Review of Prom Night (2008) by Abdullah A — 13 Jan 2010

These days in Hollywood, we can't seem to attain the certain entertainment we used to get from horror films. Alien, Halloween, The Exorcist, and countless other films used to scare us and keep us up at night.

In my personal opinion I think that that age is over. I've said it many times and I will say it again. Horror films aren't good anymore. What use to be a genre of trying to scare the hell outta audiences and make us scream is now an age where the film industry tries to get 12 year old girls to come to the theater and scream at every single of minute of the film.

This is what I like to call the "New Age of Horror". "Prom Night" is no exception. I have clearly stated why I am angry at the genre, and you have probably already guessed how this film plays out.

So let me just skip all of that and continue to the technicalities. First off, this film is a complete mess, and not just script wise. With pg-13 horror films, you have to be very careful in the way you kill your victims.

Some films manage to do it, but this movie fails. Every death in this movie is awkward beyond belief. It seems like they couldn't think of anything to do. The only really decent actor in this movie is Idris Elba, and you can already tell that he hates his lines from the first time he speaks in the film.

The cinematography is completely obnoxious. In specific scenes where the camera was circling around the main character, I got so dizzy. But again these are just speculations and no real things to complain about.

The real thing to complain about is the entire concept. Why do we see the killer from the very beginning? This is a terrible idea because it takes away the whole idea of mystery and suspense. I know I stated before that the script was bad so I want to redress that.

Scripts in horror films are usually bad. But this film had lines in the movie that shouldn't have been their. The actors, from my point of view, besides Elba, looked as if they were struggling with there lines, and this is understandable, considering they are all inexperienced actors.

But in any event, I still think that the film was a complete mess. Please Hollywood, please give us another good horror flick. If that happens, I will be SO happy.