Classic Horror: Prom Night (1980)

“If you’re not home by midnight…..”

Well on the way to establishing herself as a “scream queen,” Jamie Lee Curtis starred in 1980’s Prom Night, a Canadian slasher flick that also starred Leslie Nielsen (Forbidden Planet, The Naked Gun). With a lean budget, a fairly green cast and crew, and Paul Lynch directing it all, the film proved to be a financial hit despite being a cookie-cutter slasher film.

Just so you know, this review includes spoilers. The film is forty years old, so if you haven’t seen it yet, that’s on you!!!

The film opens with the tragic accidental death of Robin Hammond, twin sister of Alex, and younger sister to Kim. Robin dies when she falls out of a window after being scared and taunted by four youngsters. The leader of the youngsters, the demanding Wendy, makes the other three kids, Kelly, Jude, and Nick, swear to never tell anyone about their involvement and they quickly run away. Robin’s murder is pinned on a local sex offender, though it is never proven that he actually committed the crime.

Six years to the date of Robin’s death later, Kim, Alex, and all of the other kids at Alexander Hamilton High School are getting ready for the prom. Kim is dating Nick, fresh off of his breakup with Wendy, who is jealous of Kim and Nick’s relationship. Jude manages to get a date with Slick, a pudgy but very confident young man who asks her to the prom. Kelly is attending the prom with her steady boyfriend, Drew, who she is considering having sex with for the first time. While they are getting ready for school, all four of the kids involved in Robin’s death receive cryptic phone calls from a stranger stating that it is “my time to play.” The calls are all blown off as a lewd prank, but as the film continues, the foursome receive yearbook photos with shattered glass attached to each one. Plans for the prom go ahead and Wendy, wanting revenge against Nick and Kim, plans a scheme to embarrass both of them with the help of the school’s local sleezeball, Lou.

Unfortunately for Wendy, her plans (and the plans of Kelly, Jude, and Nick) are tossed out of the window (much like poor little Robin) thanks to a slasher who systematically eliminates each of them. The kills are fairly isolated to begin with, but Wendy manages to evade the killer long enough to have someone witness her murder and her scheme to embarrass Kim and Nick ends up in the death of Lou and his severed head rolling down the runway of the stage during the crowning of Kim and Nick as prom queen and king.

Director Paul Lynch does an excellent job of keeping viewers from guessing who the killer is for most of the film (although it starts to become obvious once the body count climbs). He intentionally has a number of characters “go missing” for different reasons. Kim’s mom has a mental breakdown. Her father, who happens to be the principal, also mysteriously disappears. Alex fades into the background at the prom and the sex offender who is suspected of Robin’s murder manages to escape from a psychiatric hospital, takes a nurse hostage, steals her car, and then kills her and dumps the body near the abandoned school where Robin died.

The film’s kills aren’t particularly elaborate, but that actually works in the film’s favor. The killer stumbles around, gets banged up pretty bad while attempting to murder some of the characters, and almost dies in a van explosion to boot. You quickly realize that this killer is A) not supernatural, B) definitely not a professional, and C) knows the school and its students very well. The big reveal at the end of the film is not a shocker, but I’m sure that many viewers can sympathize with the murderer to a degree.

The film is very straightforward and contains all of the stereotypical elements of a teen slasher film. It has the pure and popular lead character in Kim (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her jealous and wicked rival in Wendy (Eddie Benton). It has an accidental death that triggers revenge and a group of kids who want to admit their wrongdoing but are coaxed into silence by the group’s leader. There’s the school bully in Lou (David Mucci), who ends up getting murdered despite not being a part of the initial death. There’s also the innocent bystander, Slick (Sheldon Rybowski), who, along with Jude (Joy Thompson), lose their virginity and their lives in the same night. The main character falls in love with one of the participants in the accidental death, Nick (Casey Stevens), who really wants to admit his involvement, but doesn’t get the chance (although, in most slasher films, the character does admit their involvement and either lives or dies to save others). There’s a distraught mother (Antoinette Bower) and an emotionally tired father (Leslie Nielsen). There’s misdirection as to who the actual killer is as well. And, as in all of the “greatest” teen slasher films, there’s some gratuitous T&A. In this film, it’s in the form of a mooning by Vicki (Pita Oliver), Kim’s best friend, and a couple of scenes involving Kelly (Mary Beth Rubens).

This film is pretty good despite being a basic slasher flick. The cast did a great job and the kills, while not necessarily groundbreaking, were executed quite well. The decapitation aftermath featuring Lou’s head on the stage runway is one of the best parts of the film and a good example of practical effects looking better than CGI effects. The film also had a wildly popular disco soundtrack featuring songs that closely resembled contemporary tracks of the time but, due to costs, couldn’t be used in the film. The album was only released in Japan and has been hunted by fans of the movie for years.

While the film isn’t a trailblazer in any way, shape, or form, it’s still worth a look. It cemented Jamie Lee Curtis as a scream queen and was one of the last serious roles that Leslie Nielsen ever had. He would go on to have a very successful comedic career in cinema and on television. Most of the film’s other stars either had moderately successful careers in Canada on the stage or screen or they faded into obscurity. Antoinette Bower’s career lasted four decades and included multiple guest appearances on television in shows such as Hogan’s Heroes and Murder, She Wrote. Mary Beth Rubens appeared on numerous shows as well including Alfred Hitchcock Presents and F/X: The Series. She also appeared in films such as Firebird 2015 A.D. and The Michelle Apartments. Perhaps the most successful actor in the film outside of Curtis and Nielsen is Eddie Benton, who would go on to make numerous guest appearances in shows such as Highway to Heaven and T.J. Hooker and starred on Days Of Our Lives. Most notably, she starred as Dori for both seasons of Sledge Hammer!, a short-lived ABC series that I loved.

Be sure to check out Prom Night! There was a series of sequels released that had no real connection to this film. I haven’t watched any of them yet, but I’ll probably check out one or two of them. If I do, I’ll definitely blog about them.

Thanks for checking out my first post for 2021! I want to wish all of you a Happy New Year and hope that this year is a great one for us all!