Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil

I'd actually previously viewed Prom Night IV but honestly remembered little to nothing about it, which could have had to do with the generic plot, or maybe I fell asleep. Since it is currently free on Amazon Prime, I decided I'd give it another shot.

The extended opening sequence takes place in 1957 and concerns Father Jonas, a priest who sets out to punish "the sluts and the whores" in the name of the Lord, starting by killing two teenagers getting busy in a car outside of their high school prom. Despite the name of the film and the fact that the school is referred to as Hamilton High, this fourth entry in the Prom Night franchise is unrelated to both the first film (starring Jamie Lee Curtis) and the previous two entries (which revolve around the ghost of poor Mary Lou).

After his murders, the demented man of the cloth is discovered by his fellow priests at St. Basil's seminary where he apparently lives. The priests decide to send him to St. George's, a nearby church that appears to have some sort of underground prison, and this is where we find Father Jonas still living (in a catatonic state due to what is alluded to as being a failed exorcism and a heavy dose of sedatives) when the movie's action flashes forward to 1991. Needless to say, when a new priest (Brock Simpson, the only actor to appear in every entry into the Prom Night franchise, each time as a different character) is put in charge of Jonas's care, he fucks everything up, and Jonas escapes to wreak havoc on some unsuspecting "sinful" teens, who have skipped their prom (which appears to be occurring in the middle of winter?) to hook up and hang out at the former St. Basil's, now the family summer home of one of the teens. Yeah, I know right? And, seriously, though, they don't even attend their prom. Prom is barely even mentioned. The limo carrying the delinquent teens drives by the prom long enough for one of the boys to moon his classmates, and then they're off. Clearly, the prom is only mentioned in an attempt to link IV to the previous entries and cash in on the franchise name (not that the dough was exactly rolling in by this point in the series).

From there it's pretty much standard teen stalk and slash fare, as the priest makes his way back home and begins picking off the unsuspecting interlopers. And I'm not going to lie, it's entertaining. At least to me, but then, I've never been able to say no to a good old fashioned slasher, no matter how unoriginal. I also dig the early-90's fashions, but that could also just be my particular quirk.

The main problem with this film is that, for better or for worse, it really doesn't stand out in any way. The cast isn't terrible, but not particularly captivating either. The lone exception is Joy Tanner, who exudes personality as the goofy, but endearing, best friend. She has more personality than the other three leads combined (although Nicole de Boer as final girl Megan is fine), and there's something oddly sexy about her slight overbite and clearly bleached blonde hair.

If you're a die hard slasher fan (like me), Prom Night IV is worth a watch. It definitely fairs better than Happy Hell Night, a film it closely resembles, which came out in the same year and also featured a killer priest. While Happy Hell Night is almost unforgivably terrible, Prom Night IV features decent production values, and, while it's not the best I've ever seen, it's also not the worst. The killer's not scary, but how many slasher villains really are? All in all, not a bad way to kill an hour and a half.

Relatively low on blood and gore, but boasting a decent dose of nudity and sex. It's a fun time for the indiscriminate few.