Prom Night IV:
                  Deliver Us From Evil

Meanwhile, two teen couples - Meagan (Nicole de Boer) and Mark (J.H. Wyman) plus Laura (Joy Tanner) and Jeff (Alle Ghadban) - decide to skip their prom at Hamilton High and head to Mark’s father’s remote summer house - which coincidentally happens to have previously been St Basil Seminary. Despite escaping on prom night, Father Jonas doesn’t start hacking his way through the partying kids at Hamilton High but heads for some r&r at his old haunt. Only to - in a case of sod’s law - find partying teens there instead in ‘need’ of his very lethal ways of saving souls …
 
On the face of it, it seems an odd decision to not have Father Jonas wreaking havoc across the dance floor and through the halls of Hamilton High. It was presumably budgetary considerations that limited the second half of the film to the isolated country house with its handful of potential victims. However, despite a bit of a lull during its middle, PROM NIGHT IV: DELIVER US FROM EVIL does actually deliver some slasher thrills in its closing third. The film plays with some interesting concepts around repression and guilt - not to mention the result of religious zealotry taken to its logical extremes and church coverups. Intended or not, it is seemingly an exaggerated commentary on the old have sex and die adage - this time through a Catholic lens. The film’s most memorable scene has Jonas crucify two characters and set fire to them on massive crucifixes - which he either knocked up in five minutes or found hanging around the summer house. The film also flirts with a supernatural angle, but never really commits to it. Father Jonas appears to be possessed of some special powers, but the film doesn't really explain why he has become an angel of death - although it suggests darker motivations driven by abuse. Although again it is something it neglects to expand on. 

Father Jonas’ male model good looks are the polar opposite of the eerily similar Canadian killer priest slasher in HAPPY HELL NIGHT (also released in 1992) - which features a cadaverous vicar with a penchant for Freddy’esque one-liners. Jonas, however, prefers to fall back on the old misogynistic slurs under the pretence of saving souls; telling Meagan on the phone: “You’re a cocksucker and a fucking whore!” However, despite these elements, this is no DON’T ANSWER THE PHONE (1980). Rather it’s a popcorn slasher with a minor side helping of knowing five years before SCREAM (1996) went full post-modern on the slasher genre. No more so than in the scene in the limo when the two couples toast Jamie Lee Curtis as they bail their prom.
 
Nicole de Boer and Joy Tanner are likeable as the two friends who thumb their noses at their Catholic education and conservative social expectations. They have a girls-just-want-to-have-fun dynamic reminiscent of 80s teen cinema. De Boer has since enjoyed a long career in film and television and may be best recognised for her role in breakout hit CUBE (1997). This was North American Tanner’s first role and, likewise, she has had a long and varied career. J.H. Wyman and Alle Ghadban are much less fully formed outside of the typical depiction of horny bros, but are still pretty likeable regardless. Ghadban described his part to The Ottawan Citizen in July 1991 as: “… make love and die, which is every man’s fantasy.” In the same article, it says that Ghadban’s father’s Ottawa East Take Out Food store was decorated with posters from the film. J.H. Wyman was credited as Alden Kane in the film’s credit, but confusingly also went by the name Joel Wyner - and had previously attracted international attention due to his appearance in a Coca-Cola TV advert. He has since gone on to a very successful writing/producing career and as a musician who frequently collaborates with Daniel Ash of Love and Rockets/Bauhaus fame. 

The move back from more obvious supernatural and increasingly comedic territories with the first two sequels to a more straight-ahead slasher approach was made after PROM NIGHT III: THE LAST KISS (1990) underperformed at the box office. It was, however, still a big hit in Japan, US and Europe on VHS - which showed the franchise still had legs. Once again produced by Norstar, PROM NIGHT IV: DELIVER US FROM EVIL started filming in Toronto in February 1991 under director Clay Borris with a cast of relative unknowns. Some critics expressed surprise at the choice of Borris to direct a “teen screamer”, as he was better known for kitchen sink light comedies.
 
The film was released to Canadian screens a year later in late January 1992. As perhaps expected, mainstream critics were hardly enthused. The Toronto Star’s Catherine Dunphy had the knives out in her review. She snarked: “Deliver us from movies like this”.  The Standard newspaper dismissed it as an ”assembly line slasher”. The film was screened in Cannes in May 1992, where it reportedly gained good notices and sold well to foreign home video territories. It quickly hit Canadian VHS rentals in May 1992. Perhaps surprisingly, in the UK the film was released to tape shorn of its connection to the PROM NIGHT series as simply DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
 
The film’s ending left it wide open for a direct sequel, but the storyline wasn’t continued. However, in 1994 another Norstar production followed called THE CLUB which was originally prepped as PROM NIGHT V. Presumably considering the franchise had run out of steam commercially at that point it wasn’t released domestically as such - although it did get a release to some foreign territories under that title, including Japan. THE CLUB shares executive producer Peter R. Simpson (who produced the whole series) and a soundtrack by Paul Zaza who likewise contributed to all of the films in the franchise. The film - which also takes place on a prom night - even stars J.H. Wyman from Part IV; albeit as a new character.
 
PROM NIGHT IV: DELIVER US FROM EVIL was ultimately a victim of the producer's slackening confidence in the series, as its lack of scope and smaller budget attests. However, if you keep expectations in check, there is still a good time to be had here for slasher fans. Still, it’s a shame that - at the time of writing - despite being a production released to theatres in Canada it is yet another slasher movie currently languishing in standard definition and heavily cropped hell. 

BODY COUNT 8: 
Female 2 / Male 6

1. Female has her throat slit
2. Male is stabbed in the stomach
3. Male is garrotted
4. Male seen with his throat cut
5. Male killed (method unseen)
6. Male has his head crushed with bare hands
7. Female is burnt to death on a crucifix
8. Male is hit with a flying dagger

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