When we first we meet Father Jonas ( James Carver ), its 1957 and he’s is all hopped up on some serious Jesus juice. While doing a little extreme praying, he suddenly feels the urge to do some sinner soul saving (read--go kill some people). Luckily It's prom night at Hamilton High School, which even in 1957 is ripe with heathens and the like, so he has no trouble finding some wayward subjects to exercise. After slashing up a young couple in a car, who had snuck out of the dance for a ill fated smoking/groping session, he returns home to proudly tell God what he did. Unfortunately, he must have misunderstood God earlier, because when he gets back to the hideout all the other guys in robes are really mad at him. Flash forward thirty something years and the Catholic Church has kept Jonas in a chemically induced coma, strapped to a bed,under the church (just kinda growing a beard, but not aging, like Seagal in Hard to Kill). As part of the Churches Super Secret Crap Division, only the most devoted priests are assigned to his care (aka giving him his coma shot). When ( for for whatever reason) a new man of cloth was needed, a rising star in the church scene ,Father Colin ( Brock Simpson ) is reassigned to the job. The new guy, kind of a nutbag himself, instantly decides it's time for the sleeping serial killer to wake up and skips an administration of the knockout serum. Of course, Jonas pops right-the-fuck up, without so much as a bed blister, to get back to his bloody soul harvest. Better yet, it just happens to be prom night at Hamilton High again, where Megan ( Nicole de Boer ) and some of her friends have just ditched the dance to go hang out in the psycho priest’s old praying spot. Wholesome slasher style hijinks ensue including awkward love making, man handling and some sectarian ramblings.

Maybe it's a demon, they never really explain, but there is some kind of supernatural shit going down for sure. It doesn't really dwell on the deeper aspects and sticks to it's simple slasher format. In firm contrast to the self aware, lively timing of the previous two films ,Deliver Us from Evil seems to take itself pretty seriously. It has a frank, dry tone with attempts at more disturbing subject matter. It's a story seasoned with out of control morality and the darker sides of religion as opposed to the underline cautionary plots about schoolyard vengeance in the rest of the series. It ends up feeling more like a spiritual follow up to the first Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), with it's confused and judgmental zealot of a killer. The religious plot elements are somewhat heavy handed allusions to the tragic headlines of the time , and the over- all secrecy of the Catholic church. It juxtaposes together the semi realistic and silly religious shades effectively for the most part. Our poor, sick, murderous Bible-thumper, in this case, was not only touched by some bastard priest as a kid but is also possessed by some kind of demon, and there is no line defining his motivation.it's a demon, they never really explain, but there is some kind of supernatural shit going down for sure. It doesn't really dwell on the deeper aspects and sticks to it's simple slasher format.

Despite the darker notes the film never builds up to quite the tension it's trying for, it's dread level equaling that of a lesser Tales from the Darkside episode with better gore. It's still got a pretty creepy vibe going, with some spooky background tunes to help things along. At its worst the music, provided by Paul Zaza , is perfectly basic and at its best it takes more than a little inspiration from Carpenter 's Halloween score. The film is split almost in half, with the second half holding a bulk of the bloodshed. If anything, there is a little lull as the more dramatic and action packed pieces meet, but it quickly picks up with creative kills as well as well as crowd pleasing genre cliches. Every once in a while I got an almost gothic feel, but that might be because a lot of the first half involves a castle- like church and guys in robes with bad haircuts.

There is nowhere near the ambitious work of the first film, but it seems to be few cuts above the rushed camera and editing in parts 2 and 3. No real technical complaints, apart from a few scares that fall flat from the cuts. The flick has some grizzly gore effects, mostly utilized in the second half. There is some light nudity, but it also includes two scenes more awkward than sexy, one that left me with questions about female magazines in the early 90s.

Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil is a warm quilt composed of random spooky materials, draped safely onto the familiar cliche slasher. As the fourth film in a makeshift horror series based around an overused high school event, in my opinion it's well worth a watch, even if its just to see some guy get his head squeezed till his eyes bleed, by a holy man. As far as prom goes, I don't really feel like I missed much. I have an almost endless supply of films on the subject, and I’m certainly not trying to run into a random creepy-ass priest. If there was anything I hated more than school at that age was it was fucking church. Although at this point, if I would have had a prom, I guess it would be pretty disappointing if there wasn't a killer of some kind there.