My Review of Prom Night (1980)

 

Written by William Gray And Robert Guza Jr

Directed by Paul Lynch

Alex: "I know they did it, they killed her, they, killed her... Robin, Robin!"

Time for more 1980s horror and for a movie I've heard a lot about but only recently watched for the first time. Yup, I've gone with this one and will eventually catch up with it's sequels at some point.

Starting in 1974, you had a bunch of kids named Wendy Richards (Anne-Marie Martin/Leslie Scott), Jude Cunningham (Joy Thompson/Karen Forbes), Kelly Lynch (Mary Beth Rubens/Joyce Kite), and Nick McBride (Casey Stevens/Brock Simpson) playing hide and seek in an abandoned convent. A harmless game that took a horrible turn when their mean spirited treatment of Robin Hammond (Tammy Bourne) resulted in the latter's death.

Yes, it's an accident but one that left Robin's siblings Alex (Michael Tough/Dean Bosacki) and Kimberly (Jamie Lee Curtis/Debbie Greenfield) and their father, Mr Hammond (Leslie Nielsen) pretty devastated. One of them a lot more than the others, given the events of this movie.

Six years and passed and it seemed that the older versions of Wendy, Nick, Jude and Kelly are being terrorised by someone who saw their actions back. Nick was also dating Kimberly while Jude and Kelly hooked up with Seymour Crane (Sheldon Rybowski) and Drew Shinnick (Jeff Wincott). Wendy on the other hand hooked up with bully, Lou Farmer (David Mucci).

As the movie progressed, the bodies started to pile up and the night of the Prom had arrived. Of course, Nick and Kim would be the king and queen but Nick getting detained by Lou and a scheming Wendy ended up saving his life. Lou on the other hand didn't fare so well.

The killer reveal did make sense for the movie and the killer was almost sympathetic. The final smack down at the Prom before their reveal made for a decent fight sequence. 

- This movie spawned three sequels and a loosely based reboot in 2008.

- It took Jamie Lee Curtis signing on for this movie to even get the financing to be made.

-  Standout music: Gordean Simpson's Fade To Black.

- Chronology: 1974 to begin with Robin's death and 1980 for the killer's reign of terror.

Prom Night made for a decent slasher and kind of helped to further cement Jamie Lee Curtis as a Scream Queen. Saying that, it's Nick who was the bigger character and a fairly decent Final Boy in a decent but unspectacular slasher flick.

Rating: 6 out of 10