Prom Night

Stars: Brittany Snow, Johnathan Schaech, Scott Porter, Jessica Stroup, Dana Davis, Brianne Davis, Collins Pennie, Idris Elba, Mary Mara, Ming Wen

Director: Nelson McCormick

A decent revamp of the (rather poor) 1980 slasher, this is one of those films in which everyone gets killed except the heroine, Donna (Snow, last seen as Michelle Pfeiffer's nasty daughter in Hairspray and rather curious casting here).

The other teens are all personable enough to make you feel sorry for the agony of their parents when they get slaughtered by the killer. He's Fenton (Schaech), who three years earlier was a teacher at Donna's school. Obsessed with her, he went berserk and killed her entire family before being committed to a facility for the criminally insane.

Now, on Donna's prom night, he's escaped. 'Don't worry,' her uncle tells his wife. 'There's no reason to believe Fenton's headed this way.' What planet does this man live on? That, though, is the silliest line in a film that otherwise works up reasonable levels of thrills and suspense.

David Quinlan

USA 2008. UK Distributor: Sony (Screen Gems). Technicolor.
88 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 1, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 02 Jun 2008