Prom Night

Rating:
Summary: All Hail Jamie Lee Curtis! Queen of Slasher Movies
Review: I once read somewhere that this movie could be described as a cross between Halloween (1978), Carrie (1976) and Saturday Night Fever (1977) and they would correct about this early entry in the slasher movie cycle. It tells the story of a group of four friends who are stalked by a killer at the prom night of title. The motive for the killer is revenge for the accidental death of a girl six years before in rather macabre version of sardines called 'killers'. The director Paul Lynch, who also directed the video nasty Humongous (1982), manages to generate some suspense. The highpoint of the movie is an extended stalking scene with the axe wielding killer chasing a hapless victim through the darken corridors of the school. The disco aspect of the movie has dated it the worst though especially with the dance scenes between Jamie Lee Curtis and Leslie Neilson being particularly embarrassing. The interior monologues which occur from time to time are amusing as well. The influence of this movie can be seen in the second wave of slasher movie such as I Know What You did Last Summer (1997). Though not as good as either Friday the 13th (1980) or Halloween (1978) it is still a pretty good slasher movie.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining!
Review: I really enjoyed this movie and now own it. Although it is dated (you can tell by the clothes, dancing, etc.), it keeps you guessing the whole way through. Little Robin Hammond accidentally gets killed when the neighborhood kids were taunting her. Now, six years later, on the anniversary of Robin's death, a killer is on the loose at the prom. It begins with chilling phone calls, and then leads to a bloody rampage. I especially liked Wendy (who was formerly Eddie Benton, but is now Anne-Marie Martin). Although her character was a mean snob, she was beautiful. The scene of her going to the prom with Lou was comical, because normally she would never be caught dead with someone like him. Her boyfriend had dumped her, and was now dating Kim Hammond (Jamie Lee Curtis). Wendy goes to the prom with Lou and tries to think of ways to hurt Kim and get her boyfriend back. The ending was a bit shocking, as you would never guess who was guilty of all this.

Rating:
Summary: THE DIFINITIVE MASTERPIECE OF SLASHER FILMS!
Review: In 1974, four children, all about age 11 or 12, are playing--in an abandoned schoolhouse--hide-and-seek. When a ponytailed ten-year-old girl named Robin intrudes on these four children on her way home from school, she is backed up to a window ledge and falls through the pane, plummeting to her death two stories below. As the four other children gaze at the girl's corpse covered with broken glass, they realize no one will believe it is an accident and make a pact to keep the incident a secret. Which is a deadly mistake, as we shall see, for someone else has witnessed little Robin's death and wants revenge....

Fast forward six years to 1980. Now the four children are seniors in high school and it's prom night--but much worse, it's also the anniversary of Robin's death. Robin's older sister Kim (Jamie Lee Curtis) is friends with two of the foursome--timorous Kelly and jolly Jude--and another of the four, Nick, is Kim's boyfriend. The last of the four--Wendy--is jealous of Kim because Kim stole Nick away from her.

That morning, the foursome recieve ominous phone calls from a shadowy figure with a thin, slimy, whispery voice; later in the day they discover their yearbook photos taped to their locker doors with daggerlike shards of broken glass--echoes of the broken glass that had cloaked little Robin's cadaver. The incidents are dismissed as pranks as the group prepares for the prom.

As darkness falls they arrive at the prom and dance to the synthesized rhythms of disco music. The movie is worth watching for the disco score alone--it boasts some of the best disco ever created, composed by Paul Zaza, with a pulsating 4/4 beat, sensuous mock-symphonic orchestration that has glorious violin riffs and flourishes. It's a pity that there's no available soundtrack, as I've searched extensively for one. And then there's that wonderfully choreographed SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER-like dance between KIm and Nick, the two of them twirling and gyrating to the disco beat.

Then the killing begins.

Kelly, a wan young lass, is snuffed out with a shard of broken glass (again echoes of the shattered glass blanketing little Robin's corpse) in the girl's locker room after reneging on her promise to give up her virginity to her boyfriend.

Jolly party-girl Jude inadventently exposes her neck to the killer while rollicking with her date in back of a van parked outside the school.

Wendy, looking more like a seasoned prostitute than a junior miss in her plungy red gown with the tight sequined bodice, is stalked from restroom to parking garage, from parking garage to science lab, from science lab to storage room where she is safe...

....until Kelly's bloody body dangles down from a shelf, causing her to scream--whereupon she is discovered and felled with an axe.

The chase scene with Wendy fleeing through the labryrinth of darkened school corridors is the ONLY horror flick scene that has truly scared me.

Then the killer goes after Nick, who struggles with him on the disco floor now empty of terrified dancers. The strobe-lit, disco-scored axe-fight is tense, and finally Kim grabs the hatchet and stuns the masked maniac, who flees outside before crumbling to the sidewalk.

PROM NIGHT is perhaps the best slasher movie ever made--this from a movie buff who's seen them all. It's far superior to the mediocre FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH, which was released that same year. PROM NIGHT has it all: a fast-moving plot, mystery, a magnificent disco score, macabre killings, and characters you actually care about. If you don't want to be scared, then don't see this movie.

Rating:
Summary: Not your best slasher, far from your worst
Review: Jamie Lee Curtis followed up 1979's The Fog with 2 slashers: Terror Train, and Prom Night. Sure, she's long in the tooth to be playing a high school senior, but she was a dependable horror heroine.

Prom Night is pretty typical slasher fare. Nothing fancy. Years ago a group of youngsters accidentally caused the death of young girl during a cruel game of hide-and-go-seek. They swear forever to keep it a secret.

Years later, while all the attractive fems are perky high school seniors, someone starts making the phone calls. I have to admit, the whole sequence is a bit funny. Scene after scene of just the killer's mouth and chin rasping into the phone and asking if the girls like to play games, etc. Then he scratches names off a pad. A bit funny. Maybe we've just seen it parodied too much.

Anyway, there's little real suspense. A creepy stalk scene in the girls bathroom. Big red blinking red herrings thrown in shamelessly. There is a good chase sequence through creepy, dark school hallways. It leads to a payoff kill. Speaking of bloody murder, this isn't top of the list for gore, either. We get stabbings, some throat cutting. But the best effect is a single murder, and that's the disco-floor decapitation of an unlikable knucklehead senior.

Speaking of disco, you'll either be thrilled or horrified by how much this film has dated. We're talking a serious disco ball prom night here. You've been warned.

Jamie Lee is perfectly fine here. Leslie Nielson, yes, Leslie Nielson, plays a serious role as the school principal here. He's not bad, but you just keep expecting him to say, "And don't call me Shirley."

You could do far worse than Prom Night on a boring evening. If you're a genre fan like me, you'll like it, and you'll have to see it. Not the best, but adequate.

Rating:
Summary: I have to admit it...(* 1/2)
Review: No matter how many times I try to like this movie, I always can't help but think it SUCKS. And the thing is, I SHOULD like it. It's from the early 80's, it's a slasher movie, AND it has disco in it! But I CAN'T! It's not scary at all, and the action doesn't start till 20 mintues 'till the end! The prom part is boring, but everything leading up to the prom is VERY boring. The only good thing about "Prom Night" are the clothes, hair, and music.

Rating:
Summary: Prom Night not bad but not for everyone
Review: The only reason i saw this movie in the first place is because i saw jamie lee curtis was in it so i thought it couldnt be that bad because i loved halloween and terror train. I also thought it was funny that leslie nielsen was in it. I saw wrongfully accused not long before that so i though it was funny seeing leslie try to do a serious role. The plot of this movie is about a group of kids who accidentally kill a fellow classmate while playing a game and then make a pact never to tell anyone about it. Years pass and then its time for the kids senior prom. Leslie Nielsen plays the schools principal he is also the murdered girls father. Jamie lee plays the girls sister and Leslie's daughter. While at the prom an on looker of the murder years back is there to seek revenge and one by one murders the victim's killers. Good who done it kind of movie. Mostly recommended just for fans of jamie lee or a good slasher flick.