Le bal de l'horreur 3: Dernier baiser avant l'enfer

When I first watched Prom Night III: The Last Kiss, I thought it was a load of rubbish. Recently, though, I re - watched the film again and really loved it. I liked the humour in this film and found it to be entertaining. I take back what I said about it in my user comment on Prom Night IV: Deliver us From Evil. Actually, I like it more than Prom Night IV. The acting was okay also, as were the gore effects!

Prom Night III continues with the Mary Lou storyline, but takes it in a lighter and more humorous direction. Mary Lou (Courtney Taylor) unleashes herself from hell using a nail file to cut the chains. It's from there that she begins to stalk a student named Alex (Tim Conlon). Her mission is to get Alex to be with her forever. There is just one thing standing in her way. Alex's girlfriend Sarah (Cynthia Preston). She starts to kill some of the people that get in his way for success. When he struggles in biology, she finishes his test and then turns his bio teacher into a human banana split. A guidance counsellor questions Alex's grades, so she kills her off using battery acid. This goes on and on and each time Alex has to dispose of the bodies by burying them in the football field. With Prom Night looming, the police eventually find the corpses and of course point the finger at our lead character. Will Alex escape and send Mary Lou back to hell, or will she claim her man and get rid of Sarah?

Prom Night III definitely has the best special effects of all the films in the series. The banana split murder in particular is pretty unique and visually well done. There is just something about this one that seems kind of cheap. It's like a cheap version of part II. The actress that plays Mary Lou in this one is different from the previous installment. She isn't as good as the Mary Lou from the second film. She was darker and more sinister in part II. In The Last Kiss, they try hard to make her seductive and humorous, much less evil and dark. The performance isn't as good.

I also don't understand the decision making from the lead character Alex. He knows this dead chick is killing all these people, and instead of telling anyone else, he just continues implicating himself by burying the bodies. This movie also has a 60's and 70's 'Grease' feel to it as well with Alex's leather jacket and the greased back hair. Prom Night III seems to suffer with a personality disorder. It tries to be funny, tries to be supernaturally spooky, and tries to add a bunch of different elements to it as well. It's all over the place and not as good as part II.

Mary Lou is completely different from the vixen we knew her as in "Hello Mary Lou". The ending is also very bizarre, but original at least. Prom Night III doesn't take itself very seriously, and neither do I.

5/10

One of the few sequels in the series that's actually related to the previous installment which brings back evil prom queen Mary Lou for one more go as she tries to manipulate a high school boy into spending eternity with her in hell by murdering everyone close to him and making him look like a murderer. A concept like this could go either way - dark or comedic - and The Last Kiss decides to go mostly for the comedy even if it does end on a really sour, mean spirited note.

if nothing else, you could tell the directors and actors were having some fun with it, not to mention providing a few of the funnier lines to come from a spoof splatter flick like this....

"honey, mental illness is a terrible thing, it can stay hidden for years and BANG! who knows what sets them off? you remember what happened to your father"

i'll agree that the plot could've fit into a peanuts strip, the canadian accents were a little thick at times, and that there's more than a small handful of complete disregards to the original. for instance, mary lou was originally killed in the 70's, however they've moved that back to the 50's so they could add the classic 50's rock n roll and killer wurlitzer jukebox motif.

and one last thing, their interpretation of hell, both thematically and visually was one of the funniest things i've ever had to fast forward through.

you know what though? rent it. watch it. it's as self-effacing as any scream movie without calling itself out for more cheap laughs.

"Prom Night II: Hello Mary Lou" is one of my absolute favorite guilty pleasure slashers of the 80s, and my nostalgic love for that film undoubtedly contributed to me being a lot more tolerant and forgiving towards part III. "The Last Kiss" is a much worse film, but still vastly enjoyable and recommended to fans of late 80s/early 90s slashers.

"Hello Mary Lou" was a genuine slasher with a couple of comical touches. "The Last Kiss" is an out-and-out comedy with a handful of noteworthy slasher moments. Mary Lou resurrects again in the dungeons of Hamilton High, although this time in the luscious body of Courtney Taylor. Taylor is a prettier actress than Lisa Schrage - in my humble opinion, at least - but the latter had a lot more evil-witch charisma. Mary Lou takes control over the average-on-all-levels student Alex Grey, and her influence promptly turns him into a grade-A student and the best quarterback in the football team. Whoever questions Alex sudden progress, teacher or student, dies in horrible freak-accidents.

The kills in "Prom Night III" are gory, juicy, and sardonic, but not the least bit shocking. There's a teacher who gets impaled by ice cream cones (!) and a mixer shoved through the head, someone receives a battery acid shower ("Oh, she wasn't a person. She was a guidance counselor"), and there's a nice showcasing of a deadly touchdown. There's also straightforward slapstick, like when the principal cuts off his own finger during the festive opening of the gym, or through the announcements via the hallway intercoms ("Today's chess tournament is cancelled. All participants are requested to go to the library and play with themselves").

It's all good and cheesy fun for an hour or so, but after that "Prom Night III" quickly becomes dull and repetitive. The actual prom should be the high point of the film, but instead it feels like the longest and most redundant twenty minutes of the film, with Mary Lou dragging Alex into hell of some sort, and it looks a lot like the Hamilton High Prom of 1957.

PS: tip for all bachelors out there - find yourself a partner who starts baking cooking whenever she's upset or angry!