Forgotten Sequels: Prom Night IV

Prom Night is a magical night...to die!  After three years, I decided to finally do the Fourth film.  The Prom Night 'Series' is a weird one, that's for sure.  Prom Night is a well-made Halloween knock-off (that also Stars Jamie Lee Curtis).  Prom Night 2 is about a ghost of a girl from the 1950's trying to kill the children of the people that killed her.  Prom Night 3 features the return of said ghost, only now it's a Horror-Comedy and she kills Teachers to get the boy she likes.  Yeah, I should probably address that one in the future (especially since I own it now).  So, with that pedigree, what could Prom Night IV be about?  Well, it's about a killer Priest attacking kids on Prom Night.  So...yeah, they just kind of circled back.  It might be an interesting twist if they made the heroine the mother of Jamie Lee Curtis' character or if she turned out to be Mary-Lou.  Nope.  The scary thing is that this movie is most similar to a different, terrible Horror Sequel: Silent Night, Deadly Night 3.  Swap the villains out and you've pretty much got the same film.  To find out if there's any more to the film than that, read on...

A pair of teens leave the Prom to go have sex in the car.  I'm skipping about five minutes of pointless character build-up here, by the way.

Why is it pointless?  Because Father Murder (my name, not theirs...sadly) kills them.  That was...obvious.

In the aftermath, he's locked up by his Order and kept around until he can just escape.  Considering what they did with child-molesting Priests, this is pretty much par for the course.

Some vague amount of time later, a Priest is put in charge of keeping Father Murder sedated and locked up (since they don't kill him/ship him off to an Island).  Given that this is the guy's ONLY job, he fails at this and gets killed.

The rest of the film involves four of the 'teens' going off to a House to 'get busy.'  Thank God- it would have been a lot more work to show a real Prom...in Prom Night IV.

Naturally, Father Murder follows them there and...kind of meanders a bit.  I guess he has to build up his Rage Meter or something.

More likely, the film had to reach 90 minutes somehow.  *Sigh*

FINALLY he gets into action!  He attacks a Peeping Tom (who also followed them to the house, apparently.  To be 'arty' and what-not, the film cuts back and forth between a couple having sex and this guy being killed.

Oh and kudos for ripping off the Cannibal Holocaust.  It had only been ten years at this point.

The rest of the cannon fodder...I mean, cast, doesn't last a whole lot longer.  This really feels like Silent Night, Deadly Night 3 here, especially considering the same number of victims (3), the mysterious killer and a snowy environment.

You could have at least ripped off Silent Night, Deadly Night 2's 'Garbage Day' moment.  It would have helped you become more notable, at least.

Just like Silent Night, Deadly Night 3, our heroine is the lone survivor and seemingly stop the killer.  This time, it's with fire.

Of course, he does the 'I'm not really dead' reveal, which will lead to...absolutely nothing.  The End.

Seriously, you couldn't have ripped off a better Horror film?  There's a good reason that this film is pretty damn obscure.  It's got barely any identity of its own, even in the franchise.  The original Night was made in the early days of these films, so it gets some leeway in terms of not being that unique.  The other Sequels are crazy enough in their own ways to be notable.  This film was made in 1992, but feels like a barely-updated version of the original film.  It's a shame that there's not more to say about this dull, generic film.  It is so badly-paced that the pay-off is not really all that worth it.  The gore isn't bad at all.  It's not that great either though, so I can't really say 'It's worth it to wait for the good stuff.'  Even a tease of something more interesting here goes absolutely nowhere...  

Next up, a newer Horror film from Rob Zombie.  I come in with severe apathy, so let's see if he can change my mind.  Stay tuned...