Prom Night (2008 film)
| Prom Night | |
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 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Nelson McCormick |
| Produced by | Neal H. Moritz |
| Written by | J.S. Cardone |
| Starring | Brittany Snow Scott Porter Jessica Stroup Dana Davis Collins Pennie Kelly Blatz James Ransone Brianne Davis Johnathon Schaech Idris Elba |
| Music by | Paul Haslinger |
| Cinematography | Checco Varese |
| Editing by | Jason Ballantine |
| Studio | Original Film Newmarket Films Alliance Films |
| Distributed by | Screen Gems |
| Release date(s) |
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| Running time | 88 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20 million |
| Box office | $57,197,876[1] |
Prom Night is a 2008 American horror film from Screen Gems directed by Nelson McCormick and starring Brittany Snow. The film is a re-imagining[2][3] of the 1980 Canadian horror film of the same name.
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Plot [edit]
In 2005, Donna Keppel (Brittany Snow) returns home from a movie date with a friend (Kayla Vermeulen) to find her father and brother have been killed. In terror, Donna hides under the bed, when she sees her mother struggling with Richard Fenton (Johnathon Schaech), a former teacher of hers who had become obsessed with Donna. As Donna locks eyes with her terrified mother, she witnesses Fenton murder her mother.
Three years later, Donna is now living with her Aunt Karen (Jessalyn Gilsig) and Uncle Jack (Linden Ashby), and is about to graduate from high school. She and her friends are getting ready to attend their senior prom that night. Donna, Lisa (Dana Davis) and Claire (Jessica Stroup) are getting ready at the hairdressers and Donna suddenly turn around to see Fenton but realises its just a vision. Hours later, Donna's boyfriend, Bobby (Scott Porter), arrives at her house, along with her friends and their boyfriends, Ronnie (Collins Pennie) and Michael (Kelly Blatz).
At the town's police station, Detective Winn (Idris Elba), who imprisoned Fenton three years ago, learns that Fenton has escaped from prison and warns Donna's aunt and uncle.
At the prom, Fenton arrives at the hotel disguised as a man named Mr. Ramsey, and takes a room on Donna's floor and kills the housekeeper to get the master key. On the dance floor, Claire has a fight with her boyfriend Michael and goes up to her room with Donna to calm down. After Donna leaves, Claire is alone and hears noises. She then sees Fenton, who proceeds to take Claire into a room, to stab her and kill her.When Claire does not return, Michael goes upstairs to see her. Fenton hides in the room's closet, but Michael sees him shut the closet door. Michael opens the closet and is thrown to the ground by Fenton, who murders him.
Detective Winn arrives and warns the hotel staff to be on the alert. Fenton kills a hotel employee looking for the maid and takes his uniform. Lisa and Ronnie bump into Fenton in the elevator on their way to the room. While making out Lisa realizes that it was Fenton and runs off to warn Donna, but after taking the stairs she is caught by Fenton. She is chased down to the basement of the hotel where construction is taking place and she hides herself from Fenton. Lisa hides and sees Ronnie looking for her. Lisa leaves her spot and makes a run for it, but when Ronnie calls her name, Lisa is caught and killed.
Winn and his assistant Nash (James Ransone) find the body of the hotel's owner in a car trunk. Winn goes up to the room and finds the housekeeper's body. Knowing for sure that Fenton is in the building under the name Ramsey, Winn sounds the emergency alarm and has the entire hotel evacuated. Donna goes back to the room to retrieve her mother's shawl and runs into Fenton and is attacked by him. Realizing Donna is still inside Winn races back up to the room. Donna escapes Fenton. SWAT and police search the hotel, but find no sign of Fenton. Winn discovers the body of the employee Fenton killed earlier. Winn realizes Fenton left the hotel in the employee's uniform.
Winn now races back to Donna's house and finds Detective Nash dead in his squad car.
Inside Donna goes to the bathroom and returns to find Bobby's throat has been slit. She sees a shadow out in the hall and she hides in her closet, thinking the shadow is Fenton's. The person in the hall is revealed to be Detective Winn and Fenton grabs Donna in the closet. Winn is about to open the closet but then hears a scream from Donna's aunt, from noticing the dead officer on the ground outside so Winn runs to her bedroom. Donna is attacked by Fenton and a violent struggle ensues. When Fenton is about to stab Donna, Winn runs in and shoots Fenton several times, killing him. Donna cries over Bobby's dead body and Winn tells her it is over.
Cast [edit]
- Brittany Snow as Donna Keppel
- Scott Porter as Bobby
- Jessica Stroup as Claire
- Dana Davis as Lisa Hines
- Collins Pennie as Ronnie Heflin
- Kelly Blatz as Michael
- James Ransone as Detective Nash
- Brianne Davis as Crissy Lynn
- Kellan Lutz as Rick Leland
- Mary Mara as Ms. Waters
- Ming Wen as Dr. Elisha Crowe
- Johnathon Schaech as Richard Fenton
- Idris Elba as Detective Winn
- Jessalyn Gilsig as Aunt Karen Turner
- Linden Ashby as Uncle Jack Turner
- Jana Kramer as April
Production [edit]
The budget for the film was $20 million.[4] 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. It was released in the United States by Screen Gems, in Canada by Alliance Films, and in Australia by Sony Pictures. The film was shot in the vicinity of South Pasadena, California as the location for Donna Kepple's home.Park Plaza Hotel (Los Angeles) was used as the location for Prom. The Yaquina Bay Bridge is shown in the opening scenes of the movie.
Critical reception [edit]
Prom Night was not screened in advance. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 8% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 59 reviews.[5] On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 17 out of 100, based on 12 reviews.[6]
Johnathon Schaech was nominated for the MTV Movie Award for Best Villain, but lost against Heath Ledger for his role as The Joker in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight.
Box office performance [edit]
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, despite harsh critical reviews. In Australia, Prom Night opened at the #3 position making $854,514, just behind Superhero Movie and The Spiderwick Chronicles. In the United Kingdom, Prom Night opened at the #4 position making £507,985, just behind Sex and the City, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Superhero Movie. The film has a domestic gross of $43,869,350 and a foreign gross of $12,728,210 for a worldwide total of $56,597,560. It is currently ranked 14th on boxofficemojo.com's Horror Remake list.
DVD release [edit]
The DVD was released on August 19, 2008 in theatrical (88 min.) and unrated (89 min.) versions. It was released in Australia on Blu-ray and 2 Disc DVD Edition on August 27, 2008. In FYE stores in the US, the unrated edition came with a bonus disc called "Body Count: Investigating the Murders of Prom Night", which is a 22-minute documentary about the murders of various characters about the film, as well as various techniques the director used to make the murders scarier. Includes interviews with Nelson McCormick (director) and other members of the cast of the film.
References [edit]
- ^ "Prom Night (2008) (2008)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2013-04-02.
- ^ "Prom Night: JoBlo.com's Upcoming Movies: Posters, Plot, Pictures, Cast, News". Joblo.com. Retrieved 2013-04-02.
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0926129/movieconnections
- ^ "Box Office Mojo". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2013-04-02.
- ^ "Prom Night Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-04-16.
- ^ "Prom Night (2008): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-04-16.
External links [edit]
- Official website
- Prom Night at the Internet Movie Database
- Prom Night at AllRovi
- Prom Night at Box Office Mojo
- Prom Night at Rotten Tomatoes
- Prom Night at Metacritic
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