Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil (1992)

***Four teens go to a cabin-in-the-woods to party (no, really)***

Released in early 1992, “Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil” is a slasher about a psycho priest who manifests stigmata and has a penchant for slaying fornicating teens. He escapes diocese custody in 1991 and returns to St. Basil Seminar, which has been converted into a vacation home. The only problem is that two teen couples have decided to have an alternative-to-the-prom celebration there.

The only two installments from the Prom Night series that are directly related are parts II and III, both of which involve the malevolent spirit of Mary Lou Maloney. Part I features a masked assailant and this one a crazy priest, who’s reminiscent of Marvel’s Foolkiller, which debuted some 18-19 years earlier. In any case, all four films (not including 2008’s “Prom Night”) are connected in that they begin with the 1957 prom at Hamilton High School, near Cleveland, Ohio (this location is clearly established in the original film, for anyone who cares).

The first half hour of “Prom Night IV” focuses on the local diocese and their problems with the cracked priest whom they secretly hold captive in the creepy cellar of a chapel or whatever. I thought this section of the movie was kind of boring but, at the same time, it was a nice change of pace. I liked how this installment returned to the more realistic tone of part I. The story perks up with the two girls, Meagan and Laura, played by brunette cutie Nicole de Boer and blonde tart Joy Tanner, as they prepare to sneak off to the remote summer house of one of their beau’s parents.

As you can see, the plot revolves around the conventional horror staple of the cabin-in-the-woods. The good news, however, is that this “cabin” used to be a monastery and so it’s a more interesting setting for the ensuing thrills than a rinky-dink cabin.

There are a couple of plot issues though. For instance, the priest doesn’t age a bit in 33 years. Even if he’s possessed by some supernatural force, this wouldn’t stop the normal aging process of the man’s body. I’m assuming that the producers simply didn’t have the funds for the make-up necessary to convincingly make him look like he was in his late-50s. So they said, “Who cares? It’s a friggin’ slasher flick.” Secondly, there’s a crank call that’s stereotypical in this genre and Meagan nonchalantly answers the phone even though the teens aren’t supposed to be at the house in the first place; and her boyfriend, whose parents own it, doesn’t object at all when he later finds out (maybe because he was focused on the matter at hand, lol).

The film runs 1 hour, 32 minutes and was shot in the Toronto area.

GRADE: B-/C+

**I wish someone would have delivered me from this snoozefest.**

I wasn't expecting a lot from this, but it still managed to disappoint me a little bit. Slasher flicks are known for being very simple and unpretentious movies that mostly offer entertainment and gruesome kills, which "Prom Night IV" mostly fails to provide.

In "Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil", two young couples decide to go on a romantic double date, after skipping their prom, for which they head up to a big secluded house that belongs to one of the boys in the group. There, they are chased by an insane former priest, Father Jonas, who has recently escaped from where he was being kept for 30 years.

My biggest problem with "Prom Night IV" is that the butchery takes a long time to happen and this is a mistake in a slasher flick. Let's see, for the first ten minutes (or so), we see Father Jonas, the bad guy. He really is an interesting character, with his intense gaze and his over-the-top demeanor. Later, we are introduced to the young characters, who, clearly, are going to be stalked by the aforementioned killer. During the second half an hour, the youngsters go into the house for their romantic getaway, where we see them getting intimate and, eventually, realizing that someone is lurking around. The kills are excessively delayed and end up happening after more than 50 minutes have passed and that's just a lot of time. So, the way I see it, "Prom Night IV" is not even that fun, which is something that a slasher flick should always be. They can be stupid, but the carnage should begin early.

The only potentially interesting aspect of this movie was never fully developed and it was barely even displayed during the first minutes. At some point, Father Jonas, the killer, begins to mumble something, like, 'Don't touch him, not there, he's too young...', which clearly idicates that Jonas was abused as a child. It is also heavily implied that Father Jonas was a homosexual, considering that he kisses two men before attacking them. I can only assume that the priest was dealing with an inner conflict, since homosexuality is heavily disapproved by the Catholic church, which eventually resulted in a state of self-hatred and aversion towards sex, as a result of the abuse that he presumably endured as a child. Too bad this was only merely even hinted. At some point, another character explains that Father Jonas was evil because he was possessed, so, in the end, it is not exactly clear if he was deranged due to his traumas or if he was, in fact possessed. Perhaps both things? I don't think the writers even bothered with all these issues, to be honest. Father Jonas actually appears to look exactly the same age throughout the course of... 30 years! If we go by the idea that he was possessed, this could explain why he never aged (either that or he uses a very effective anti-aging treatment).

Though I personally found it a little bit slow, "Prom Night IV" is not really a mess. The truth is that this movie has a good production value and plot-wise, it actually ticks all the boxes of a slasher flick. As for the acting, it is pretty decent for the most part. Nicole de Boer and Joy Tanner are very likeable, especially the latter one, who plays an irreverent catholic school girl (who looked like she was in her twenties, but that's okay). Then, of course, we have the kills. The body count is perhaps a little bit too modest for a slasher and the kills are just plain, but they're there. In the end, "Prom Night IV" is just one of those movies that don't really stay with you in any way, but it would be unfair to label them as "unwatchable"