Director: Matt Palmer
Year: 2025
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Preparing for their homecoming celebrations, a group of high school students fighting for the right to be Prom Queen on the night of the dance are whittled off one by one by a strange killer throughout the celebrations, forcing one of the students to try to save everyone by stopping him.
Review:
This was a fairly enjoyable teen-based slasher effort. Among the better elements with this one centers around the impressive setup for festivities taking place throughout here. Given a brief history about the cursed history of the town and how that atmosphere lingers over the class as they prepare for their celebrations, the personalities and behaviors of the candidates who are trying to campaign to be Prom Queen, what they’re each looking forward to about the special night, and the different cliques that are in place trying to get the upperhand in the voting. This is all incredibly fun and helps to bring together a great touch on the desire for popularity going against your morals with what depths they’re stoop to for votes, ranging from backstabbing friends, gossiping about others, purposefully setting them up to fail, or compromising moral judgement to engage in debaucherous displays designed to engage popularity at the expense of everything they held previously.
That gives everything a solid enough touch for the actual slashing to occur at the celebrations themselves, making for a generally fun time here. The traditional slasher aesthetics of employing strong, suspenseful sequences on stragglers hanging out around the outskirts of the Prom work quite well, with setpieces in the parking lot distracting a victim before sneaking up to strike them from behind, a setpiece in a classroom that knocks off a couple sneaking off for some fun, and a bathroom encounter involving a great reveal about the killer’s identity that comes together with the brutal, bloody kills throughout these scenes. As it all leads into the stellar assault at the crowning ceremony where the killer openly strikes others in the middle of the audience, hacking off limbs, decapitating others, and causing a slew of chaos that’s wholly enjoyable offering some fantastic stunts, graphic deaths, and some shocking revelations that make for a lot to like here.
This isn’t much to dislike here, but it does have a couple of drawbacks. The major factor holding it down is a highly underwhelming and problematic finale that features several big issues. The whole purpose for the killers’ rampage is absolutely ridiculous and utterly unbelievable as the motive for setting off the rampage like we’re supposed to believe is the cause of what’s going on, and when combined with the revelation taking place involving more than one responsible party following the same thing, it tends to come off incredibly lackluster. That this all comes about due to the extremely woeful final act that brings about the series of lame confrontations and overlong brawls trying to make it worth something is a big issue as well, featuring lame motivations and explanations from some generally unworthy action. The teenybopper attitude and atmosphere of the period might also wear thin on some viewers, ultimately leading to a decline in interest.
Overview: ****/5
An effectively enjoyable teen-centered slasher, this is a solid effort in the franchise that is a slight notch below the other entries, as the flaws here are just enough to keep it down there just slightly. Those with an interest in the subject matter in general, are curious about the continuation of the series, or are fans of the creative crew, will have a lot to like while most others out there should heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment