Prom Night (1980)

Directed by Paul Lynch

Viewed on Amazon Prime

 

While we’re still in Spooktober, now is a great time to look at one of the movies that put Jamie Lee Curtis on the map as a “Scream Queen.” No, not Halloween, not yet anyway. Today I’ll be taking a look at the schoolyard slasher, Prom Night! I don’t know very much about this movie actually, except that it stars Jamie Lee Curtis fresh off her success as Laurie Strode of Halloween. And it also has Leslie Nielsen for some reason. That sounds like such a strange combination, but does it pay off?

These Kids Are Pretty Vicious.

Prom Night is the timeless tale of murder accidental death and the ripple effect that goes on to cause many many other murders. This death in question takes place at an abandoned building where a bunch of children play a game of modified hide and seek that I think is called either Killers or The Killers are Coming. It works the same way, a bunch of people hide and then one person goes to find them but the main difference is that the seeker just shouts about how the killer is coming the whole time, which you think they wouldn’t want to do because that would give away her position but whatever. Two siblings walking outside, on their way to mime school judging by their clothes, overhear this and one of them decides to go in while the other does not. Unfortunately for her, after she enters, the hive mind of the bullies kicks in and they start chasing her around shouting, “The Killers Are Coming.” They surround her, start pushing her and back her into a corner, while this girl is just trying to get away, with her eventually being pushed back to a shaky windowpane, which promptly collapses, letting the girl fall to the ground. Assuming she is dead, they all just decide to not tell anyone about this and leave.

Leading To A Plot Spread Far Too Thin.

Oh, that wasn’t the plot of the movie, that was the plot of the opening scene. Years later these same kids are at high school preparing for prom night. Everyone is very busy getting their dates in order and the movie takes a while to establish that there are several people who could have motives for going on a killing spree at this high school. Nothing happens for about forty or so minutes and then people from that same friend group start getting murdered. The cops try to figure out who the killer is but are baffled due to their shocking incompetence. Also Leslie Nielsen is the principal of the school but he doesn’t say or do anything interesting.

The Usual Suspects.

You may notice that the second half of the plot synopsis, where I actually summarize the plot, is really barren, especially compared to the amount of time I spent describing the game in the prologue to the movie. That is because the prologue is literally the only important part of the movie and EVERYTHING else is just filler. I am getting mildly ahead of myself, so let’s establish the possible candidates for the masked killer. The first candidate is a catatonic schizophrenic man, who was badly injured during in the aftermath of girl’s death. The police thought that Robin was molested and then murdered and that this guy was responsible for it. They tried to arrest him but he fled and was grievously injured in the chase. This guy escapes from the hospital and steals a car, so the police think he is coming back to the town to get revenge. There is a really creepy groundskeeper at the high school who is a pervert that likes to ogle the girls, although that might be somewhat exacerbated by the fact that a young female student moons him for no reason. Also there is Lou, a violent thirty year old high schooler who assaults Jamie Lee Curtis and is just a jackass who gets suspended indefinitely by Principal Leslie Nielsen.

Sadly All This Development Is For Naught.

There are three possible killers who each have their own sequences: the police trying to hunt down the escaped schizophrenic guy, occasional scenes of the groundskeeper being creepy or drunk, and Lou plotting with other people to “get back at” the school for suspending him. All of these characters/circumstances are set up pretty well with their own motivations and unique side characters and there is plenty of time dedicated to them. There’s only one problem: these guys are ALL obviously red herrings. Not even five minutes into the movie my fiance and I looked at each other and said “oh this person is the killer,” and we were completely right! I’m not bragging about how clever we are, I’m just saying that it is really obvious that only one person had the motivation and the resources to commit these murders and it is obvious from the first scene of when we meet everyone as adults again. And that is a huge problem.

So Many Things Happen That Nothing Really Happens.

It is a huge problem because the pacing becomes absolutely glacial as the filmmakers introduce character after character and subplot after subplot that you know will have absolutely no bearing on what is actually going to be the result. The only characters important to the story are the four kids involved in the incident: Nick, Kelly, Wendy and Jude, plus the two siblings of the girl who died, Alex and Kim (Jamie Lee Curtis). But because so much screen time is devoted to establishing all of the possible killers, we just don’t get to know these characters as much as I would have liked. There are a couple subtle things that I liked about there characterization, I liked that the original group isn’t all still friends anymore, Wendy is now a bully who is hanging out with Lou, while Alex and Kim have joined the friend group. I liked that detail and the acknowledgment that childhood friendships don’t always last. That one bit is one nice detail that gets lost in otherwise pretty standard high school relationships.

Otherwise It Isn’t Bad At All, Except For Maybe The Character Designs.

The most frustrating thing is that otherwise Prom Night is pretty decent. I don’t have much of an issue with the cinematography or editing of the film, it looks pretty good for a mid budget slasher from 1980. The campy disco laden soundtrack and visuals also give it a certain amount of staying power, I’ll certainly not forget the disco prom scenes anytime soon, but the problem is that this competent film making isn’t in service of anything meaningful. But while I’m able to I will nitpick one more thing. The character designs. There are so many characters in this movie and so many of them have nearly the same body type, haircut and fashion sense that I would legitimately get confused as to who was who. The worst were Alex and Nick who are both the same height and build with curly light brown/dirty blonde hair, they appear in so many scenes and I would just occasionally forget who was who. Other people might not have this same problem but it was a weird thing I noticed.

Another Movie I Wish I Had Been Able To See In Context Of Its Time.

Maybe I would have enjoyed the movie more seeing it when it released in 1980, without my knowledge of slashers and whodunits but I can’t really make that assumption. I can only report what I thought after I saw the movie when I saw it. Even if I saw it in a timely atmosphere though I think I still might have been able to see where things were going and confused by the deluge of similar looking characters. Watching it today though, Prom Night is mostly interesting as a disco-fueled relic that gives a little insight into the bizarre fashion choices of early ’80s Canada. It isn’t a terrible movie and it never hurt me but I wouldn’t recommend it as a horror movie, except maybe for people who love Jamie Lee Curtis and/or early ’80s slashers. Also maybe disco freaks would get a kick out of it.