Prom Night - Die Nacht des Schlächters

'Prom Night' is a decent little slasher-mystery starring Jamie Lee Curtis in her third scream queen role. The movie also stars Leslie Nielsen as Jamie Lee's father and Hamilton High School principal. Everyone else in it are just bit players, but we must consider that this film stars one of the wickedest you-know-whats in slasher movie history. Her name is Wendy, and she is played by Anne-Marie Martin. Who this actress is, or was, I have no idea, but I know I hated her character with a passion. One of the biggest bonuses for horror fans in this movie will be the big chase scene with her and the killer quite near the end which was deliberately filmed super dark. You can hardly see what's going on and for me it is the best scene in the whole movie. Big points for Wendy's chase scene. It works since she plays the role well, and we've waited so long for this scene and it comes pretty much near the end, but it delivers.

Anyway, 'Prom Night' opens with a tragedy in which young Robin Hammond, who is Jamie Lee's character's little sister, accidentally falls to her death from a two-story window after being cornered by four brats(Wendy, Nick, Kelly, and Jude)who were trying to scare her. Freaked out that they may be in serious trouble, they all make a pact to take it to the grave, initiated by Wendy, the leader of the brats. Ultimately the blame gets pegged on some serial pedophile and no one ever suspects the four kids. But someone else knows and was there and saw the whole thing. We continue twelve years later. It's the day of the prom and all four of the kids receive raspy phone calls, asking them to "come out to play". It concerns most of them, but eventually their minds stray back to the prom. Some of them have dates, some don't. Jamie Lee ends up going with Nick who just dumped Wendy, so Wendy hooks up with Lou, who sort of serves as John Travolta's Billy Nolan from 'Carrie', and the two of them plan to play a prank on Jamie Lee and Nick since they were voted Prom King and Queen. Pause real quick. Remember, Nick is one of the kids who was involved with the death of Jamie Lee's little sister. Could you really keep a secret that big from someone you are "going steady" with? Also, the two other girls involved, Kelly and Jude, appear to be good friends with Jamie Lee's character. I don't think there is much logic in that, but hey, it's a horror movie. I have to overlook it.

In the end, prom dreams are sliced and diced as the vengeful killer begins knocking each of them off, eighties style. The movie is definitely pretty corny and cheaply made, but that's all part of it's charm. The suspense is there, the score is really creepy, and Jamie Lee does her thing. However, the best part is the mystery. Who is the killer? I'm sure we all know twenty-five years later, but it was fun finding out. Everyone is a suspect in 'Prom Night', as mentioned by Randy from the first 'Scream', and it will keep you guessing right up to the climax. Well, actually, when it gets to that point there are only a couple people left that it can be...but it was still a bit of a surprise.

Honestly, I think 'Prom Night' could use a remake. My VCR copy has such awful quality that it's really quite hard to see what's going on on the screen, and I hear that the DVD isn't any better, so I think we could all benefit from a remastered version, or even a remake at this point.

6/10 is my vote. A decent little slice and dice mystery from days long gone. How I miss them...

Six years ago four kids make a pack to keep a secret, which involved the mysterious death of child Robin Hammond. They thought that were the only ones who knew what had happened, but some else witnessed it to. Now that person strings them along, to eventually plan their revenge during Prom night.

A real thank-you to the commercial success of "Halloween (1977)" and "Friday the 13th (1980), which saw the influx of slasher films and "Prom Night" was one of the first to step up. Too bad that we have here is an unspectacular so-so, if slick looking slasher effort that got caught labouring along with very little happening and providing us with corny school melodramatics. When it came to the crunch, most of the Prom Night sequences was about getting the groove on and listening to funky dory disco soundtrack. Oh it just makes you want to bogey; well it didn't stop Jamie Lee Curtis from strutting her stuff. However when it came to the good stuff, I thought the novel deaths were soundly executed, and there's a certain unpleasantness about them. When the black hooded killer (who's quite fast on their feet and would make for a good shaker too) is tormenting and stalking the victims (from be it to the phone calls or hanging about in the shadowy corridors) there's an ominous air to proceedings, which director Paul Lynch pulls off rather well. It's just too bad that most of the time is used setting this all up with ineffective red herrings and below par, drawn out script. Too many loose ends creep in, even though the premise is quite slight and you can find yourself laughing at its unintentional goofiness and picking up on it predictability.

Robert New's stunningly vivid camera movements are atmospherically airy and Paul Zaza and Carl Zittrer's sorrowfully twisted musical score gets it cues right. The performances from the cast are acceptable with a likable Jamie Lee Curtis (earning her scream queen tag at the time) proves herself as an upcoming talent. Weak character, but well judged performance. Leslie Nielsen looks awkwardly distracted, and seems to duck off in a phone-in performance and George Touliatos gives the film some solidarity. Anne-Marie Martin is a delight as the scheming sexpot Wendy, David Mucci is perfect as the boorish brute Lou and Casey Stevens is modest as Curtis' prom date Nick.

This post-Halloween slasher is familiar and slowly plotted, but its competent technical handling helps.

The opening to the film started good with a slow pace building up to the classmate's death, however, after flashing forward six years, the film starts to slow down. Immediately for the majority of the whole hour of the hour and a half film. It's just build-up to the prom there are long scenes with the killer is just calling up all his victims and just threatening trying to scare them.it overstays its welcome it just drags the movie out. Along with Jamie Lee Curtis, none of the other characters are really that interesting or we get to know anything about them throughout the whole movie it's just them talking and goofing around. By the hour mark is where it starts to get interesting because that's when the prom actually happens with the killer pursuing his victims but more generic and cliché with teenagers just making dumb decisions there's a scene with one girl just runs further away for the auditorium where all the students are dancing and just runs to the far end of the school where no one would even know she was here. This entire film they constantly hammer and the possibility of suspects who the killer might be. The ending is disappointing and Lazy. The most recognizable scene in this movie is the dance with the Prom night song playing. This movie could've been cut down to a short film instead of feature-length.

One of the Halloween follow-ups that would give Jamie Lee Curtis the title of "scream queen".

Children accidentally cause the death of a little girl, now years later they are in high school and getting ready for the prom. However, it seems someone else is planning on getting some murderous revenge on prom night.

Prom Night is a formula slasher film, with plenty of the slasher trappings, but there are some elements that raise this film above some of the others of it kind. The director gives this movie a truly dark and eerie atmosphere, with the help of Paul Zaza's spooky music score. The plot remains engaging throughout and the creep-factor is kept high. One difference from the slasher "norms" is the fact that we ultimately have sympathy and even sorrow for the film's killer.

While Prom Night is hardly a flawless movie, in fact there are a few scenes where the lighting is way too low and the disco prom dates the film, it does hold it's own. The cast gives good performances, especially Curtis, Eddie Benton, and the late Casey Stevens. There's also a few good rock numbers like "Prom Night" and the mellow "Fade to Black".

Worth a look for slasher fans.

*** out of ****

This 80s slasher film is a bit of a snooze. The storyline is interesting but too much time is spent on the high school drama. The slasher kills are obviously low budget, but they mostly work.