Prom Night (2008), Film Analysis

Big Budget & Brittany Snow Don't Help Film's Lack of Scares

Mar 4, 2009

2008's Prom Night looks and acts like a low-budget horror film. Strangely enough, it's not. The film was actually created with a budget of $20 million.

Similar films of the last several years are The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Grudge. Both films were created with half the production budget of Prom Night, but grossed an impressive $187 million and $107 million, respectively, worldwide. Prom Night: $57 million.

What went wrong? Prom Night had a cast of hot young actors, including Brittany Snow. A story based loosely on the popular 1980’s film of the same name starring Jamie Lee Curtis. Prom Night also had Nelson McCormick, a director with a history of working with some pretty good television shows, such as ER and Nip/Tuck.

Despite all of these factors, Prom Night still managed to lose in the face off between it and the other horror remakes with similar budgets, such as Halloween, When a Stranger Calls, Friday the 13th, and My Bloody Valentine 3-D. Prom Night came in last at the box office compared to each of these films.

Prom Night actually began very strong in the theaters, raking in nearly $21 million, meaning in its first weekend, it made almost half of its U.S. gross. The amount of money a horror film makes when it first opens is important, because it’s common for horror films to suffer a decline after the second weekend. For Prom Night, word of mouth, combined with the decline, gave it a quick death in the theaters.

This “horror” film is rated PG-13, and while there were at least twelve people dead by the end credits, the amount of blood was incredibly minimal. The killer used a knife for all of the murders, but none of the victims actually bled out. In reality, most people who are stabbed die of blood loss. Even if Prom Night’s killer was lucky enough to stab in major organs or arteries, there still should have been a lot of blood.

The one saving grace of Prom Night is Brittany Snow. She’s not the next Meryl Streep, but at 22-years-old, the girl has demonstrated a wide range of emotions in her characters, and a desire to become a better actress. Snow has appeared in roles ranging from a racist on Nip/Tuck to a sweet, moral teenager on American Dreams. More recently, she researched her role as a stripper by going to clubs and talking to real-life strippers.

Prom Night can currently be found on the shelf at your local video store, where it is better off left. There are better horror remakes to choose from.

The copyright of the article Prom Night (2008), Film Analysis in Slasher Films is owned by Jennifer L Mashuga. Permission to republish Prom Night (2008), Film Analysis in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.