| Prom Night (1980) Dir: Paul Lynch Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Casey Stevens, Michael Tough, Anne-Marie Martin, Antoinette Bower, Leslie Nielsen Rated R, Approx: 90 minutes Anchor Bay Entertainment Video and DVD |
| This little slasher production was hot off the heels of John Carpetner's box office bonanza, Halloween and is one of the earliest films in the so called 1980's slasher craze in which I am a rather large admirer of. Directed by Englishman Paul Lynch (who would later helm Humongous and Bullies), Prom Night is a largely derivitive film that while far from being a masterpiece, is well worth a look for fans of this particular subgenre. |
| The film opens somewhere around 1974 as we meet up with a bunch of children playing a macabe version of tag called 'kill'. When very young child, Robin Hammond stumbles upon the weird game being played, she is allowed to join in only to be considerably frightened by the cruel group whose amusement is suddenly derived from not only the game, but scaring the young girl out of her wits-which they manage to do. Unfortunately, this results in her accidental death and before you know it, the kids are making a secret pact to keep this 'mishap' a secret they will take to their graves. What the kids don't realize is that someone else was there, someone who will watch and wait for the perect time to get revenge. |
| Revenge will come six years later, the children of the prologue are all grown up and now in high school. We meet Kim Hammond (Jamie Lee Curtis), sister to the deceased Robin, who is to be crowned prom queen at this years prom celebration. What Kim doesn't know is that her boyfriend Nick (Casey Stevens) took part in the 'kill' game which resulted in the death of her sister and it's now that a masked murderer shows up to get even with the teenagers for what happened six years ago. As the prom gets closer, those responsable will get meet the edge of the axe, someone wants vengeance and as the taglines for this one screamed: "some will be crowned, others will lose their heads!" |
| Probably much more dated and cliched now then when it was originally released, Prom Night perhaps had more of a fresh debut-it really beat the rash of immitations by about a year (1981 was perhaps the true start of the slasher 'explosion'). These days looking back on this particular film, it may seem like just about every genre cliche that would litter the slasher film over the next ten years originated with Prom Night, back in 1980 opening with the killer's 'motis-operandi' so to speak wasn't quite the yawn inducing plot device it has since become. The prologue of this film is particularly creepy and while it takes a while for the killer to begin the killing spree, it's never quite boring. The production values and acting are a lot more stable than most of the later slahsers once thigns pick up, there are some pretty good moments, most memorably one spectacularly tense chase scene through the high school's hallways at night. Body count fans will probably we disapointed here though, there isn't all that much in the way of excessive splatter and the murder count is rather low. Another aspect that may deter more cynical horror fans is some of the disco music (gotta love that hilarious theme song: "Prom Night-everything is alright!"), most notably in the Saturday Night Fever-like dance scene. It's not particularly distracting, rather it lends the film a dopey charm which works very much in its favor but still those infatuated with the 'hip and cool' times that they live in (and who suppose that today's garbage called music will never be considered hokey and dated someday) may spend more time cringing than they'd normally care to. |
| What it all comes down to however is the fact that Prom Night is an 80's slasher film. If you've seen at least one, you know what to expect. In slasher terms, this is a really good effort and fans that may have missed this one along the line should definately seek it out. Jamie Lee Curtis is pretty attractive in the lead, although pretty much reprising the Laurie Strode character from Halloween she's still fun to watch here. Turning up in a straight role before his comedy comeback with The Naked Gun is Lislie Nielsen who plays the school principle and Jamie Lee's father. There are red herrings galore, casting suspect on many of the characters at least once, the killer is a fairly obvious spot but try and enjoy the ride rather than figure out all of the surprises, it's more fun that way. Followed by three sequels beginning with 1987's Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II which is a very fun sequel and in some ways superior to the original. |
| Matt's Rating: ***1/2 (out of 5) |
| Reviewed by Matt Serafini 03/02/02 |
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