Prom Night (1980)


Halloween cemented Jamie Lee Curtis's reputation as a scream queen, so it's no surprise that her early films just saw her go along with it.  Prom Night saw her returning again as a teenager, this time lending her talents to what otherwise is a paint-by-numbers horror film that tried to jump in on the nascent slasher craze.  Like many early entries it still feels stuck in the 1970s, and that is even without the disco music that permeates the last third of the movie when the killings finally do start. 

In 1974 a quartet of children playing in an abandoned convent end up scaring a girl named Robin (Tammy Bourne) to the point where she falls out of a window and dies.  Rather than report it to the police, their leader Wendy (Leslie Scott) convinces the others to keep silent.  As a result a local suspected sex offender is arrested and institutionalized for the murder.  In 1980 he escapes, and the perpetrators, now teenagers, start receiving threatening phone calls. 

Robin's sister Kim (Curtis), the daughter of the school principal (Leslie Nielsen), is dating Nick (Casey Stevens), who was one of the ones responsible.  Nick is Wendy's (Anne-Marie Martin) ex, and she and a school delinquent named Lou (David Mucci) plan to sabotage their coronation as queen and king of the upcoming prom.  Meanwhile, the other two girls, Kelly (Mary Beth Rubens) and Vicki (Pita Oliver) have gone their own way and are friends of Kim.  While the authorities try to catch the killer, the prom commences, and one by one the group of childhood friends begin to die. 

Paul Lynch is okay as a director and has a good eye for a shot.  What he doesn't have is a good idea of how to edit a movie into a story.  Quite a bit was cut and, since the movie is a slow burn to begin with, the excuse of pacing can't be used.  This includes red herrings for a number of characters, which would have increased the tension.  I have a feeling at one point this was more of a giallo style thriller, and the kills that are in it hint toward that.  Many of them remind me of Mario Bava, just not as visually interesting, except for one major kill that is the highlight.  The whole subplot about an escaped killer was added on later, and many of the characters playing the police never truly interact with the rest of the cast. 

What's left isn't the most exciting horror film.  Many of the kill sequences go on way too long, and many of them involve the old cliché of the protagonists just doing stupid things that ultimately get them killed.  One grand example is a chase that ends up going through the whole school, when the person being chased should have just headed straight back for the dance.  When people are taken by surprise the set-up just takes so long that it is hard to be excited when the kill finally does come.

Despite all this Jamie Lee Curtis is still good as ever and she does her own dancing and stunts toward the end of the movie.  Leslie Nielsen is barely in the film, but is prominently billed due to his involvement in Airplane!.  This was still at a point where Nielsen got hired for serious roles and hadn't made a career in comedy.  Everyone else is decent, even if the villains are too close to those in Carrie.  

I remember being bored by Prom Night the first time I saw it, and I can see why.  I like it a little better now but I stand by my feeling that this would pretty much be a forgotten horror film without Jamie Lee Curtis.  Just to be clear, this is not really the start of a series, as Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II has nothing to do with this movie, and was a stand-alone film retitled because this one had decent returns.  The latter is actually quite a good film, and a much more memorable film than Prom Night.  I might not be saying that if the best parts of the movie weren't sitting on the cutting room floor. 

Prom Night (1980)
Time: 92 minutes
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Casey Stevens, Leslie Nielsen, Anne-Marie Richards, David Tucci, Pita Oliver, Anne-Marie Martin, Michael Tough
Director: Paul Lynch




 

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