Prom Night - Die Nacht des Schlächters

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.

In truth, this is standard fair for a slasher. Only slightly above the level of many other slasher outings at the time. The killer only gets active during the last half hour of the movie, his identity easily guessed in the end (naturally revolving around a trauma from his past). The red herring is also very obvious. Lots of disco-dancing too in this one. At the time, I imagine it became mildly notorious because of one decapitation scene and gained a little recognition because of scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis starring in it. If you're a slasher fan, this is one you ought to see, even if it's not the most exciting watch you'll ever have.

A pretty mediocre slasher - one of the duller and more forgettable entries in the genre. Paul Lynch's 'Prom Night' has too many characters and doesn't bother to develop any of them other than with a few rushed clichés here and there. You end up with shallow characters you don't care about. The buildup takes too long while the killings are really artificial and lacking suspense. None of the acting is worth mentioning. Not even Jamie Lee Curtis is good here.

All of these characters look too old to be in high school, and it is a bit distracting. Jamie Lee Curtis looks too old for the part, even though she's just 21. She is rather ho-hum in Act I, but comes alive in Act III and especially the finale.

There's an effective, if rather by the book, setup to the movie, and that really is its saving grace, aside from a good score and willing cast. A little suspense, a decent mystery, and it is an alright slasher flick. Nothing overly special, but it is rather decent. I watch it maybe twice a year.

Decent enough, and if you are a slasher fan, it is a must own.

Semi-classic

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.