Unlike the Elm Street films, which started out serious and became progressively sillier, the Prom Night sequels started out tongue-in-cheek from the outset. Prom Night III pretends to no more than a series of campy dispatches by a tongue-in-cheek villain spouting bad puns. There’s not really much more to the film than that. There are some occasionally amusing moments – Mary Lou spouts Freddy Krueger-like claws and then a closeup shows they are six-inch red fingernails. And there is the odd one liner – “You want average – get Sandra Dee,” snarls Mary Lou. The film, for some reason, lays into school guidance counselors with a real vengeance – “That wasn’t human, that was a guidance counselor,” says someone looking at the counselor’s remains.

At its worst though, which is far more often, Prom Night III’s level of humour is appallingly sophomoric – especially the rather vulgar announcements that come through the school loudspeaker – “Today’s chess tournament has been cancelled – members are asked to report to the library to play with themselves” or “Attention girls’ weightlifting team – a class on facial hair removal is being held in the gym and attendance is mandatory.”

The effects, particularly the animation surrounding Mary Lou’s appearances and disappearances, are not particularly convincing. Courtney Taylor lacks any real conviction as Mary Lou – the bitchiness comes with a dreadful vapidity. On the whole Prom Night III is too cheerfully tongue-in-cheek a film to be considered bad, but lacks anything to be much more than that.