Le Bal de l'horreur

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.

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.

I saw Prom Night when it was released back in 1980. So in honor of my 16 year old son's prom this past week, I decided to re-visit this clunky classic and see if I can re-capture my youth. And you know what? I think I enjoyed Prom Night better the second time around. There was actually a pretty good red-herring or two thrown in the mix to "confuse" the viewer into thinking who the killer really was. As a matter of fact since it's been so long, I forgot who the really turned out to be (I was after only 16 myself when I saw this movie 30 years ago!) and was actually surprised at the reveal.

Although there were and still are certain things that ruin the movie for me (like the fact that most of the actors look to be well in their 30s and that disco had already made a quick exit), it's kinda fun to see how campy the film really is. I recommend watching it at least once and enjoy it for what it really is: a time capsule to those lost years of the early slasher movies.

Maybe the reason "Prom Night" doesn't have brilliant scores on IMDb is because it's supposed to be a horror movie, but it isn't. It is more of a thriller mixed with a teen movie. A good and entertaining teen movie at that. It has interesting and likable characters, some gloriously cheesy (even hilarious) scenes and nice disco music. Performances of the actors are decent and there is even a pretty good chase scene which looks like something that inspired Craven's chase scenes in Scream! Objectively, this movie is a good piece of fun featuring Jamie Lee Curtis in her prime and Leslie Nielsen (it's really weird to see him trying to be serious and you are just waiting to drop some jokes) and if you like a comfy teen movie with a little slasher thrown in the mix, you will have a good time. If you on the other hand want just horror like "Halloween" was, well, you are in for a disappointment. 7.5/10! I recommend it to both veterans and casuals alike!

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.