The Club (1994 film)

The Club is a 1994 Canadian slasher film. The film was initially intended to be the fifth film in the Prom Night film series but was instead released as a standalone film and the only connection being series executive producer Peter Simpson.^[3]

The film follows five students, Evan, Amy, Kyle, Laura, and Darren, who are attending their school's senior prom, which is being held in a gothic castle. The night begins well, however several events occur. Kyle tries to beat his girlfriend Laura when she suggests breaking up and Evan finds himself forced to listen to the school's creepy guidance counselor, Mr. Carver, make extremely sexualized remarks about Evan's girlfriend Amy. A bit later that evening Carver is approached by John, who reveals that he knows that Carver is a serial killer who kills his teenage rape victims. Infuriated, Carver murders John, at which point the castle locks itself down and the other promgoers vanish.

Unaware of what has happened, Carver chases Amy into the basement, where he starts raping her. He is stopped by Evan, who knocks Carver unconscious. The two flee and meet up with the other students and John, who appears unharmed. The students decide to split into two groups, John, Evan, and Kyle in one group and Laura, Amy, and Darren in the other. The second group investigates another part of the basement, where they realize that John is not human. The girls leave to warn the others while Darren chooses to stay by himself. This leaves him vulnerable to John, who uses a doppelganger to torment and trick Darren into committing suicide. He then goes after Kyle and Laura, picking them off one by one until only Evan and Amy are left. Pleased that the two are putting up a good fight, John decides to explain what is happening.

John reveals that he is a lesser demon who has trapped the students and Carver so that he could have fun tormenting them as well as test how they would react to their worst fears. Evan realizes that John can only hurt them if they succumb to their fears, however Amy is unable to conquer her fear of Carver. John uses this opportunity to bring back Carver and the two capture the teens. Evan awakens to find that he is tied up so that he is forced to watch Carver assault Amy. However before this can occur, Evan and Amy free themselves and overpower Carver.

The film ends with all of the students getting returned to the prom, unaware of what has occurred. Kyle once again assaults Laura and when she flees, he accidentally pushes her off a balcony to her death. The film ends with Carver staring at Amy, implying that she will be his latest victim.

• J. H. Wyman as John Rotman
• Kim Coates as Mr. Carver
• Andrea Roth as Amy
• Rino Romano as Evan
• Zack Ward as Kyle

Producer Peter Simpson had initially intended to release The Club as the fifth entry in the Prom Night film series but decided against it after believing the Prom Night name was waning in drawing power.^[4]

The Club was released direct-to-video on May 4, 1994.^[1]

Bleeding Skull reviewed the film in 2015, criticizing it as an overly generic movie and that "it lacks inventiveness and urgency; it doesn’t inspire or add anything new to prom night horror."^[5] Billboard had similar criticisms in their 1994 review, writing that "Its incoherence and talkiness are mitigated by its nightmarish visual style - which may help appease fright fans."^[6]

• The Club at IMDb