Arriving as it did during the early moments of the slasher film explosion of the 80's, Prom Night was undoubtedly much more impressive then than it is today. Stripped of historical significance, modern viewers will probably be disappointed to find this dated offering to be a relatively bloodless affair with a meager body count and limited thrills. Certainly, as a horror film, Prom Night doesn't have the tools to deliver any solid scares. But as a piece of time capsule kitsch, this movie is a very fun watch, even if the unintentional laughs outweigh the splatter elements.
The set-up that ultimately launches the film's flimsy revenge plot is silly and awkwardly-staged, with a young girl basically walking out of a window to her death because a quartet of pint-sized kids her own age chant "kill" over and over again. This isn't a particularly terrifying scenario, so things get off to a clumsy start here.
It doesn't help matters that the next hour of the film is almost completely devoid of anything suspenseful, scary, or even interesting, save for a series of phone calls to the film's eventual victims made by a killer who has obviously watched too many Dario Argento films. The rest of the runtime for the first two acts is padded with long-winded character development, needless subplots, and a few attempts at red herring planting that ultimately fall flat.
There is also a lot of screen time devoted to extended Disco dancing sequences, which, predictably, have aged far worse than the rest of the film. Compounding the goofiness, when Jamie Lee Curtis and her date are horrified to see that their nemeses have arrived at the prom despite being expelled, Jamie Lee proclaims, "let's show them what we can do!", at which point she and her partner take to the dance floor and lay down some revenge boogie. Take that, jerks!
The film shows us too much of the killer early on, so even though this is supposed to be a whodunnit, the list of likely suspects is quite short by the time any of the murders start happening. Even worse, the masked, black-clad maniac is the smallest-statured movie psycho of all time, and any menace derived from our mysterious prom-crasher is promptly done away with once we see them and Jamie Lee on the screen at the same time, at which point we can't help but notice that our scream queen star is both taller and more physically intimidating than the killer.
When the slasher movie festivities finally get underway, the resulting murders are downright quaint in their subdued delivery, and only a couple of sequences have any real impact. The payoff is relatively meager considering the extended exposition, and while the killer's surprise reveal at the end makes narrative sense, it is a bit disconcerting to see that the skulking murderer we've been following throughout the film is actually the most benign character in the entire cast.
A horror classic, this ain't. But the glaring markers of the era give the film nostalgic interest, and it's definitely fun to see Leslie Nielsen playing it straight, even if he abruptly disappears from the film without explanation before the climax. Jamie Lee is also a welcome presence, and although she seems to be phoning her scenes in most of the time, we have to concede that she gives the admittedly weak material about what it deserves.
The ancillary elements of the film (including the very cool theatrical poster and its killer tag-line) are actually more interesting than the finished product, and only the most forgiving fans of the genre's boom during this period will gleam much enjoyment here.
It's hard to recommend a film that has such limited appeal, but I must confess that I have a genuine fondness for Prom Night, and I still enjoy myself every time I watch it. 1978-1983 was truly a magical era when the horror genre exploded with low budget delights, and if you hold those golden years in your heart, your chances of forgiving this film's trespasses are much better.
The set-up that ultimately launches the film's flimsy revenge plot is silly and awkwardly-staged, with a young girl basically walking out of a window to her death because a quartet of pint-sized kids her own age chant "kill" over and over again. This isn't a particularly terrifying scenario, so things get off to a clumsy start here.
It doesn't help matters that the next hour of the film is almost completely devoid of anything suspenseful, scary, or even interesting, save for a series of phone calls to the film's eventual victims made by a killer who has obviously watched too many Dario Argento films. The rest of the runtime for the first two acts is padded with long-winded character development, needless subplots, and a few attempts at red herring planting that ultimately fall flat.
There is also a lot of screen time devoted to extended Disco dancing sequences, which, predictably, have aged far worse than the rest of the film. Compounding the goofiness, when Jamie Lee Curtis and her date are horrified to see that their nemeses have arrived at the prom despite being expelled, Jamie Lee proclaims, "let's show them what we can do!", at which point she and her partner take to the dance floor and lay down some revenge boogie. Take that, jerks!
The film shows us too much of the killer early on, so even though this is supposed to be a whodunnit, the list of likely suspects is quite short by the time any of the murders start happening. Even worse, the masked, black-clad maniac is the smallest-statured movie psycho of all time, and any menace derived from our mysterious prom-crasher is promptly done away with once we see them and Jamie Lee on the screen at the same time, at which point we can't help but notice that our scream queen star is both taller and more physically intimidating than the killer.
When the slasher movie festivities finally get underway, the resulting murders are downright quaint in their subdued delivery, and only a couple of sequences have any real impact. The payoff is relatively meager considering the extended exposition, and while the killer's surprise reveal at the end makes narrative sense, it is a bit disconcerting to see that the skulking murderer we've been following throughout the film is actually the most benign character in the entire cast.
A horror classic, this ain't. But the glaring markers of the era give the film nostalgic interest, and it's definitely fun to see Leslie Nielsen playing it straight, even if he abruptly disappears from the film without explanation before the climax. Jamie Lee is also a welcome presence, and although she seems to be phoning her scenes in most of the time, we have to concede that she gives the admittedly weak material about what it deserves.
The ancillary elements of the film (including the very cool theatrical poster and its killer tag-line) are actually more interesting than the finished product, and only the most forgiving fans of the genre's boom during this period will gleam much enjoyment here.
It's hard to recommend a film that has such limited appeal, but I must confess that I have a genuine fondness for Prom Night, and I still enjoy myself every time I watch it. 1978-1983 was truly a magical era when the horror genre exploded with low budget delights, and if you hold those golden years in your heart, your chances of forgiving this film's trespasses are much better.