Prom Night

Movie Summary

'Prom Night' is a classic horror with some slash genre aspects. The movie stars Brittany Snow and Johnathon Schaech. The film is about a young girl named Donna, whose family is murdered by an obsessed predator, who happens to be Donna's Teacher. What Donna doesn't know is that the deranged psychopath has escaped from the asylum and is intent on killing anyone who gets in his way.

Scene Summary

I've reviewed scene 17/18 of 'Prom Night', In which a friend of Donna's, Lisa is killed by the crazed stalker. The scene starts off with Lisa and her boyfriend Ronnie in a hotel room rented out for the prom. Lisa suddenly realizes the mystery man she saw in the hotel lobby is the killer and quickly rushes off to warn Donna. She is cut off by the killer and the chase begins. Lisa runs down the stairs into a construction site and hides. Her friends look for her as she has been nominated as Prom Queen and Ronnie was meant to purprose to her. Thinking the killer is gone Lisa runs, unfortunatley into the arms of the murder where she is gruesomely slaughtered.

Mise en scene

Lisa and Ronnie have black skin and are both dressed in dark blue, this gives them visibly common traits and helps to represent their boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. Ronnie is in a fully black waist coat and shirt with a blue tie and Lisa is in a long dark blue dress and has curled hair. The hotel room is bright and uses netrual colours. Ronnie and Lisa kiss while laying down upon the bed, Lisa runs off leaving Ronnie. He opens a small box with a ring to show that he was about to propose to Lisa. The killer finds her he is wearing a cap and very dull clothes to show mystery and coldness. She breaks her heel on the stair falls, the killer pulls out a curved knife that represents his twisted mind and spirit. He chases her into a construction site that has plastic wrapping on all the windows and furniture, a blue light flashes on and off. She trys the elevator but it doesn't open the shadow of the killer is cast upon the wall making her jump, he attacks her. Lisa falls as she gets to her feet her dress is ripped by the killer. She runs away closing two big wooden doors behind her. She is then swarmed by a flock of pigeons. She hides under a table with a plastic transparent sheet over it, the elevator opens and Ronnie is in it, he calls her then goes, she is unable to reply without alerting the murderer. The elevator has connotations of escape and freedom. A bright blue light flashes on the killers face as if unmasking him or confirming his identity. He goes or so Lisa thinks she runs out and down the hall, knocking over two canisters. She runs backwards sure that he is behind her, unfortunately running into his deadly lock, he slits her neck and blood splats up a plastic sheet showing she is most definately dead. The construction site has connotations of unfinished buisiness, as the killer is back to finish off the rest of the family by killing Donna. The site is also dark giving an evil mysterious sense to the scene and set.

Camera

-Establishing shot of hotel room
-Close up of Lisa as she realizes who the killer is
-Medium Long shot as she runs down hall
-Framed through glass window on door and key hole
-Close up of knife and ripped dress
-Point of view shot from killer and victims perspectives
-Foward tracking of Lisa's feet at low level during chase
-Shot through plastic sheets as killer walks away and when Lisa is killed
-Close up of Lisa's paniced face to express emotion
-Subjective Shots

Music & Editing

-Seamless Editing throughout
-Quick cuts
-Music tempo and volume increases when Lisa is being chased and is decreased when she loses sight of killer.
-Heartbeat as background noise throughout the chase
-Dialogue
-Bird noises
-Elevator noise
-Screams from Lisa
-Ambient sound of students talking at Prom and teacher on mircophone