Synopsis: A maniacal killer stalks two young couples on the night of their prom in this fourth installment of the hit “Prom Night” series. After 33 years in captivity, a possessed man who is “evil beyond imagination” escapes and makes his way to a monastery he knows from his youth. But it is now a summer home where four teens are celebrating prom night in their own special way. The kids intended to make this an evening to remember… their uninvited guest turns it into a night of unspeakable terror that you’ll never forget!

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Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil 4.5

eyelights: it’s barely related to the rest of the franchise.
eyesores: its unimaginative development. its lackluster direction.

“Holy Father, help me save the sluts and the whores.”

After completing the story of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode in ‘Halloween II‘, John Carpenter and Debra Hill were approached to make another movie in the franchise. They agreed only if they could make a non-sequel. The concept: to continue the franchise with unrelated Hallowe’en-themed stories. Unfortunately, they made ‘Season of the Witch‘, a big load of dog poopie that failed at the box office. That idea died a quick death.

Peter R. Simpson, the producer of ‘Prom Night‘ got the same idea with ‘Prom Night II’, turning an unrelated story into a follow-up to his cult classic slasher picture. Somehow, ‘Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II‘ got a direct sequel of sorts in ‘Prom Night III: The Last Kiss‘ before Simpson decided to bring in an entirely new plot and characters for the fourth entry in the series, 1991’s ‘Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil’ – the last of the series.

In this movie, an entirely new villain is groomed for grandeur: Father Jaeger, an insane priest who decides to take it upon himself to kill off the town’s fornicators the night of the big prom. Coincidentally, it is 1957 and he prowls Hamilton High’s parking lot, savagely slaughtering a couple of kids who are getting off in the back seat of a car. The church quickly finds out and whisks him away, to be confined and kept out of circulation for the rest of his living years.

Flash forward 33 years, and a young priest is tasked with tending to Father Jaeger, who has been sedated and strapped to a bed all this time. He shows no visible signs of aging, but has grown his hair and beard. The naive new priest takes it upon himself to stop the injections, with the intention of ridding him of his evil ways by other means. Evidently, this very act causes Father Jaeger to return to full strength, break out of his bonds and go on a rampage.

Meanwhile, it’s the night of the big prom and a couple of Catholic schoolgirls a preparing for their big night out with their boyfriends. They are planning to head out to one boy’s summer home, unbeknownst to his parents of course, and spend the weekend partying. Little do they know that this home has been built on the remains of Father Jaeger’s former seminary, and that the superhuman killer is on his way back. Party til you drop, as they say.

And thus the stage is set for what turns out to be a pretty standard slasher-type film, complete with POV shots of Father Jaeger watching the kids as they make out and breathing heavily.

I’ve read some reviews that suggested that this was the best entry in the series. What a load of rubbish. Thankfully, I read this after seeing the movie, because my expectations would otherwise have been set too high. When I sat down to watch ‘Prom Night IV’, I expected diminishing returns – as one can almost always anticipate with horror sequels. In fact, I even postponed the viewing by one night because I didn’t feel mentally ready for it.

And yet, even then, ‘Prom Night IV’ didn’t pass muster.

There are a couple of interesting aspects to the picture, but they’re few. There’s the fact that the filmmakers were clearly attempting to start a new franchise villain in Father Jaeger, along the lines of Freddy, Jason and Michael. I appreciate the attempt and I do like the character, but the execution that sucks. Bad. I also like when two of the kids are outside, squinting to figure out what they’re seeing in the dark of night and then two crosses light up with victims on them. Nice.

There’s also the fact that, aside from Simpson, music composer Paul Zaza is the only notable continuing thread in the series. Here, Zaza serves up a surprisingly enjoyable score – one that pilfers quite liberally from Morricone’s ‘The Untouchables’ as well as from ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’. The only problem is that some of the music (especially the ‘Untouchables’-esque theme) simply didn’t fit the picture; it would be terrific on CD, but it was awkward in the picture.

That’s pretty much it. That’s what I enjoyed.

Beyond that, ‘Prom Night IV’ features the type of performances you can expect of the genre, poor scripting that often defies all logic, showy kills that aren’t all that interesting or clever, and very average direction overall – the supposedly scary moments, for instance, were so poorly staged that it wasn’t remotely chilling. It’s really nothing that you wouldn’t get out of any other low budget slasher picture; they’re a dime a dozen, and are unforgettable.

The film did leave me with a few questions, though:

• Like Michael Myers, why did Father Jaeger have supernatural strength? As far as we know, he’s a mortal man – even if the Church claims that he’s in league with Satan.

• Why did Father Jaeger not age one bit in over three decades? Was it due to limited make-up ability? Was it a slip-up? Or was this planned all along, but was left unexplained?

• How in the world did Father Jaeger get around so quickly? Like Jason Voorhees, he just kept popping up everywhere. And, somehow, he could get around this medium-sized house without crossing paths with the kids. Seriously, it wasn’t that big.

• How did Jaeger call from inside the house (in scenes that were reminiscent of the Canadian cult classic ‘Black Christmas’) without anyone hearing him? Could you even do that in 1991, anyway?

• How did he build up two crosses and crucify those two victims in such short a time and without anyone noticing? Was that part of his supposed powers? (kidding)

• Who makes crucifixes with a pointed end? I mean, I love that Father Jaeger took this cross from the wall and started to use it as a weapon, but why was it made this way in the first place?

• Why wasn’t there a sequel featuring Father Jaeger in it? It’s clear that the point of this film was to be the beginning of something, so why didn’t they carry on? Heck, even though I didn’t like the final product, I do like the core idea. I would have seen a follow-up out of sheer curiosity.

In the end, ‘Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil’ didn’t answer most of its questions, didn’t meet expectations and it didn’t deliver on its promises. But my only true disappointment, and it’s a mild one, is that it has nothing to do with Mary Lou Maloney: the third installment suggested another follow-up and I was curious to see where it would go. It didn’t. At least they tied the story in with the prom of ’57 and had the kids toast to Jamie Lee Curtis.

Well, here’s to Jamie Lee, without whom none of this would have been possible. For good or bad.

Date of viewing: April 28, 2014