Fourteen months into the Sympatico/MSN movie columnist gig, it’s getting the tiniest bit tough to come up with original, zeitgeisty takes on the big release of the week.

Thus, because “Prom Night” was the movie with the most aggressive advertising, and because horror movies always make it onto the front page of the site, we decided to go that way … and then veer off in an unexpected direction: Five movies that understand the hell of adolescence.

I understand that’s one more surprise than the “Prom Night” remake offers.

And props to Alice for the opening comment — she has a great way with the pithy observations, though she’s sadly too busy to blog as frequently as she ought to.