Prom Night (1980)

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Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 2-OCT-2007
Media Type: DVD Product Description

"Now It's Time To Fade To Black"

Their identity hidden by a ski mask, someone is slashing the student body on Hamilton High's prom night. What dark secret links the victims? What terrible pain has the mysterious stranger suffered in the past that compels him to kill and kill again? Terrifying elements of "Halloween" and "Carrie" have been blended together to create a great gem from the slasher frenzy era.

Jamie Lee Curtis does a terrific job playing Kim Hammond, disco queen and sister of ten-year-old Robin who was found dead at an abandoned school six years ago. In fact, of all the slasher movies she starred in, this is one of my favorites. Why? The decapitation that evacuates the gym is awesome. Also, the fact that the killer's identity isn't revealed until the end gave it a mysterious feel that reminded me of an Italian giallo. I also love the "Fade to Black" song sung by Gordene Simpson during the closing credits; it accurately describes the pent up rage that led the killer to his emotional unhinging. In fact, the movie has a great musical score, which was provided by Paul Zaza.

Though "Prom Night" is enjoyable, the DVD from Echo Bridge doesn't receive many accolades. The video is grainy, the audio is weak, and there is the absence of extras, not even a trailer. It was cheaper for me to buy it at Best Buy than trying to purchase an out of print version from Anchor Bay, which was probably a better product all around. At least Anchor Bay's DVD had a trailer.

Let me also say that this "Prom Night" is so much better than the predictable "Prom Night" remake of 2008. The remake was void of any plot twists and turns and the viewer knows who the killer is from the very beginning.
August 2, 2008

"The killer's gonna getcha!"

Canada was one of the key players at the forefront of the slasher movie wave of the early 1980s. "Prom Night" was released during the crest of this phenomenon and the filmmakers were among the "A" list of Canadian horror, considering that the excellent music score skills contributed by Paul Zaza would turn up in the following year's "My Bloody Valentine" (another one of the best) and that "Prom Night's" writing/directing team of William Gray and Paul Lynch would go on to make 1981's "Humongous" (which has never seen a DVD release).

Still, "Prom Night," though filmed in Toronto, is set in the U.S. and features some familiar faces like Leslie Nielsen and Jamie Lee Curtis, the latter of whom was still riding high on the success of "Halloween" (and would also star in another 1980 Canadian slasher production "Terror Train").

"Prom Night" is just one fun movie. It has a good, attractive cast, a sense of humor, and an overriding teenage innocence to it that is very appealing.

The characters are largely adolescent caricature archetypes. You have the likable and popular prom queen Kim (Curtis), the hormonally driven, van driving, pot smoking burnout Slick (Sheldon Rybowski), the violent, aggressive miscreant Lou (David Mucci), and my favorite, the spiteful and malicious (I'm avoiding using the "B" word here) but oh so hot Wendy (Anne-Marie Martin, billed here as Eddie Benton), who zooms around in a fast sports car and has a cat fight-like rivalry with Kim over the attention of prom king and common love interest Nick (Casey Stevens).

That said, one of the common gripes against the film from seasoned cinema gore hounds is that it doesn't feature enough nudity or red stuff spurting out of bodies. I would respond by saying that while compared to some others it is somewhat light in the sex and gore quotient (though a good decapitation and dismembered corpse, not to mention a hot girl mooning someone are notable exceptions), it more than makes up for it in being an otherwise so appealing and classy effort, and one of the best and most fun slashers ever. Highly recommended. August 1, 2008

Loved it!

I'm a late bloomer on this one. I never saw it until tonight - don't know how that happened. I love the horror/slasher movies from the late 70's mid-80's. This killed me! Halloween meets Carrie meets Saturday Night Fever. An escaped luntic, the police chase, disco-disco (good music BTW) and a prom with two conniving students all add up to a lot of fun. Not great, not overly scary, but a real hoot! July 26, 2008

Run of the mill slasher, with a prom theme

While I'm sure there are those out there who will disagree, I found this slasher "classic" of the 80's to be mostly a badly dated dud.

There's a limit as to what can be said about the story here, first because I don't want to spoil it, second because there isn't a whole lot to say anyhow. A young girl meets her fate in an unfortunate accident which her partially responsible friends swear to never reveal the truth about. Fast forward six years later: That same group of friends, now high school seniors, are being stalked by a killer, obviously out of vengeance for the incident six years earlier.

The story of a vengeful killer targeting those who have committed wrong at an event signifying fun and enjoyment, prom night. It's not too bad a concept, the problem here is that nothing happens until about twenty minutes before the movie is over! Prior to that I had to double check the DVD case to make sure I wasn't watching old episodes of some forgotten 80's teen drama. Way too much teen drama filler content before any blood letting starts, or even before anything gets rolling storywise. Jamie Lee Curtis makes for just about the only enjoyable or memorable performance here, but it's a far cry from what she gave us in the previous Halloween. Leslie Nielson delivers a rather stiff, yet bearable performance in the 3-5 minutes of actual screen time he gets.

A soundtrack of disco at it's absolute corniest is pretty much the icing on this uneventful cake. The result is a prom themed who-dunnit with a lot of build up and not much pay-off in the end. Prom Night is far from the worst I've seen, but to call it a classic is a bit of an exaggeration especially comparing it to countless other movies from the massive onslaught of incredible horror films to come out of the late 70's and early 80's. Why anybody felt the need to remake this is pretty much a mystery, you'll be doing a lot more yawning than screaming here. July 15, 2008

The root of what ALL horror films should be!

The Film: Prom Night
Year Made: 1980

Overview: A innocent childhood game of "the killers are coming" turns deadly when one child falls out of a window to her death. The four children decide not to tell anyone and keep it their secret forever. The kids are now grown up and in high school excited for the upcoming prom. Unlucky for them, years ago someone saw what happened to that child and on this prom night, someone's head will surely roll!

The Package: 2 Stars. First the good. The cover is beautiful with Jamie Lee Curtis on the cover. She is holding a axe with some roses in her hands. Jamie Lee Curtis is on the cover and she is beautiful!! Oh wait, I already said that. haha. Ok, now for the bad. No inlay in the inside case, NO extras on the disc at all, no trailer, no nothing. It does at least have quite a few chapters, but since I always watch a film from start to finish, that's not such a big deal for me either way. Oh wait, there is some more good news. Jamie Lee Curtis IS on the disc itself so as I put prom night in my DVD player, I can see her beauty from cover, to disc, to actual film. Oh, in case you didn't know, I think Jamie Lee Curtis is beautiful, I would give the case 5 Stars just for her, but I want to put in a fair review here so overall I feel the company could have given us more stuff on this release package. The film itself sounds great though and I have no complaints there.

Spook Meter: 4 Stars. Now it's time to dig into the film itself. Prom Night IS truly the root of what ALL horror films should be based on, yes it's that good. It had some excellent creepy music first off. The sounds as the killer was dialing the phone to call was creepy! The killer talking into the phone is a very scary feeling as you watch this late at night and imagine your own phone ringing and getting a phone call like that. Prom night has one of the best chase scenes that I have seen in a horror film of the slasher kind. I could feel the tense feelings of each step through the darkened hallways of that school building. The pace at which it all builds up was excellent, not to fast, not to slow.

Gore/Violence Meter: 3 Stars. There is some blood but it's pretty average for a horror/slasher film. Nothing too gory but it's not really mild either. If you can handle seeing someone stabbed and some red blood shown then you will handle the gore fine, after all this is a slasher film and what would any slasher film be with no blood? Onto the violence. There are some scenes that are pretty violent, however it's nothing to overboard and one scene made me jump and laugh all at the same time. I found the violence to be the kind where it's still very fun to watch and does not leave you cringing every other moment or wishing you didn't watch it.

Profanity Meter: 1 Strike. This really is another main reason why I love this film so much and why I say ALL films should take a clue from this one. Prom night has almost NO foul language in the whole film and it was amazing to me that Gods name was not used at all. It made watching this so much more enjoyable and it left me with a huge smile on my face, FINALLY being able to watch a film and truly enjoy the dialog throughout. If any film makers ever read this review, please take it from me, a die hard horror film fan as well as general movie fan, films are so much better when you leave the foul language out, as it does nothing to enhance the film what so ever.

Sexual Meter: 2 Strikes. There are a couple of make out scenes in Prom Night but nothing is really shown except for some cleavage shots. In one scene a couple is making out in a back room and the guys hand slides up on this woman's leg and he is trying to go further with her when she stops him. He tries again telling her he loves her, she says no again and he gets mad and walks off and the scene is over.

Final Thoughts: Prom Night represents, all time classic horror/slasher filmmaking at it's best. There is just something very special about the early 80s slasher films that will never truly be captured again in my opinion. There are some great modern horror films of today, however the early 80s and the whole decade of the slasher films is something that is just at the top of my viewing list and always will be. The fact that Prom Night had very little profanity really also put this into a league of its own in my opinion, OH and of course Jamie Lee Curtis. :)
May 18, 2008

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