at Allmovie
• Trailer on Blogspot
• BrianOrndorf.com discusses the film's PG-13 content

Preceded by 21

Box office number-one films of 2008 (USA) April 13, 2008

Succeeded by The Forbidden Kingdom

v • d • e Prom Night film series Original film series Prom Night (1980) • Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987) • Prom Night III: The Last Kiss (1990) • Prom Night IV: Deliver us from Evil (1992) Remake Prom Night (2008)