Prom Night

Jun 8 2008 Sunday Sun

DIRECTOR: Nelson McCormick. CAST: Brittany Snow, Johnathon Schaech, Scott Porter, Dana Davis, Jessica Stroup, Collins Pennie, Kelly Blatz, Idris Elba, James Ransome, Brianna Davis, Linden Ashby, Jessalyn Gilsig. RUNNING TIME: 87mins. RATING: 15.

NOTICEABLY absent from this latest teen slasher flick are the full-on blood and guts scenes that are this genre’s hallmark.

Director Nelson McCormick’s remake of the 1980 Jamie Lee Curtis movie of the same name depicts a knife-wielding killer who pounces on his hapless victims and eviscerates their midriffs with a flurry of knife blows . . . yet the lifeless bodies bear almost no visible evidence of the attacks, in most cases just dainty trickles of red.

There are no gratuitous shots of a blade plunging into nubile flesh, nor scenes of torture.

Indeed, most of the slaughter is implied through sound effects as the camera focuses on a victim’s frozen scream, or it is glimpsed as a blurred refraction through a glass tumbler.

Scene of crime officers must be delighted with so little mess to mop up as the body count rises into double digits.

One victim even has the forethought to stand close to some tarpaulin as her throat is slit in order to catch the single arc of arterial spray.

Prom Night demonstrates a similar resistance to swearing — two utterances of “bitch” is as racy as it gets — and the sole bedroom scene is interrupted before any clothing is removed.

McCormick’s movie certainly struggles to earn its 15 certificate.

Three years after obsessed teacher Richard Fenton slaughtered her entire family as a twisted declaration of his love, Donna Keppel — Brittany Snow — continues to rebuild her shattered life with her uncle Jack and aunt Karen.

The evening of the senior high school prom beckons, and Donna and her boyfriend Bobby — Scott Porter — prepare for a night to remember in the company of gal pals Lisa and Claire, and their respective beaus Ronnie and Michael.

All six youngsters are blissfully unaware that erotomaniac Fenton has escaped from his maximum-security mental asylum and is heading back to their town to continue his reign of terror.

When detective Winn and partner Nash learn of Fenton’s escape they rush to the prom venue where death wanders the corridors in squeaky shoes.

Prom Night won’t be giving anyone sleepless nights.

The biggest shock is how often the youngsters blindly walk backwards into Fenton or, in Donna’s case, into inanimate objects such as doors and lampshades.

One death sequence relies on a hotel room with perhaps the world’s most poorly lit closet, and you can only marvel at the killer’s superhuman resolve . . . travelling the 2300 miles that separate him from his prey in just three days without a passport or money.

The good-looking cast wander to their doom with predictable regularity, while rich bitch classmate Crissy — who slates her boyfriend thus: “If he were any dumber, I’d have to water him!” — somehow manages to avoid the mortuary slab.

2 popcorns