The Australian movie The Loved Ones begins its American run with midnight screenings in six cities Friday, bringing with it a psycho teen girl clad in a hot-pink satin dress and matching paper crown. And next year, the big screen gets a new version of Carrie, the Stephen King novel that was adapted into a film by Brian De Palma in 1976.
The original is a classic, with Sissy Spacek's bullied title character having her one shining prom moment ruined by a bucket of pig blood (though she exracts re venge). The Loved Ones is a similar story of "a girl who never really had a chance because she had such a messed-up socialization," says first-time writer/director Sean Byrne. "It's a candy nightmare."
(In democratic fashion not unlike voting for a prom queen, horror lovers can request that The Loved Ones screen in their cities via Tugg.com, mirroring the way Paramount Pictures similarly rolled out Paranormal Activity in 2009.)
Byrne puts a Texas Chainsaw Massacre spin on a John Hughes-esque conceit with The Loved Ones, where quirky Lola (Robin McLeavy) asks the popular Brent (Xavier Samuel) to the prom. He politely spurns her advances but quickly learns he should have just said yes after she and her equally nutty father kidnap and hold him hostage while staging their demented version of the dance in their kitchen.
They torture him with all manner of items, including syringes and bleach. The coup de gross, though, is one scene involving a power drill.
"That's one to look forward to," Samuel says with a laugh. "The whole film is like peering into a grotesque dollhouse."
Adds Byrne: "I love the fact that everything they use comes from their house. It's readily accessible, and I think that brings the horror closer to home."
The filmmaker, who grew up in Tasmania, didn't have such a controversia l school-formal experience as a teen. "There were a few issues with a circular saw but no drills," he quips. "The look of the film for me comes just as much from the dance in Footloose as it does from any of my own formative years."
Given that the prom is an ideal backdrop for teen angst and horror, it's surprising that more movies haven't mined the theme, says Scott Weinberg, editor and film critic for TwitchFilm.com and FEARnet.com.
Prom Night pitted Jamie Lee Curtis against an unknown slasher in 1980 (and was remade four years ago), and in 2008 Dance of the Dead featured a zombie invasion on the night of prom, leaving only the nerds and out casts who were without dates to save the day.
Weinberg feels the people involved in the Carrie remake â€" including director Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry) and star Chloë Grace Moretz â€" will do justice to the original, which remains the mother of all prom horror flicks.
"That slaughter in the gymnasium is pretty crazy," he says. "De Palma, love him or hate him, lets you know visually they're trapped. They're all going to die. You expect her to get her revenge, but I don't know, man, that's pretty harsh."
For Byrne, watching Carrie as a youngster made the girl a "mythical character," and the movie glamorized the concept of the prom and rites of passage, juxtaposing it with really cruel behavior. "It's equal parts beauty and angst and horror."
With The Loved Ones, Byrne aimed to capture that cruelty while also keeping it relatable to a wide swath of moviegoers, whether they attended their prom 20 years ago or last week.
"At some stage," says Byrne, "you've asked somebody out, your proposal has been accepted or rejected, everyone wants to be loved, and that's never more highlighted than the moment of prom.
"Metaphorically, there is a gun to everybody's head that they have to go with someone and it's so tied into your identity. You are never more vulnerable, and that's a great dramatic launching point."
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