Prom Night.

Review #1743: Prom Night.

Cast: 

Leslie Nielsen (Mr. Hammond), Jamie Lee Curtis (Kimberly "Kim" Hammond), Casey Stevens (Nick McBride), Eddie Benton (Wendy Richards), Michael Tough (Alex Hammond), Robert A. Silverman (Mr. Sykes), Mary Beth Rubens (Kelly Lynch), Pita Oliver (Vicki), David Mucci (Lou Farmer), Joy Thompson (Jude Cunningham), George Touliatos (Lt. McBride), Sheldon Rybowski (Seymour "Slick" Crane), and Melanie Morse (Henri-Anne) Directed by Paul Lynch.

Review: 

Hey, you like movies that seem like other movies? Well, you certainly will have one here with the movie: Want to think about Halloween (1978)? Or how about Carrie (1976)? Or how about phone call creeps like Black Christmas (1974)? Or maybe Saturday Night Fever (1977) is your preference...so why not a revenge flick involving prom, a masked killer, and more? Well, you might not believe this, but you get all that and more in a puddle of a slasher movie. Incidentally, if one is thinking about Friday the 13th (1980) in this discussion, Paramount Pictures actually had a choice to distribute both of those films, but Avco Embassy Pictures ended up with this film because they wanted to release it in more theaters than Paramount (over a thousand as opposed to hundreds). But let us give a little detail to its creators first, hmm? Before he went into film, Paul Lynch worked as a cartoonist and a photographer before he made his venture into filmmaking in 1968 in television. He made his feature film debut with The Hard Part Begins (1973) as one of his "people pictures". He had an idea to do a horror film after hearing about the success of films like Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left (1972). Actually, he had approached Irwin Yablans (the producer behind Halloween who had thought of the initial idea) with an idea about a killer gynecologist, but instead he was moved into doing a themed horror film instead. Although he has continued to direct since this film, this is likely the most notable one most would know in his line of work, which involved a handful of films done in his native Canada along with countless television series work. The film had two writers: the story was done by Robert Guza Jr while the screenplay was by William Gray.

Keep in mind, there are numerous red herrings presented here, since one gets to follow along with numerous folks in its multi-faced presentation of high school weirdos that just happens to have a total body count of seven. So what does it involve you may ask? Well, there is a group of four children that get into an accident involving a dead body that think to hide their involvement from everyone...six years later a raspy voiced person (who just happened to have see what happened) calls each of them up and targets them for death. Of course it also just happens to be the same time that the man accused of being the killer has escaped the asylum...oh, and of course the whole "revenge at prom" thing is also present to go with a potential suspect in a janitor that likes to look at the folks. Oh hell, you'll have a good guess who it is if you pay attention to a certain bit of minutes in the beginning/end before it reveals itself. If you can believe it, Leslie Nielsen is here in one of his last serious roles (since this was the year of Airplane!, remember). Unfortunately, he doesn't have much to really do despite the high billing, since he kind of disappears for the middle of the film (it doesn't help that there were a few scenes removed from the theatrical version). At least Curtis helps out, albeit with acting and dancing. Granted, the role seems a bit too tailor-made for her, as if it should have been someone who wasn't already familiar with stuff like Halloween, but the perception at that time was that it was a B-movie; apparently the role was meant to be played by Eve Plumb (known for The Brady Bunch) before Curtis piped in with interest (of course, this decision also helped with securing financing, so there's that). What I am saying is that it all seems a bit too familiar, despite the fact that she is probably the best presence in the whole film (because she is the most caring of these weirdos). It's funny to think about: she was also the best of the "teenage" actors in that aforementioned Halloween film, which had more trouble with its loopy dialogue but managed to do more with its atmosphere to endure as a classic. At any rate, both of those films (along with the 1980 releases of The Fog and Terror Train) helped developed her image as a "scream queen", which works to the film's advantage in lasting legacy (one wonders what would have been with Plumb, but...). Stevens is kind of dull, but given the whole "oh hey, remember six years ago?", I guess that is better than if he was simply trying to hide away. Benton gives the all in trying to distract the usual horror stuff with melodrama that is pretty silly but "worth it", considering other highlights being Rybowski being a weirdo in a van to go with Mucci's tough guy act (and of course, the whole fight and head thing).

Of course, the film doesn't really have that much gore in it, as intended by Lynch to avoid a gratuitous feeling. It should be pointed out that the best scene however, is the one that Avco added later: a head-rolling scene involving the disco and screams. This is just a weird movie, one that has a variety of episodic moments that eventually get around to mysteries: by the 30th minute, you haven't seen someone get harmed, but you will have seen a cafeteria fight where a guy gets attacked in a ski mask. Oh, and you get a dance sequence by the time an hour has passed, because this was done around the era of disco. Honestly, I am fine with the music, because if you want to make a horror film that tries to not look like a cheap Canadian production, go big or go home (of course, if you are intending to see it, try to find a good looking version, since I initially found a version on the Web that looked really murky, but thankfully there are better ways to see it, which also includes a restoration). In that sense, it might be up to one's patience about what will win out for 92 minutes. There were follow-up movies, albeit ones only loosely connected to each other: Prom Night II: Hello Mary Lou (1987), Prom Night III: The Last Kiss (1990), and Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil (1992), alongside a remake in 2008, and I cannot imagine any of them matched the curiosity of the original (besides, there would be other films involving a killer knowing a secret such as I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)). For some, it might be a bit too dated to really hold interest within slashers in its era, while others will find a neat little gem involving mystery and disco that works on its own shuffle. Honestly, I found it okay enough to hold up as something to recommend, since it has just enough patience in its composition to make it all worth it.

 

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

It's time to amp it up with the 1980s, which means more than two films for this decade and beyond with horror features...

Next Time: The Howling (1981).