Hollywood is so lucky that there are people out there so looking for a scare they’ll go to any bland thing that might offer up something spooky.

Obviously it worked, judging by the nice haul that “Prom Night” took in over the weekend. But expect that to die off in a hurry because it isn’t worth the time or money to check out. In fact, I would venture many people have had prom nights much scarier than this one.

The “reimagining” of the 1980 original starring Jamie Lee Curtis follows Donna Keppel (Brittany Snow), a high school senior, whose family was murdered three years earlier by her deranged science teacher, Richard Fenton (Jonathan Schaech).

Now living with her aunt and uncle, Donna is still undergoing counseling and taking medication. But she feels she’s about to turn the corner and it’s the night of her senior prom, the end of high school life and the beginning of whatever lies ahead for her.

So we’re off to the prom with Donna and her boyfriend, Bobby (Scott Porter) and friends Lisa (Dana Davis), Claire (Jessica Stroup) and their boyfriends Ronnie (Collins Pennie) and Michael (Kelly Blatz). The prom is taking place at a glamorous hotel with plenty of places to run, hide and scream without anyone noticing.

It turns out a couple days earlier Richard escaped from his mental institution and Detective Winn (Idris Elba,) who worked the original case, is informed on prom night. He heads over to the hotel and instead of taking Donna into police custody like a good cop would have, he decides just to keep an eye on her so she can enjoy her big night. Gee, would you rather have fun, or be alive? I’m pretty sure Donna would have chosen the latter.

Despite having an entire police force scoping out the place, Richard is still able to sneak in and make his way up to the kids’ room and pick them off one at a time.

Here’s another problem. For a slasher movie, the deaths are very lame and there is little blood. When Claire meets her end, it doesn’t even look like he ruined her dress, let alone killed her. There isn’t any suspense and any “jump” moments the movie has can be seen coming a mile away or make for unintentional laughs. For example, it’s hard to run down stairs in high heels.

The characters are incredibly one-dimensional and cookie cutter. No real reason is ever given for why Richard is obsessed with Donna. He just is.

Detective Winn is one of the worst cops in recent movie history. The guy has an entire police force behind him, he knows where Richard is going and still isn’t able to catch him. Richard isn’t terribly strong, intimidating or clever. But you don’t have to be smart when everyone else around you is an idiot.

No one can save this script and it’s unfortunate especially for Brittany Snow and Scott Porter, who have both shown talent when they have better material to work with, “Hairspray” and NBC’s “Friday Night Lights” respectively.

Not many critics liked the original “Prom Night” either. But it looks like Citizen Kane compared to this reimagining. Twenty years down the line, maybe the same thing will happen to this version of “Prom Night.” After all, people will still be looking to get scared.

One star out of five