everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

"Prom Night IV: Deliver Us From Evil" is a serious (as in: no comedy touches) slasher that falls short in thrills & tension. Too bad, because it had a lot of potential. It's well-made, but severely dull in places. This time we have yet another stand-alone, unrelated sequel about a killer-priest (who is "evil beyond imagination") stalking & killing two couples in an isolated mansion. There are some supernatural undertones in the plot, but they are never explored. The budget on this production even seemed reasonably comfortable, as the cinematography isn't bad at all, often showing us some decent camera-movements on rails & even crane-shots. The acting is passable and the film opens really interesting. But then things fizzle quickly and the whole movie becomes uneventful. If they had simply amped up the body count & bloodshed, this sure could have turned into one of the unsung slasher gems from the early '90s. Now it just remains a curiosity for those interested in the "Prom Night" series. It's a strange franchise, to say the least, with this 4th installment presenting us yet again a different storyline. Interesting, but a failed effort altogether.

In 1957 deranged and dangerous Catholic priest Father Jonas (excellently played with frightening intensity by James Carver) kills two fornicating teenagers. Thirty-three years later Father Jonas escapes from the cellar of the church he's been imprisoned in and returns to the monastery from his youth. Said monastery has been converted into a summer home where a pair of teenage couples go to celebrate prom night. Director Clay Borris and screenwriter Richard Beattie craft an extremely dark and twisted slice'n'dice body count fright feature that benefits substantially from a grimly serious tone, a creepy mood, a steady pace, several gory and nasty murder set pieces, a smidgen of steamy soft-core sex, a considerable amount of tension, and a brutal and harrowing last third. Better still, there's no silly disruptive humor to diminish the severity of the in-your-face harsh and unflinching horror; Father Jonas in particular registers strongly as one extremely scary and vicious dude. In addition, the brooding religious angle gives the picture an extra sick and subversive edge. Nicole de Boer makes for an appealing heroine as the sweet and virginal Meagan; she receives sound support from Alden Kane as Meagan's nice guy boyfriend Mark, Joy Tanner as shameless slut Laura, Alle Ghadbran as the equally brash Jeff, Brock Simpson as eager young priest Father Colin, and Fab Filippo as Mark's bratty peeping tom younger brother Jonathan. Rick Wincenty's polished, agile cinematography keeps the camera constantly moving and boasts a handful of fluid tracking shots. Paul Zaza's spooky'n'shuddery score likewise hits the skin-crawling spot. A superior slasher horror outing.

Out of all the horror movie series I've seen, the Prom Night series takes the cake for maintaining almost no continuity in its films. The first of which was a simple tale of revenge; the following two contained none of the original characters and revolved around the ghost of Mary Lou Maloney: a wicked prom queen who'll stop at nothing to get her crown and the man she desires. While I enjoyed the first of these two films, it's hardly surprising that movie-goers have written them off as laughable and pathetic. Although Prom Night 4 bears no relevance to its predecessors, it gets its scariness from having a very dark villain who pulls no punches whatsoever even if the entire film is loaded with the most predictable horror movie clichés and contains no originality. When we first meet Father Jonas, he's praying fervently about his hatred for sluts and whores. Unsurprisingly, this hatred is what motivates him to kill two high school students making out in a car on the night of their prom. Fast forward 33 years later, Father Jonas isn't in jail but confined to small room beneath his church where his keepers rely on heavy sedatives to keep his evil at bay. Luckily for Father Jonas, a new priest has been assigned to look after him and he escapes by nightfall to return to countryside seminary he remembers from his younger days except now it's a summer home in which four thrill-seeking teenagers are indulging in sex and alcohol. Why not? It's their prom night! It's here that the horror-movie clichés are ubiquitous: for instance, upon their arrival the teens learn that the very secluded house has been burgled, but they choose not to call the police since they're not supposed to be there. The rest of the film features the murders of the two most promiscuous teens, calls to the police that are ineffective, and a lengthy game of cat and mouse in which Father Jonas chases Megan-the most innocent of the teens. Throughout it all, the priest maintains the same dark facial expression and goes about his rampage undeterred. If the effect isn't chilling than it's certainly gruesome, especially since the most undeterred villains in previous horror films couldn't have been human and either wore white masks and shredded coveralls or stalked their victims in their dreams. The fans of the Prom Night series who wrote off the Mary Lou storyline as crap will enjoy this film for being a simple slasher featuring rage-filled murderer, but so will all horror movie fans looking for a creepy and cliché-ridden thrill.

Routine sequel finds two teenage couples renting a vacation home for the weekend to hold their own private prom, but of course a priest has awakened from a coma and is out to kill the sexually active kids. No relation at all to the first three, it is better made then expected, but still this is no better then all the hundreds of slasher films out there. Rated R; Nudity, Sexual Situations, Violence, and Profanity.