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(About Our Ads) "PROM NIGHT" (2008) (Brittany Snow, Johnathon Schaech) (PG-13) If you've come from our parental review of this film and wish to return to it, simply click on your browser's BACK button. Otherwise, use the following link to read our complete Parental Review of this film. QUICK TAKE: Horror: A high school senior's prom is ruined when the stalker who killed her family three years earlier escapes from a mental institution and wreaks havoc on her life again. PLOT: Donna Keppel (BRITTANY SNOW) is a high school senior who's still reeling from the murder of her family three years earlier at the hands of Richard Fenton (JOHNATHON SCHAECH), her former teacher turned obsessed stalker. Now living with her Aunt Karen (JESSALYN GILSIG) and Uncle Jack (LINDEN ASHBY), Donna is looking forward to attending prom with her boyfriend, Bobby (SCOTT PORTER), as well as their other friends, Lisa (DANA DAVIS) & Ronnie (COLLINS PENNIE) and Claire (JESSICA STROUP) & Michael (KELLY BLATZ). Little do they realize that rival student, Crissy (BRIANNE DAVIS), won't be their worst irritant that night. For it appears that Fenton has broken out of his mental hospital, meaning police detective Winn (IDRIS ELBA) and his subordinate, Det. Nash (JAMES RANSONE), not only put a watch on Karen and Jack's house, but also the hotel where the prom is taking place. But it's too late as the killer is already in the hotel, methodically carrying out his scheme to be reunited with Donna and dispatch anyone who gets in his way. From that point on, Donna and her friends do what they can to avoid the killer, all while Nash tries to find and catch him before he strikes again. OUR TAKE: 3 out of 10 Our new reviewing policy for films that aren't shown in advance to critics is that we'll only provide a paragraph or two about the film's artistic merits or, more accurately, lack thereof. After all, life is too short to spend any more effort than that on a movie that even the releasing studio knows isn't any good (which is why they hid it from reviewers before its release). Much like its exactly-named predecessor more than a quarter of a century ago, this film comes on the heels of a recent resurgence of horror pics. Not surprisingly, it also comes off as an unnecessary cinematic opportunist, hoping to make a quick buck from the renewed but now apparently waning interest in the genre. Beyond its current pop soundtrack, the film offers nothing new in the ways of scares, and is so standard-issue it easily could have come from the 1980s like the first flick. Bland characters and recycled boogeyman material mean this "Prom Night" won't be one looked back on with any sort of fond memories. It rates as a 3 out of 10. Reviewed April 11, 2008 / Posted April 11, 2008