Prom Night Deconstruction

Year of release: 2008
Director: Nelson McCormick
Budget: $20,000,000
Opening weekend,
USA: $20,804,941
UK: £507,85


Deconstruction of the opening two minutes.


Non-diegetic music- drum beat. White titles in a serif, cursive font on black background. The music/soundtrack then changes to a 'poppy' style music with lyrics. This stereotypes the target audience.
The scene opens with a high angle view of a stormy sea with choppy waves. It is twilight and there is a blue tint to emphasize this. The camera is at a flying birds eye view angle. It pans from the sea to the land, showing a well populated lake side city. The numerous yachts and prestigious, lit up buildings connotes that it is a wealthy town. The camera follows the car through the city using a range of shots and angles. 
There is a high angle close up of a girl through a car window. The girl looks in her teenage years, she is blonde and pretty (typical scream queen appearance). Side view shot showing she has a sad/worried expression on her face.  
The car pulls up outside of a house, the girl gets out and speaks to the driver. There is a two shot of the driver and a person in the passenger seat. The driver looks like the mother of the girl sat next to her.
The blonde girl converses with the driver and there is a shot reverse shot. The conversation implies something distressful has occurred and there is a mention of the girls going to cheerleading practice. This stereotypes the girls as popular American teenagers.
The two minutes ends with an establishing shot of the house she is stood outside of. It is quite big and tastefully done. This connotes that the owners of the house have well paid jobs.

Plot synopsis: Donna is preparing for her upcoming prom just like any normal girl except she lives with mental scarring and has frequent flashbacks to the night her family were brutally murdered by her teacher. Her obsessed teacher was locked up in prison but escapes on her prom night and hunts Donna down at the hotel, killing anyone who gets in his way. Her friends are discovered dead in the hotel and the police get word that he has escaped. Donna is told to go home; however, she is followed by the psychotic ex-teacher. She discovers her boyfriend dead in her bed and comes face to face with the killer. A policeman appears just in time and shoots the killer multiple times. Donna survives. 


Prom Night has influenced the story line of our coursework as our alternate ending includes a flash forward to Rachel (the little girl who was baby-sat) when she is a teenager. The story line is that she is still being stalked/hunted down by the babysitter killer. 


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0926129/