Naman Shrestha
The Max McGuire directorial, ‘Abducted on Prom Night,’ is a thriller drama film that revolves around a troubled teenage girl named Kimber McCann who gets permission to attend prom from her recently-divorced mother, Shawna McCann, and reluctantly so. However, instead of being one of the best nights of their lives, things turn upside down as Kimber and her friends are taken hostage by their limousine driver while they are on the way to prom night.
Shocked and terrified of the situation, Kimber and her friends try to figure out why, only to find out later that the driver has a sinister connection to her family. The Lifetime movie features impressive onscreen performances from talented cast members like Zoë Belkin, Micah Sanders-Silva, Karen Cliche, Melissa Bray, and Scott Gibson. Prom nights and hostage situations are the predominant themes explored in the movie, which also occur in real life. So, it is only natural for you to pose the question — is ‘Abducted on Prom Night’ based on true events or not? Well, let’s explore the same together, shall we?
Abducted on Prom Night is a Fictional Story
No, ‘Abducted on Prom Night’ is not based on a true story. Instead, the enthralling storyline can be credited to Richard Pierce, known for writing the screenplays for ‘Killer Profile,’ ‘A Lifeguard’s Obsession,’ ‘Sector 4: Extraction,’ and ‘The Pizza Man.’ He supposedly made the most of all his experience in the field, creative mind, and brilliant penmanship to create such a thrilling yet realistic screenplay for the Lifetime thriller.
The narrative seems true to life and connected with reality because the core themes and subjects highlighted in the film are pretty common in real life. For instance, let’s turn our attention to a hostage case of early May 2016 to understand how prom nights and hostage situations can go hand in hand. Following their high school prom, two Californian teens were abducted, and they found themselves in a life-or-death situation.
Fortunately, the two kidnapped teens somehow escaped after one of them managed to get his hands on the gun and pistol-whipped the attacker named Jared James. The perpetrator, after getting arrested, was taken to the hospital for the treatment of injuries he sustained during the struggle. So, as you can gather, there are quite a few parallels between this real-life incident and the storylines of ‘Abducted on Prom Night.’
Another reason some of you might find some aspects of the Lifetime movie familiar is that the subjects of abduction and the cat-and-mouse chase have been explored in numerous films and TV shows over the years. One of the most suitable examples has to be that of the 2020 horror thriller movie ‘The Rental.’ Starring Dan Stevens, Alison Brie, Sheila Vand, Jeremy Allen White, and Toby Huss, the Dave Franco directorial follows two couples who book a rental house for a celebratory weekend together.
Yet, when the host of the seemingly perfect rental house starts acting strange, their weekend becomes memorable for the wrong reasons. Just like the couples in ‘The Rental’ put their trust in the host of the rental house, Kimber and her friends in ‘Abduction on Prom Night’ trusted the limo driver blindly, both facing the consequences of their blind faith in their respective professional service providers. Even in real life, people can be subjected to such dangerous situations after trusting strangers, and sometimes, even their close ones. All in all, we can conclude that despite shedding light on some realistic subjects and themes, the Lifetime thriller is not rooted in reality.
Read More: Where Was Lifetime’s Abducted on Prom Night Filmed? Who is in the Cast?
