Lively, entertaining reviews of, and essays on, old and newer films and everything relating to them, written by professional author William Schoell.

Thursday, June 16, 2016

PROM NIGHT (1980)

The hilarious disco dance from Prom Night
PROM NIGHT (1980). Director: Paul Lynch.

A little girl taunted by classmates is accidentally killed and no one goes to the police or even calls an ambulance. The other children are now grown up and getting ready for the senior prom. Kim Hammond (Jamie Lee Curtis) is the sister of the dead girl, and Alex (Michael Tough) is her brother. Literally an hour goes by before anyone gets killed, with throat slashings and beheadings the order of the day. There is a rather comical Dance Fever-type number featuring Kim and her boyfriend, Nick (Casey Stevens), but some of the attack scenes are well-handled, such as a chase after a "mean girl;" an assault on two likable teens who have just lost their virginity; and the film's bravura sequence featuring the old severed head rolling down the runway. The film employs such cliches as the escaped madman and the weird janitor. Leslie Nielsen [Dark Intruder] and Antoinette Bower [Mission: Impossible] play Kim's parents. The acting is more than adequate -- most of the younger actors had few credits -- with Tough making the best impression as Alex. Clearly influenced by both Halloween and Carrie, this has a not bad final credit song, "Fade to Black." Remade in 2008.

Verdict: Probably helped kill disco. **1/2 out of 4.

2 comments:

angelman66 said...

I MUST see this one, can't understand how I missed it when it first came out. I used to love movies like Friday the 13th and My Bloody Valentine and Terror Train!

Lucky I enjoy bad movies, too!! They are sometimes a lot more fun than pretty-good ones!
:-)
-Chris

William said...

I concur! You have to see the disco scene if nothing else. And the runway scene is a hoot, too!