Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil (1992)

User Rating:

3.6/10   

Director:

Clay Borris

Writer:

Richard Beattie (writer)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

A religious fanatic stalks four teens he feels have transgressed the law of god.

Plot Keywords:

Priest | Murder | Psychotronic | Casual Sex | Female Nudity

Cast

Nicole de Boer	...	Meagan (as Nikki de Boer)
J.H. Wyman	...	Mark (as Alden Kane)
Joy Tanner	...	Laura
Alle Ghadban	...	Jeff
Kenneth McGregor	...	Father Jaeger (as Ken McGregor)
James Carver	...	Father Jonas
Brock Simpson	...	Father Colin
Krista Bulmer	...	Lisa
Phil Morrison	...	Brad
Fab Filippo	...	Jonathan
Colin D. Simpson	...	Larry (as Colin Simpson)
Thea Andrews	...	Louise
Bill Jay	...	Cardinal
Deni DeLory	...	Jennifer (as Deni Delroy)
Carolyn Tweedle	...	Sister Jude (as Caroline Tweedle)

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:M | Germany:18 | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Ontario, Canada

Quotes:

[repeated line]
Father Jonas: Join your slut.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Prom (#3.20)" (1999)

Decent

Prom Night 4 (1992)

** (out of 4)

Prom Night 4 tries to mix the slasher genre with a bit of The Exorcist, although in the end it seems more like a death threat to the Catholic Church than anything else.

The Killer: In 1957 Father Jonas (James Carver) suffers a nervous breakdown and begins speaking to God. He asks God for the strength to kill all the bad kids out there sinning by having sex before marriage. Father Jonas then picks up a knife and heads for Hamilton High School where the prom is being held. He finds two bad kids in the back of a car having sex so he slices their throats. When the Church finds out they lock Father Jonas in the basement where he stays for the next thirty years.

The Kids: Let's see if you've ever seen these type of characters in a horror film. Meagan (Nicole de Boer) is a Catholic girl saving herself for marriage but she's starting to think that maybe sex isn't a bad thing after all. Her best friend Laura (Joy Tanner) is a slut who tries to sleep with anyone she can. Meagan's boyfriend is a good guy who's willing to wait until she's ready to have sex. Laura's boyfriend is a dumb jock too stupid to know anything.

Thirty years after Father Jonas slaughtered the two sexual teens he escapes from the basement and heads out to finish God's work by killing any teens having sex. Our group of friends go to the prom, have a good time but then lie to their parents about where they're going afterwards and sneaks off to a house to party. Before long they are drinking alcohol and having sex, which means Father Jonas is there to make them pay for their sins.

Prom Night 4 is actually a decent little slasher that doesn't try to be anything more than a film full of gore, violence and sex. The one strange thing however is that it seems the director holds a personal grudge against the Catholic Church and at every other corner he is bashing them for something. You've got a conspiracy of hiding the killer who just happened to have been molested as a child. You've got the Cardinal covering up other murders by making them look like suicides. Why all of this is going on in a mindless slasher is beyond me.

Outside of the constant bashing we've got a decent little movie, which is better than the first and third films. It's full of your typical cliché characters, which have appeared in hundreds of these types of films. You've got the typical bad acting, bad script and bad direction, which makes some of these films so entertaining. The four characters are all silly enough to keep the viewer interested until their number is brought upon by the killer. The death scenes aren't too original but gore fans should be pleased with them. Overall, Prom Night 4 isn't anything original but it's bad enough to be slightly entertaining.