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Hammond Family
Kim Hammond
Kimberly "Kim" Hammond
Played By: Jamie Lee Curtis, Debbie Greenfield (Young)
The main protagonist, the elder daughter of Mr. Hammond and older sister of Alex and Robin.
- Cool Big Sis: To Alex. She's the main person who can get him to lighten up.
- Final Girl: Subverted. While Kim is instrumental in defeating the killer, she was never a target to begin with.
- Irony: Kim winds up dating Nick, the boy she called an idiot and caused her sister's death.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Has no idea that her friends were involved in Robin's death until the ending.
- Oh, Crap!: At the end of the film when she delivers a fatal blow to the killer and realizes she struck down her own brother.
- Supporting Protagonist: Kim is the character followed throughout the film, but ultimately has little involvement in the main plot until the ending.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Kim does everything in her power to stop the killer when he comes for Nick, and ultimately lands a fatal blow on him.
Alex Hammond
Alex Hammond
Played By: Michael Tough, Dean Bosacki (Young)
Kim's younger brother and Robin's twin.
- Alone Among the Couples: Alex is the only character who isn't going to the prom with a date, opting instead to work as a secondary DJ.
- Beware the Nice Ones: At first appearing to be Kim's quiet, unassuming brother, he's shown to have a violent streak as shown by his fight with Lou and his cronies.
- Big Little Brother: Alex stands about an inch or two taller than his older sister Kim.
- Glass Cannon: The cafeteria fight shows that while Alex can dish out a blow to deck both Lou's cronies, he is laid low by a single punch to the back.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Early in the film when he and his sisters pass the abandoned building where the four other kids were playing, Alex discourages Robin from joining in, telling her that they don't want to play with her. He turns out to be right since they bully her right out a window.
- Knight Templar Big Brother: Inverted since Alex is Kim's younger brother, but he'll fight anyone who harasses Kim.
- Manipulative Bastard: Talks his father into imposing a harsher sentence on Lou simply by telling him that Lou was harassing Kim. Also counts as Kick The Son Of A Bitch.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: Reacts to Lou attempting a Forceful Kiss on Kim by decking him.
- Not So Above It All: During the prom, even he laughs at his father's stiff attempts at dancing.
- Perpetual Frowner: Normally has a cold, grim expression or a Death Glare unless he's around his sister Kim.
- Troll: When he sees Wendy and Lou enter, what does he do? Put on a disco tune for Kim and Nick so the two can show off their dance moves, all with a straight face.
Mr. Hammond
Mr. Hammond
Played By: Leslie Nielsen
Kim, Alex, and Robin's father and the principal of Alexander Hamilton High School.
- Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Doesn't even pretend to be fair when suspending Lou, but given that Lou is a bully who was sexually harassing Kim, you can't help but cheer.
- Large and in Charge: The leading figure at the school and the tallest person in the cast.
- Outliving One's Offspring: His younger daughter Robin is killed at the beginning of the film. Late in the film his son Alex, who is the killer, is killed by his other daughter Kim when he tries to kill Nick.
- Papa Wolf: Once he hears that Lou was harassing Kim, he doesn't waste time in suspending him.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When he suspends Lou, he tells him that he's "a disgrace to the school and the community."
- Red Herring: He's a prime suspect for the killings, given a strong motivation and the fact that he conveniently disappears from the plot when the killings start piling up.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Disappears from the film almost completely shortly before Kelly's death. There are production photos of him returning from wherever he was right when Alex dies but this was left on the cutting room floor.
Robin Hammond
Robin Hammond
Played By: Tammy Bourne
Kim's younger sister and Alex's twin.
- Destination Defenestration: Killed when she fell through a window onto a sheet of glass.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Her death kicks off the plot because the kids who killed her swore to keep her death secret, but somebody found out.
- Shrine to the Fallen: The Hammonds' mantelpiece is decorated with pictures of her and a teddy bear.
- Slashed Throat: Killed by glass shards going through her throat. Also an Impromptu Tracheotomy.
- Speech Impediment: Had a noticeable stutter, which might have been why she was bullied.
Alexander Hamilton High School Student Body
Nick McBride
Nick McBride
Played By: Casey Stevens, Brock Sampson (Young)
Kim's boyfriend, Wendy's ex, and one of the kids involved in Robin's death.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Nick doesn't quite have the courage to confess to causing Robin's death.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Blue. He wears a blue polo and cap in the opening, a sky-blue polo and navy-blue jacket to school, and finally a powder-blue tux to the prom.
- Distressed Dude: First he's knocked out and taped up by Lou and his goons backstage. They injured his ankle, and consequently has to struggle a lot harder than Kim when confronted by the killer in the climax.
- Final Girl: A male example since he is the only one of the killer's targets to survive, while all the female targets die.
- My Greatest Failure: Of the kids who killed Robin, Nick is the most haunted by what happened.
- Redemption Earns Life: He showed the most regret about Robin's death and thus is the only survivor by the end of the film.
- Took a Level in Kindness: The present-day Nick is a lot nicer than he was in the prologue.
Wendy Richards
Wendy Richards
Played By: Eddie Benton, Leslie Scott (Young)
The school's resident Alpha Bitch, Nick's ex-girlfriend, and one of the kids who killed Robin.
- Alpha Bitch: Introduced as one of these, as it's her idea to keep the kids' killing of Robin secret. By the film's main events she's gone this trope full-tilt, as she's openly jealous of Kim being Nick's date and plots to steal Nick back by sabotaging the prom alongside Lou.
- Asshole Victim: Instigated the film's main events by cajoling the other kids into keeping quiet about Robin's death and planned to ruin the prom for Kim. Consequently she gets one of the more brutal deaths: hacked to death with an axe.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Towards Nick, her ex. She'll do whatever she has to do to get him back.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Red. As a child she wears a red shirt under a leather jacket, a red blouse to school for the day of the prom, and a glittery red dress to the prom.
- Deadpan Snarker: A lot of her dialogue is embittered quips, such as the series' Signature Line "It's not who you go with honey, it's who takes you home".
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Wendy is the only one of the four targets who actually responds to the phone call, telling him to "get lost". He didn't.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Despite planning to ruin the prom with Lou, she tells him that she doesn't want anyone seriously hurt.
- The Resenter: Towards Kim because Nick dumped Wendy for Kim.
- Rich Bitch: She's a Jerkass with a lot of money, as evidenced by her very big house, nice car, and clothes.
- Slashers Prefer Blondes: Downplayed, as she is the last of the killer's targets to die.
- Sound-Only Death: When Wendy is startled by Kelly's body and runs out of a storage closet, she runs right into the killer. What follows is a Smash to Black as the killer starts to swing, followed by four strokes with the axe while the screen remains black.
- Token Motivational Nemesis: The main villain of Kim's story as the Alpha Bitch, but winds up superseded by the killer.
Kelly Lynch
Kelly Lynch
Played By: Mary Beth Rubens, Joyce Kite (Young)
One of Kim's friends who was involved in Robin's death.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Kelly is almost always seen wearing white; she wore a white dress in the opening scene, a white blouse to school, and a white dress to prom. And it isn't just her clothes; all the furniture, the walls in her house, and her house's exterior are white.
- Final Girl: Subverted; Kelly has all the physical and emotional trappings of a Final Girl: brunette, virginal, innocent-seeming (she's the most reluctant to agree to lie about Robin's death), some measure of remorse (she is pensive after receiving the phone call and is frightened by broken glass as reminders of the crime she committed) for her offense, but winds up the first to die.
- Girlish Pigtails: She has her hair up in ponytails on either side of her head.
- Oh, Crap!: Of the four targets, Kelly has the most overtly fearful reaction to the threatening messages, looking more thoughtful after her phone call and looking for the killer, then getting frightened by the breaking glass.
- Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality: Of the group of friends, Kelly is still a virgin but unlike Jude, she is uncomfortable with the idea of having sex, vacillating back and forth throughout the film. When she and her boyfriend Drew go to have sex, she winds up getting cold feet again. At that point, Drew, who has been trying to have sex with her for the whole film, breaks up with her to find someone else to have sex with while Kelly winds up dying a virgin when the killer slits her throat just after Drew leaves.
- Peek-a-Boo Corpse: The killer leaves her body on a shelf in a storage closet, which Wendy bumps into while hiding from the killer.
- Prone to Tears: She burst into tears when Robin was killed, and spends her last moments weeping after her boyfriend leaves her.
- Sacrificial Lamb: The first of the teens to die.
- Slashed Throat: The killer cuts her throat with a piece of glass.
- Virgin in a White Dress: Kelly hasn't had sex yet, wore a white dress to the prom, and she doesn't have sex with her boyfriend Drew before she's killed. In that capacity, this also doubles as White Shirt of Death.
Jude Cunningham
Jude Cunningham
Played By: Joy Thompson, Karen Forbes (Young)
Another of Kim's friends who was involved in Robin's death.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Jude has a cute, bubbly personality, but out of all the kids she has the least remorse for killing Robin in the present day, as she shrugs off the death threats.
- Impromptu Tracheotomy: The killer stabs her in the throat.
- Oh, Crap!: When the van doors fly open and she winds up face-to-face with the killer before he stabs her.
- Sex Signals Death: She and Slick are killed not long after their first time.
- Unwanted Spouse: Unwanted Date rather; at the beginning of the film Kim tries to get Alex to take Jude to the prom, only for Alex to decline. So Jude goes with Slick instead.
Seymour "Slick" Crane
Seymour "Slick" Crane
Played By: Sheldon Rybowski
Jude's date.
- Big "NO!": When the killer kills Jude.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Out of all the deaths in the film, Slick might get the nastiest: he accidentally drives off a cliff and his van explodes, burning him alive.
- For Want Of A Nail: Pulling up to Jude and asking her to prom (she accepts) winds up sealing his fate.
- Leave No Witnesses: Presumably why the killer goes after him.
- Nice Guy: Shown to be a kind enough person whose only vices are weed and unknowingly dating a girl with a target on her back.
- Oh, Crap!: When Slick throws the killer off his van and realizes he's about to drive off a cliff, all he can do is shield his head before it explodes.
- Sex Signals Death: He and Jude are killed after their first time.
- The Stoner: Slick may not look it, but makes up for it with the sheer amount of weed he has, all carried in a hollowed-out history book.
Lou Farmer
Lou Farmer
Played By: David Mucci
The resident school bully and Wendy's date.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Averted; none of the girls want to go with him, aside from Wendy and her interest in him is mainly as backup in stealing back Nick.
- Asshole Victim: He tried to ruin the prom alongside Wendy and paid the price by losing his head to the killer.
- Big Ol' Unibrow: Of the Type I variety as he's a Jerkass with a unibrow.
- Dirty Coward: Only gets involved in fights when his opponents are distracted with his cronies (Alex) or if they're pinned down and can't defend themselves (Nick).
- Drives Like Crazy: Runs over the trash cans at Wendy's house when he comes to pick her up.
- Foil: To Slick. Slick is a kindhearted nerd, Lou is a Barbaric Bully. However, they're similar in that they wind up going to the prom as last-minute dates to people who killed Robin Hammond and wind up dead because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
- Forceful Kiss: Tries to do this on Kim at lunch, only for Alex to show up and deck him.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Evil Smoking. Lou is smoking cigarettes throughout the film (Kim even refers to him as an ashtray) and definitely an antagonist.
- Hate Sink: A Barbaric Bully who sexually harasses Kim, only attacks when his opponents are down, and joined up with Wendy's prank with full intention of hurting Nick.
- Karmic Death: Trying to upstage Nick by punching him out and taking his place as Prom King winds up being a death sentence when the killer mistakes him for Nick and takes his head off.
- Malicious Slander: His first line is accusing Kim of being lesbian because she won't go out with him.
- Murder by Mistake: Thanks to the dark lighting and wearing Nick's Prom King crown, Lou is mistaken for Nick and subsequently decapitated.
- Off with His Head!: The killer cuts off his head and it rolls out onto the stage in front of the other prom guests, causing everyone to panic.
- Oral Fixation: Constantly seen chewing gum or smoking cigarettes.
- Red Herring: Wendy mistakes the voice over the phone as his and he's later shown with a ski mask.
- Spanner in the Works: His decision to attack Nick and put the Prom King crown on his own head winds up putting a large dent in the killer's plan because Lou gets killed by mistake.
- Villainous Crush: On Kim, as shown when he tries to force her to kiss him during lunch.
- Villain Team-Up: With Wendy so they can ruin the prom.
Drew
Drew Shinnick
Played By: Jeff Wincott
Kelly's boyfriend.
- Failed a Spot Check: Failed to notice the killer sneaking by him through the locker room door to kill Kelly.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: He spends each of his scenes trying to persuade Kelly to have sex.
- Jerkass: How does he respond to Kelly getting cold feet about having sex? He dumps her.
- Karma Houdini: Gets no comeuppance for his treatment of Kelly.
- Red Herring: Kelly mistakes the killer's voice for his, and he's introduced sneaking into her house rather suddenly while her back is turned. Furthermore the killer's rapid entry through the door Drew left through when he comes to kill Kelly looks rather suspicious.
- Satellite Character: His role in the film is entirely reliant on Kelly's presence in the plot. Once he breaks up with her and she is killed, he picks up the next girl he sees and disappears from the film entirely.
Vicki
Vicki
Played By: Pita Oliver
A friend of Kim's.
- Deer in the Headlights: Her reaction to Lou's decapitated head is to stare bug-eyed at it until the rest of the student body flees.
- Mooning: Moons Mr. Sykes while she's out on the tennis court."Mr. Sykes! This is just for you!"
- Slashers Prefer Blondes: Averted, the killer doesn't come anywhere near her.
- Sole Survivor: Of Kim's friend group (aside from her boyfriend Nick), she's the only one who survives the film.
Other Characters
Mr. Sykes
Mr. Sykes
Played By: Robert A. Silverman
The school's janitor.
- The Alcoholic: Sykes is shown taking a swing from a bottle while working at the prom. He apparently does this a lot since the cops haul him off, dismissing his warnings by blaming it on the drinking.
- Cassandra Truth: Sykes tries to warn the partygoers about the murders taking place, but the cops dismiss his claims.
- Crusty Caretaker: Sykes is a creepy, unshaven guy who often stares weirdly at the girls. They're well aware, as shown when Kim expresses discomfort around him and her friend Vicky moons him.
- Nerd Glasses: Definitely has the look of a nerd with his black-framed square glasses, but doesn't much act the part.
- The Quiet One: Says very little during his time onscreen, not speaking until the final act and whatever he says is slurred.
- Red Herring: Given his creepy demeanor and proximity to the locker rooms when the mirrors are broken, he becomes another suspect for the murders as shards from the mirrors are taken and used to kill two of the victims. He's not responsible for them, but witnesses Wendy's chase and tries to warn the partygoers, which doesn't go well.
Lieutenant McBride
Lieutenant McBride
Played By: George Touliatos
Nick's father, a policeman.
- Nostalgia Filter: Inverted; he wishes he had Nick's girlfriend problems.
- Police Are Useless: He fingered the wrong suspect for Robin Hammond's death by not realizing she hadn't been raped and doesn't realize that there's a bunch of murders going on at the prom he's attending until a severed head rolls out onstage.
Leonard Murch
Leonard Murch
Played By: Unknown
A sex offender and pedophile who was blamed for Robin Hammond's death. He escapes from a hospital shortly before the film's main events.
- Bandaged Face: He's briefly seen in a prison hospital with his head bandaged due to his burns.
- Frame-Up: He was blamed for Robin's death.
- Man on Fire: Murch was found after a car crash that left him severely burned, with Lieutenant McBride remembering him running around on fire.
- Red Herring: The most obvious one, as he was blamed for Robin's death and therefore would have a strong motivation for the murders to take revenge. Instead he's caught 50 miles away offscreen.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Attempted to run for it after escaping the hospital and killing a nurse, but gets caught before long.
- Serial Rapist: A known sex offender with pedophilic tendencies.
- Villain of Another Story: A known sex offender with a long rap-sheet, but winds up having little to do with the present-day murders.
- The Voiceless: Never says a word onscreen.
- Would Hit a Girl: Took a nurse hostage when he escaped the hospital then murdered her. Her corpse is shown being covered over with a tarp while Lieutenant McBride discusses Murch.
The Killer (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
The Killer / Alex Hammond
Played By: Michael Tough
Real name Alex Hammond, he first appears as a mysterious figure at the beginning of the film calling those who were involved in his sister Robin's death before showing up at the prom to kill those responsible.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Spends the last moments of his life screaming for the sister he lost long ago, cradled in the arms of his other sister.
- Best Served Cold: He's waited six years to take his revenge on his sister's killers.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Who would have thought that the kindhearted Alex was a vengeful multiple murderer?
- Big Bad: The central antagonist of the film, as the person targeting the teenagers who killed Robin Hammond years ago.
- Boring, but Practical: His costume lacks the iconic status of people like Michael Myers or Ghostface, but the killer's outfit is more for function: a face-concealing ski mask and black clothes to hide him in shadow and allow him graceful movement. Contrast with Ghostface whose cloak constantly causes him to trip and whose mask's darkened lenses impair his ability to see.
- Catchphrase: "Now... Now... It's my turn."
- Choice of Two Weapons: Carries two weapons during his killing spree: a mirror shard as an improvised knife, and an axe.
- Classic Villain: Wrath. Alex's anger against the teens who killed his sister is the driving force of the plot, he wears an all-black ensemble as the killer, deceives the characters and the audience as his identity is not revealed until the last shots of the film, goes down in a fight with his sister Kim and his last target Nick on a dance floor, and spends his last moments mourning Robin as Kim cradles him in her arms.
- Determinator: The killer is a regular old human, but shows a certain doggedness in his movements, keeping up with his prey with speed and getting up after getting punched, hit with poles, and electrocuted.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Passes away in the arms of his sister Kim.
- Driven to Villainy: Alex was a normal kid whose grief for the death of his sister drove him to avenge her by killing the perpetrators.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Alex committed all these murders to avenge his sister. He would also never harm his other sister Kim, refusing to take a blow at her when she gets in his way and shoving her aside several times to take a blow at Nick.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Alex won't kill anyone he doesn't have to, isolating his kills to the perpetrators and any witnesses he can't wait on to leave. This counts for double in the climax when it's his sister Kim he's fighting, since he knocks her aside rather than cutting through her.
- Evil Counterpart: To Kim. Neither sibling really got over their sister's death but Alex takes his grief, pain, and anger to murderous levels.
- Evil Plan: The killer is picking off a group of teens who accidentally killed a little girl as children.
- Evil Sounds Raspy: Speaks with a raspy, throaty voice.
- Evil Wears Black: Wears a black sweater, matching slacks, leather shoes, and a glittery black ski mask.
- Exact Words: Mr. Hammond mentions that Alex doesn't remember the accident. Well he didn't see the accident, but that didn't stop him from knowing what happened.
- Fatal Flaw: Has a bad habit for tunnel vision. He gets laid low when fighting Lou's cronies because Lou catches him in the back. Later on during the final fight, he focuses all his attention on Nick and subsequently receives mortal injuries because he doesn't watch for Kim coming down on his head with the axe.
- Feet-First Introduction: The killer is introduced with a foot-level shot of a shadow standing over Robin Hammond. This shot is continued at the end of the film to reveal their identity.
- Harassing Phone Call: Introduced calling each of the people who killed Robin Hammond, letting them know he's coming for them.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Happens twice.
- When he decapitates Lou the blow cuts through a power line that strikes him in the face, electrocuting him.
- He loses his axe in the final fight with Nick and Kim; the latter retrieves the axe and deals a fatal blow to his head.
- Improvised Weapon: Breaks a mirror at the school and uses its shards to kill Kelly and Jude.
- It's Personal: Really this applies to all the victims, but the killer reserves the most anger for Wendy, judging by the harsher tone during the phone call and more brutal kill to the point it's a Sound-Only Death.
- Knight Templar Big Brother: More like Knight Templar Younger Brother for Kim and twin brother for Robin, but if you mess with either of Alex's sisters, you're a dead man.
- Leitmotif: A Drone of Dread first heard when the killer calls each victim and then again as he makes his presence known during the prom itself.
- Lightning Bruiser: As far as slasher villains go (contrast with the slow-moving Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees who almost never move faster than a Menacing Stroll). The killer is shown to be light on their feet, gets up from repeated blows and electrocution, and every hit packs a wallop if it connects. When he does receive a fatal injury, it takes him a few minutes to die.
- Malevolent Masked Man: The killer wears a black ski mask to disguise themselves.
- Motive Rant: His last words sum up his motivation in a nutshell.
- Mundane Horror: Compared to the other villains in the film series. Alex isn't a Vengeful Ghost like Mary Lou, or a Sinister Minister Implacable Man like Father Jonas, or someone with sexual interest in young girls like Richard Fenton. He's just a young man who has discernible, even sympathetic, motivations, above-average strength and a razor-sharp focus.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: Alex may be built more slight than the average slasher villain, but he can throw a slightly larger boy (one of Lou's cronies) a few yards and decapitate Lou, who is much bigger than him, with a single stroke of an axe.
- Near-Villain Victory: He's in the process of strangling Nick, his last target, to death when he receives his death blow.
- Noble Demon: Alex is unique among Slasher villains in that he makes a concerted effort to attack as few bystanders as possible, sticking as much as he can to target those who he has a grudge against (except for Slick so as to Leave No Witnesses). For example, he waits until Drew leaves Kelly before killing the latter, doesn't go anywhere near Lieutenant McBride, and does his best to knock Kim out of the way when he comes for Nick.
- Revenge: The killer's motivation, but whose? The ending of the film reveals that it's Alex who's taking revenge."Tonight, it's my turn."
- Say My Name: Screams the name of the sister he lost as he dies of his wounds.
- Sympathetic Murderer: Alex's motivation is to avenge his sister's death by murdering the teenagers who caused it.
- Thicker Than Water: He's not going to kill his sister Kim even if she gets in his way.
- Tragic Villain: Alex is motivated by the death of his sister to seek revenge against her killers.
- Tranquil Fury: Never raises his voice above a whisper until the very end of the film.
- Troubled Backstory Flashback: During his final moments, Alex replays finding Robin dead and watching her killers leaving.
- Villain Song: "Fade to Black" by Gordene Simpson. While not heard in the film itself, it plays over the credits and neatly sums up his thought process.
- Walking Spoiler: There's a reason why the tropes about the killer are in a separate folder, because all the white spaces would make it pretty clear who the killer was.
- Would Hit a Girl: Three of his targets are teenage girls.
- You Killed My Father: Those kids killed his sister. He'll make them pay.
