STUDIO: Sony
RELEASE DATE: August 19, 2008
STARRING: Brittany Snow, Jessica Stroup, Johnathon Schaech, and Scott Porter
WRITTEN BY: J.S. Cardone
DIRECTED BY: Nelson McCormick
FEATURES: Unrated Footage Not Seen In Theaters
Deleted Scenes
Alternate Ending
Gag Reel
4 Behind The Scenes Featurettes
Director And Cast Commentary
And More!

The horror genre sinks lower than I thought it could with the abysmal Prom Night, a remake of a flick that wasn't that great in the first place but that looks like a genre masterpiece by comparison. The Blu-Ray edition of Prom Night presents one of those eternal dilemmas for a DVD critic - to review the film itself or the actual features of the package. Prom Night looks and sounds incredible. The technical specs are among the best from the current leader in the format, Sony. The package is BURSTING with special features, including unrated footage spliced back into the movie, deleted scenes that help a bit with some of the continuity problems in the film itself, an alternate ending, commentary track, and more featurettes. It's overwhelming and the actual production of the DVD can't be demeaned in any way. It provides fans exactly what they want. But the movie itself? Oh my, it's a stinker, one of the bottom five worst movies of 2008 and proof that you need not be a remake of an Asian horror movie to be a bad one. One Missed Call, The Eye, and Shutter were appropriately ridiculed as the trifecta of early-year junk from the horror genre. Shockingly, they're all better than Prom Night.

The remake of the Jamie Lee Curtis "classic" stars Brittany Snow (2-3 years too old for this role) in the Donna part. The movie opens with a scene straight out of the great kick-start to Scream - a blonde in distress - except not, you know, scary. Donna comes home to find the TV on but no one around. We soon learn that dad is dead and Donna discovers that so is her brother. She hides under the bed only to watch her obsessed teacher (Jonathon Schaech) brutally kill her mother. Three years later, Donna has just now recovered and is going to her Senior Prom on the same night that the man who killed her family escapes from a mental asylum. Cue the slasher routine. For around 90 minutes, we watch as Donna's friends get killed one-by-one, mostly in the suite that they've rented in the hotel that's hosting their prom. The Wire's Idris Elba co-stars as the cop who just might save the day.

Prom Night might have been so-bad-it's-funny if it recognized its '80s slasher movie cliches, but director Nelson McCormick seems intent on simply providing proof as to why they don't make movies like this one any more. The only suspense is in trying to figure out the order that Donna's friends will be killed in and the inevitable question of if the movie can provide one actual scare (it doesn't). There's a stunning lack of believability, character, or anything nice to say about Prom Night, so we'll cut this review shorter than most. Only the most hardcore fans of Brittany Snow, '80s horror, or Blu-Ray in general need apply and, if you're going to pick up a movie like Prom Night, please do so on the next-gen format. It will almost dull the pain.