PROM NIGHT IV: DELIVER US FROM EVIL
*** Out of 5
Tagline- They Ditched Their Prom for a Private Party. Now It's Their Last Dance.
Release Date- May 13th, 1992
Running Time- 89-Minutes
Rating- R
Screenplay- Richard Beattie
Director- Clay Borris
Starring- Nikki de Boer, Alden Kane, Joy Tanner, Alle Ghadban
Released in 1992 Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil is the 4th and final film in the franchise (excluding the remake). The Prom Night series is sort of an anthology as only 2-3 connect and even those 2 films don't directly tie into each other except the Mary Lou character, any other connection is quite minor and basically you wouldn't need to see the 2nd part to understand the 3rd. While the original Prom Night was a slasher film and one of the first produced in the wake of the success of Halloween, the 2nd film Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II went in a different direction with the series and owes a bit to the Elm Street franchise. As mentioned outside of Mary Lou, Prom Night III: Last Kiss is its own film, but does continue with the more supernatural. Here with the 4th film, the Mary Lou plot is dropped and this part goes back to the slasher style of the original. The only real connection between all of the Prom Night films is they're all set at Hamilton High. I really can't confess to being a huge fan of the series and while I like the original and to me it's the best of the series, but I don't hold it in as high regard as other slasher fans. Even though I like the original, but it wouldn't be in my top 10 slasher films and I mostly enjoyed Prom Night II. The one thing I do like about the series is the anthology aspect as I like the idea of all these things happening within the high school. Prom Night IV is generally seen as the weakest of the series, though some list the 3rd film. But based on what I've seen, the 3rd would just edge out this one. I can't argue with the negative reviews for Prom Night IV since I don't exactly disagree with them, but I also feel Prom Night IV gets too many poor reviews. Prom Night IV is the very definition of a middle of the road film. I don't think it's as awful as some, but it's also not very good either. But I'm a little surprised at how many negative reviews are out there as this is basically an 80s slasher produced in 1992. You name the slasher cliche, no doubt Prom Night IV has it. Perhaps, that's a reason for the subpar reviews, but many slasher films have copied each other and the first 4 Friday the 13th films are more or less the same with 2 being almost a remake of the original. By the time the 4th Prom Night was released, the slasher film was basically dead. The peak of these films were in the early 80s and while by the mid-80s, the popularity was fading, but there was still enough life left for these films to be produced at a fairly high rate throughout the decade. There were still a few left trying to squeeze out one last cent, but the slasher film was basically dead until Scream was released in 1996. If Prom Night IV had come out a decade earlier I think while it still wouldn't be seen as a slasher classic, but I do think it would be better received.
In 1957 Father Jonas (Carver) murdered two teens on prom night and after that he's locked away by the church and heavily medicated. Flash forward to prom night 1992, Jonas escapes and sets his sights on 4 teens that ditched the prom to have a party of their own at a summer house.
The screenplay was written by Richard Beattie and his first writing credit was in 1987 with Blindside, which interestingly enough was directed by Paul Lynch, the director of the original Prom Night. Beattie would also write No Contest II also directed by Lynch. While most of Beattie's films aren't very well known though some may have a cult following, but his most notable work would be writing a few DTV films, which starred Steven Seagal, such as Maximum Conviction, Force of Execution, Mercenary: Absolution and Cartels. The writing for Prom Night IV is slasher 101 as it seems upon being hired to write the script, Beattie went on a slasher movie marathon as the script is strictly by the books and sticks to every slasher movie convention, which in someways is the scripts biggest issue as everything here has been done before and done better, but for me it does bring a sense of familiarity to the film, which rather than hurt, makes things a little more enjoyable for me. The characters are the standard ones seen in countless other stalk and slash films and aren't strong enough to carry the film during the lulls in action. Father Jonas also seems to have magical powers as simply by waving his crucifix he can start fires and one has to wonder why he didn't just do that to the characters he was after as in that case he would have killed them all. Most slasher films won't often be cited for strong writing with a few exceptions, but Beattie's script is no better or worse than the good bulk of these films released in the 80s even if it doesn't work as well.
Prom Night IV was directed by Clay Borris and if the writing was slasher 101 that best describes the direction as like the script, Borris as director sticks to every single slasher movie convention. The good portion of the films directed by Clay Borris are fairly unknown with really only Prom Night IV being the most notable. He's also directed a number of TV movies and TV shows such as several episodes of Forever Knight. Borris has also worked as a 2nd unit director on the already mentioned No Contest II and he also served that role on Wrong Turn. After a quick start with a fairly well put together death sequence, the film slows down and here Borris really doesn't get much going and while the script also falters a bit as characters are simply not strong enough to carry the picture, but Borris doesn't really set much of a tone and the pace does lag for a good portion of the middle as both the writing and directing rely on the standard slasher tropes, but there's never any feel of a real threat until Jonas shows up and despite a terrific isolated setting, Borris doesn't create enough suspense or tension, but at the very least at least to me, he does keep the film watchable even if never engaging. The good bulk of the action kicks in during the final act and Borris handles these scenes a little better, but again they just suffer from being done before and more effectively.
Overall Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil has its moments, but not enough to make this anything other than an average at best film. While I fully understand the negative reviews, but I also feel it's a little better than its reputation (though not by a whole lot). Nicole de Boer in an early role is solid, but her character is very much the definition of the final girl, but de Boer is solid in her role as is Joy Tanner as she brings a lot of spunk to the role and with de Boer is the main reason for me Prom Night IV remained watchable. The very same year this was released there was another film that has a couple of similar ideas and that would be Happy Hell Night, which despite being released in 1992 was apparently filmed around 1989, but Prom Night IV and Happy Hell Night have similar ideas, only real difference is Happy Hell Night aims for more comedy as the killer is a poor mans Freddy Krueger.
