The
Slasher marathon continues with an old school favorite of mine starring Jamie
Lee Curtis and Leslie Nielsen. I’ve already covered Terror Train and the
Halloween Franchise is eventually going to get its own special treatment so
that leaves the Canadian flick Prom Night to complete the Curtis “Slasher Cycle”.
Things
start off in the past, as they always seem to, with some kids goofing off at an
abandoned convent. They are playing a version of hide and seek that includes
them chanting “the killer is going to get you.” Walking by are three siblings,
twins Alex and Robin as well as their sister Kim. Stuff happens and Robin ends
up unwittingly playing in the game and takes a header out the window as result.
The four kids that chased her to her death all agree that no one ever speaks of
it. This leads the police to blame a local sex pervert who gets charbroiled in
the ensuing car chase. That is our setup.
Six years
later Kim is a senior and the prom queen. The four kids are also seniors and
are getting ready to graduate. In a twisted bit of irony, they are also Kim’s
friends, except for Wendy who is mean, and the only boy in the group is Kim’s
date to the prom! Right away we are treated to obscene phone calls to the four
from someone threatening them. Seems that the mysterious voice knows what they
did and is now out for revenge. But who is it? Is it the horribly burned
pervert who has recently escaped jail? Or maybe Kim’s distraught mother who
can’t get over Robin’s death? We have a lot of suspects which makes the big
reveal at the end all the more fun. Plus, there is disco dancing!
A lot of
people don’t like this movie and I totally understand their arguments. I’m
going to explain as best I can the two most common complaints and then point
out why I don’t think they are fair. I’ll start off with the biggest one which
is the pacing of the story. Other than the death of Kim that sets up the
revenge motive for the killer there isn’t any violence or kills for the first
hour of the movie.
Most of
the story takes place the day and night of the prom. This means the first hour
is basically setting up the characters and potential suspects, of which there
are a few. I’ve always enjoyed the cast and their characters, so this has never
bored me. I appreciate the slow build up to the crazy killings that eventually
happen at the prom. I think that fans have that “formula” of a kill every ten
or fifteen minutes so ingrained in them that it makes them judge Prom Night too
harshly. Remember this is right at the beginning of the Slasher craze and the
rules hadn’t been established yet. This one plays more like a murder mystery
and I enjoy it.
When we do
get to the last half hour of the movie the bodies start to drop rapidly. Here
is where the other big complaint about the movie comes into play. The kills are
fairly tame with a couple off screen deaths, a stabbing that you don’t see much
of, and one beheading that is mostly just a prop rolling down a stage. The only
one that really bugged me is that we don’t get to see Wendy’s demise as it is
only hinted at. Still we have seven dead bodies even if they aren’t explicit or
all on the screen that is a decent body count.
While the
movie doesn’t have that signature kill, I would like to remind everyone that
the gore hadn’t really gotten ramped up when this was being shot. Friday the 13th
came out the same year and people forget how shocking and revolutionary the
gore was in that movie. It was a game changer, but Prom Night was made before
that became the thing to do. Blaming it for not being gory enough isn’t fair at
all.
I enjoy
the heck out of Prom Night. It has an engaging story, good cast, some disco
dancing (damn that soundtrack is fun!), and a payoff with a killer that works.
Re-watch the movie and pay attention to who is where and you will realize that
this is one of those flicks that makes sure the killer could have actually been
the killer. I love that attention to detail. Sure, some more explicit kills
would have been nice but that doesn’t ruin this one for me. I recommend Prom
Night for anyone who digs slasher movies and wants to see an early example of
the genre.
© Copyright 2019 John Shatzer
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