What Do The Critics Say?

"Prom Night is infinitely better than the original (partly because it doesn’t feature a ten minute disco segment in the middle). It’s better paced and executed as a horror movie should. Sure, it loads up with cliches and has more fake jump moments than actual scares, but considering the target market is horny teenage boys trying to get a rise out of their dates, this is understandable. Lots of hot girls busting out of their prom dresses, played by women in their early twenties, so you won’t feel like such a perv." Kevin Carr FILM SCHOOL REJECTS "The film is full of creeping shadows, dark rooms and people asking "where's so and so gone?" Girls in movies like this really should avoid going into bathrooms because every time they close the door on that medicine cabinet someone is going to suddenly appear behind them in the mirror." Jim Schembri THE AGE "It’s all a bit silly and ruthless with one lovely young thing after another slashed to death. It’s not graphic at all, the filmmakers have opted for the ‘is he standing behind me when I close the bathroom mirror’ type of tension. Now for people who like the comfort of predictability with these films, this should suit them well." Margaret Pomeranz ABC AT THE MOVIES "A surprisingly effective teen-skewing thriller that soft-pedals graphic violence (in marked contrast to the R-rated 1980 original) while generating a fair degree of suspense. Well cast and solidly crafted, latest genre product from Screen Gems could strike B.O. paydirt if, as seems likely, it clicks with a target aud of teens and early twentysomethings including, of course, couples preparing for their own senior-year celebrations." Joe Leydon VARIETY

"Playing with the genre rather than offering serious gore, this revisiting of the 1980 thriller, ("Prom Night", with Jamie Lee Curtis), intertwines the teen slasher genre with a splice of the police procedural. The result is a snappy teen movie that's short and as sharp as the blade bloodied by its distinctively featured psychopathic killer. There's nothing new, mind you, and the formula might have been drawn straight from a manual, but it's well done and it is our imaginations that are encouraged to create the horror. Prom Night delivers pretty much what you expect with enough scares to satisfy but not to keep you awake til the wee small hours." Louise Keller URBANCINEFILE "Formulaic to the core, this reworking of the fondly remembered high-school slasher picture works surprisingly well on its own terms: The imperiled kids don't behave like complete and total morons, the police arrive when they should and do all the right things, and the killer isn't superhuman, he's a monster, but a human monster. Genre fans could do worse." Maitland McDonagh TV GUIDES MOVIE GUIDE "The best thing you can say about the eminently disposable Prom Night is that it wastes no time cutting to the chase. And the dude doing the chasing wastes no time in cutting up just about everyone who crosses his path. He is bonkers, he wields a big, shiny blade, and his name is Richard Fenton. Feel free to whack Prom Night on your so bad it’s quite OK list, if there’s a time and place in your life for such a thing." HERALD SUN "It's an old franchise but there are plenty of ahhs, gulps and shocks on show. There is no gratuitous violence or blatant bloodletting. The style is less is more, with the traditional roaming camera peeking over shoulders, shadows and reflections, curious bumps and noises, fleeting facial glimpses and judicious use of silence. Even the inevitables... don't detract from the disturbing scenario and the mean and nasty atmosphere." Stan James THE ADVERTISER MOVIE REVIEWS

The Inside Story When Marc Forby ("Teacher's Pet") and Neal H Moritz ("Sweet Home Alabama") & "Click")set out to make a film inspired by the 1980 thriller "Prom Night", their intent was to completely re-imagine the picture for a new, more sophisticated audience. The original film, which starred Jamie Lee Curtis at the height of her 'scream queen' notoriety, is one of the classic slasher films of that era, but Forby and Moritz envisioned a script in which the emphasis would be on suspense, with the gore toned down significantly. "In the post-Saw world, we've gone as far as we can with onscreen violence," says Forby, who, along with Glenn S Gainor, is executive producer of "Prom Night". "We went back to the classic, old-school thriller where the scares are really coming more out of, Where is the villain right now? Is he right there? Is he behind her?" Forby and Moritz, the producer of the blockbuster "I Know What You Did" franchise, as well as the recent box office smash, "I Am Legend", spent almost five years developing a script for Prom Night before finding just the right tone for their film. "Neal and I went through four sets of writers and every take imaginable on the story," says Forby. ""There were differing opinions on how to structure it: do you start the killings in act one of the film or do you save it for later? We even had a version where the children being killed were reincarnated souls of people who had done very bad things and karma was coming to get them. At the end of the day, we decided to do Prom Night as a classic, straightforward psychological thriller. Rooting it more in reality was a much more compelling way to go." When writer J.S. Cardone ("The Slayer" & "The Covenant") came on board, he found a vision that everyone was happy with. The result is a script that producer Toby Jaffe (" The Amityville Horror" & "The Quick and the Dead") describes as "very Hitchcockian. In a lot of classic Hitchcock movies, you kind of know where the threat is coming from. The fun for the audience is in seeing how the protagonist deals with it. We're with them, trying to figure out how they're going to get themselves out of this problem." Anticipation, notes Forby, is more frightening than overt violence. "One's imagination is far greater than anything any filmmaker can show you," he says. "Anticipation accounts for ninety-nine percent of the thrills in a classic horror film." To bring Cardone’s screenplay to the screen, the producers brought in acclaimed veteran TV director Nelson McCormick ("Nip/Tuck", "The West Wing", "ER" & "NYPD Blue"). "Growing up, I was heavily influenced by popcorn horror films like Halloween and Friday the 13th," McCormick said. "But what really scares me more are films that feel real. In movies like Deliverance and Dead Calm, the terror goes a little deeper because the situations are so real, and that’s where I wanted this film to be rooted." "Neal and I first spoke to Nelson a bout directing the film a couple years ago, and he was just remarkably well prepared," says Forby. "He even came with storyboards. He'd mapped it all out. It was purely because of that passion we hired him." Jaffe recalls, "He was meticulous about everything, even down to the prom clothes and prom music." McCormick, who co-wrote the feature film "Judgement" with David Winkler ("Finding Graceland"), discovered a documentary called "The World’s Best Prom" about a high school celebration in Racine, Wisconsin and what it meant to the community at large, as well as the students in attendance. "It follows the seniors and what they are going through leading up to the prom, and continues during and after their prom night." McCormick had the cast watch the documentary before filming started. "I gave it to the actors because I wanted to refresh their memories of the prom," he notes. "It’s a rite of passage, a coming of age and a very big deal for most kids. I wanted to bring them back to that time." "He really did his homework," says executive producer Glenn S Gainor ("The Man from Elysian Fields"). "He really studied to see what works: for example, a slow, creeping camera is very scary. You don't want to rush through a scare. You want to have a moment to breathe." Gainor also notes that "A lot of spectacular detail went into the production design and the camera movements and building in the scares. And there are subtle references to some of the best thrillers of the twentieth century. There is a moment where there's blood going down a drain. There are moments that remind me of Jaws, when something just passes across the screen and is gone. Just like a fin, but in our case, it's the killer." "One of the greatest things about this script," McCormick says, "is the crossover of genres: it’s a cop movie interwoven with a teen terror film. You have a detective who’s getting a second chance to bring a killer to justice. The killer is an obsessed man who is driven to insanity by a student he simply must have, to the point that he will kill anyone who stands between him and her." Adding to the palpable tension of "Prom Night" is the fact that while their storylines are inextricably intertwined. The three characters: Donna, Detective Winn and Fenton, don’t come together onscreen until the final, cathartic climax. "Our threat is a man who suffers from the same disorder that John Hinckley Jnr did with Jodie Foster," McCormick explained. "It’s called 'erotomania'. Our killer imagines a relationship that doesn’t exist. He imagines that this woman is meant to be with him for the rest of his life and he will do whatever it takes to make that happen. There’s something very human about it. Maybe not to that extreme, but we’ve all wanted something badly in our lives and have been driven to obsession over it. He’s not just a killing machine out to rack up a body count." Forby believes "It’s about an obsession, not the act of killing. Fenton is fixated on a goal and has to kill people that get in his way. It makes him a more interesting villain because it adds dimensions. There's a little part of you that can have some empathy." Hinckley Jnr, Mark David Chapman and Ted Bundy all served as models for the film’s villain, according to McCormick. "We felt there was a cerebral superiority to these guys. They’re quite brilliant and we wanted that mindset to be captured in the Richard Fenton character. If this were "Jaws", Richard Fenton would be my shark; if this were "Alien", he would be my creature." In casting Prom Night, the filmmakers needed to put together a microcosm of the archetypal high school social scene, complete with Good Girl, Queen Bee, Alpha Jock, Class Clown and more. To do so, they turned to some of Hollywood’s most promising and attractive new talents. Brittany Snow ("John Tucker Must Die", "The Pacifier" & "Hairspray") plays Donna Keppel, the object of Fenton’s obsession. "I can’t think of a better personification of goodness and innocence than Brittany Snow," says McCormick. "I don’t think you can care about these films unless there’s a character that you get invested in." "You need to fear for her and care for her," McCormick offers. "I think Brittany is someone you naturally want to protect and care for. There is something about watching someone as beautiful as Brittany is being attacked that just makes us fear." Unfortunately, Snow never made it to her Prom Night. "I went to the prom on TV in the sixties in "American Dreams", but I never went to a prom in real life. I was working the day of my high school prom." Working on "Prom Night" opened Snow's eyes to what is required when working in the genre. "Before this, I underestimated the people who do thrillers and horror movies,” the twenty one year old actress admitted. "I underestimated how much work it is. I feel like I really got to be a part of something very cool. As an actor, you are constantly in a heightened state in this kind of film." Idris Elba ("American Gangster" & "28 Weeks Later") was cast as Detective Winn, the police officer who arrested Fenton three years earlier. "He’s become close to the family, having suffered the trauma with them," says Elba. "He wants to look after these people and this town because he really cares for them. He takes it personally. And whether he'd like to admit it or not, he has a relationship with Richard Fenton." The actor chosen to play Fenton had to be able to walk a razor sharp line. "I wasn’t looking at Fenton as the boogeyman," says Cardone. Johnathon Schaech, who is usually cast as a lover, not a killer, was tapped for the role of Richard Fenton. "Johnathon brings a very interesting irony to the part," says Cardone. "He is an individual who people would be naturally drawn to, but he is driven by an obsession with this young woman. This is a really distorted love story." "Fenton is very charismatic, sort of like Ted Bundy," Schaech observed. "I read some books about Bundy, studied John Hinckley Jnr a bit and watched a lot of different thrillers to try to make the character a little more unique, more real, as opposed to making him a monster. Killers like Hinckley are obsessed people who may not know they are doing anything wrong, but are actually trying to reach out. That’s why Richard Fenton is so attractive. He comes from a place where he thinks he’s right." Donna’s best friend and protector Lisa is played by Dana Davis (TV'S "Heroes"). "She’s the girl everybody wants to be," says Davis. "She's popular. She's happy all the time. I mean, I want to be Lisa. In our movie, the killer is right there in your face. You see him. You know his name. I think that makes it so much creepier." Jessica Stroup who plays Claire, remembers: "I went to three proms. I was that girl who loved prom. I’m a Southern girl. I grew up in North Carolina, and I went to prom in once in junior year and twice in senior year." "I never got to go to the prom, which is something I regretted later on," says Collins Pennie who plays Ronnie Heflin. "What attracted me to this movie had a great deal to do with the fact that I didn’t get to go to my own prom." Kelly Blatz was cast as Michael. "My prom was exactly how it is in this movie. We had the big screen and the setup was just like it is in the film. Afterwards, we went to a hotel where we all got a huge suite on the beach and it’s all kind of blurry from there." Dana Davis made up a lame excuse to get out of Prom Night at Junior School. That trick failed for her senior year Prom. She recalls her date "won Prom King and was the superstar all night, signing autographs and taking pictures with the Prom Queen. I just sat there by myself, lonely and depressed, thinking wow, great prom: exciting." Synopsis

Donna Keppel prepares for her high schools Senior Prom unaware that the knife-wielding psychopath who murdered her family has escaped from prison and is on his way back to Bridgeport to finish what he started. Three years earlier, Donna was the only survivor of a murderous rampage by Richard Fenton, a teacher obsessed with her innocent beauty. After her parents took out a restraining order to protect her, Fenton broke into her home and slaughtered them, along with Donna’s younger brother. Donna survived the attack by hiding from the killer and her testimony put Fenton in a maximum security asylum for the criminally insane. As Donna and her friends Lisa and Claire party on, Fenton arrives at the hotel where the clebrations are taking place. Booking into Suite 304 he meticulously sets in motion his sick, murderous plan to claim his true love by killing anyone who gets in his way.

The Verdict "Except for one scene, "Prom Night", surprisingly reveals little blood-letting despite the high body count and the fact that all of psycho killer Richard Fenton's victims are despatched during either a frenzied stabbing or, by having their throats slit with a very evil looking knife. Fenton's task is made easier when, while booking into the hotel where the Senior Prom night is being staged, he overhears the number of the suite Donna Keppel and her friends have booked into. There's plenty of scary moments as innocent victims meet their fate at the hands of the criminally insane Fenton. The film plays on the fact that the lone survivor of Fenton's previous attack, still carries the scars of that night and has never fully recovered from seeing her mother murdered, right in front of her eyes. Donna is making every attempt to get on with her life but the nightmares keep coming back. The large audience of young cinema fans I sat in with were quickly drawn into what was playing out on the big-screen. Most probably, Like me, they were taking bets on who would be Fenton's first victim. What at first came across as pretty harmless 'fun', soon had everyone producing nervous laughs as the body count rose. "Prom Night" isn't a pretentious teen slasher flick. The filmmakers have kept it all pretty simple. "Prom Night" relies on the use of 'dark' moments, reflections in mirrors, spooky lighting and creepy situations none of us would want to find ourselves in. Moments that set of fear by reaching deep into that part of our brain that immediately sets us on edge and raises our adrenelin level, such as thinking you're not alone in a room when in fact you are, and then reversing the process with devastating effect. Sure we've seen it all played out before, but if you're a fan of the genre or can remember Jamie Lee Curtis and Leslie Neilson in the original 1980 production, you may as well see this re-imaged version too. Creepy fun! Recommended. 3 1/2 STARS." Who's Who?

Brittany Snow Johnathon Schaech Scott Porter Jessica Stroup Dana Davis Collins Pennie Kelly Blatz James Ransone Brianne Davis Kellan Lutz Mary Mara Ming Wen Idris Elba Jessalyn Gilsig Linden Ashby Jana Kramer Rachel Specter Valeri Ross Craig Susser

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Donna Keppel Richard Fenton Bobby Claire Lisa Hines Ronnie Heflin Michael Detective Nash Crissy Lynn Rick Leland Ms Waters Dr Elisha Crowe Detective Winn Aunt Karen Turner Uncle Jack Turner April Taylor Mrs Hines Officer Hicks

Run Time 88 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2008 - Sony Pictures - All Rights Reserved ©2008 All Rights Reserved - Protected by Australian, International, Copyright & Trademark Laws.