Alex is getting tired of his average girlfriend, average grades, and average life. He wants to be exceptional at something. Enter long-dead Mary Lou Maloney (who died at the Senior Prom at Alex's school three decades earlier) to spice up his life. She's looking for a boyfriend, and she'll kill whomever she has to (and some she doesn't) to make sure it's Alex.

If the movie's tagline ("A Romantic Comedy From Hell") makes you think you're getting a 1990's Shaun of the Dead, forget it. This is strictly cheese.

For one thing, if you're going to make a direct sequel involving characters from previous installments, why not have a linear storyline that actually flows from those characters? The Mary Lou we met in Prom Night II was vindictave and evil; this one just wants to get laid. Even satire needs to be grounded in its own reality, and this Mary Lou just isn't herself. A better move would have been to create a fresh legend.

A couple of saving graces are some nasty gore effects and a couple of sex scenes that were fairly notorious for a mainstream film at the time. Unfortunately, some boneheads at Artisan decided to release an edited version that was originally broadcast on television. Yep, you read that correctly. Contradictorily, the film proudly boasts an "R" rating on the box cover, but cuts out all gore and nudity, and overdubs even the innocuous curse words. However, it does come on a single disc with Prom Night IV: Deliver Us From Evil (uncut) and can be found for under $10 (U.S.) so your milage may vary. I'm pretty incensed that this hasn't yet been fixed, almost two years later.

In any case, Prom Night III: The Last Kiss simply is what it is: a completely brainless flick with a sense of humor aimed squarely at thirteeen year-olds, no real tension, and a minimal plot. While tongue-in-cheek horror can work (An American Werewolf in London, for example), this one is dead from the start and Artisan's DVD release slams the final nail in the coffin.

Pros: The gore is pretty good, and there are a few good lines...
Cons: ...but most of the jokes fall flat. And the gore, nudity and curse words are NOT on the Artisan DVD release.
You Decide if it's a Pro or a Con: The old Mary Lou (Lisa Schrage) was the stuck-up cheerleader with whom you didn't stand a chance, while the new one (played by Courtney Taylor) is the rebel chick who droppped her panties to the floor for a six-pack.
Review Rating: 4 out of 10 teenagers holding a gun to a cop's head and kidnapping him are fine, as long as it's done for a good reason (that's sarcasm, kids. Do NOT try this at home and then try to claim that Uncle Taco said it was ok. It's not.)