“Lets show them what we can do.”
And with these words Prom Night turns from generic slasher film into camp horror brilliance. You know the story by now; a little girl is pushed out of a window by prankstering kids and six years later the offenders are ritually slaughtered at the senior prom. Prom Night is the quintessential slasher with its crime from the past being righted in the present, bitchy girl, horny boys, unifying event and Jamie Lee Curtis. But Prom Night is really something special.
Curtis plays Kim, big sister of the dead girl and their brother Alan who is very protective. She is also the daughter of Leslie Nielsen, who happens to be the school principle. The family has been devastated by the death of little Robin. The murder has also haunted Lt. McBride who believes a recently escaped child killer was the culprit. But we, the audience know better. We saw the four responsible push Robin out the third floor window of an abandoned building: pothead Jude, nervous Kelly, ringleader Wendy and Nick, who is now dating the sister of the girl he killed (he is also the son of Lt. McBride, you know just to make the story more convoluted). Only Nick seems to feel any remorse for what they did.
As a whole the movie is kind of sloppy, there are loads of sub-plots that are either undeveloped or totally ignored; like why is that basically all of Jamie Lee Curtis’s friends were involved in the death (albeit accidental) of her sister yet with the exception of Nick they seem oblivious to it? And why do the writers spend so much time on lining up red herrings and creating whole back-stories for them when it’s obvious from the beginning who the killer is? And where did Leslie Nielson, go?
But the moment Curtis grabs her boyfriend and hits the light-up disco dance floor to show up their rivals we are transported to slasher movie heaven. All of a sudden the gym at Hamilton High turns into Studio 54. Curtis looks pretty good busting-a-move but Nick looks like he’s trying to pull a wild animal off his back. The outrageously prolonged disco routine serves as a wake up pill because it’s at this point that the proper film starts. After the dance routine the killer decides to finally launch into his murder spree; maybe he was waiting to see the big number, in fact that kind of makes sense if you know whom the killer is and what he was supposed to be doing there. But these last-forty-five minutes of the movie are an exercise in perfect slasher film.
A few words on the music. The film score by Carl Zittner is exceptional but it’s the disco tunes by Paul Zaza that really stick with you. The title song “Prom Night,” the ironic ‘Love Me Till I Die” and the cautionary “Fade to Black” are hard to forget.
It’s odd that the writers try so desperately to throw us off the trail of the killer. There are three red herrings. But anyone who remembers the first five minutes knows the deal. We know the killer is mad as hell from the scenes in which he makes harassing phone calls to the guilty parties (Best Crank Voice EVER!) and how he likes to stab their yearbook photos to shreds with a pair of sharp scissors. The killer clearly has a grudge. But we are not ready for the viciousness of his attacks and his relentless pursuit. His breathless “NOW” at the climax of each murder is absolutely chilling. But the highlight of the film, the sequence that alone makes Prom Night a small classic of the (slasher) genre is the grueling, intense chase of the “Supreme Bitch” of the film Wendy played marvelously by Anne Marie-Martin, here billed as Eddie Benton.
A few words on the character of Wendy; she’s in my opinion the great Bitch of the eighties slasher movies. Every good slasher movie needs a Supreme Bitch to contrast with the innocence of the Final Girl and Wendy is just total narcissistic, selfish bitch-a-tude. In one of her first scenes we see that she misses her crank call from our breathy killer (which really pisses him off) because she’s too busy being a bitch to her mom who simply asks “Will you be home for dinner, dear?” and she replies “How the hell should I know?” and walks away all bitch-like. Other bitch moves are her constant brazen attempts to steal Nick from Kim and when she leaves her lunk-head prom date, Lou, on the dance floor like an idiot to go bother Nick. Props go to the costume designer who outfitted her in that sharp metallic red dress. Even Jamie Lee admits she looks good in it. And it’s a perfect choice for the chase through the darkened hallways of the school since that flash of red is sometimes all you can see.
The killer dispatches of the Jude and Kelly fairly quickly but Wendy, the hard ass, proves a tough job for the ax-wielding maniac. Best is when she ducks just as the ax whips above her head. There is no chase that rivals this one, even in Friday the 13th, which was released the same year. This chase scene is more prolific that it’s given credit for because unlike other great slasher movie chases (Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre) this girl isn’t frightened and hysterical but canny and completely under control. Just like the good little narcissist she is, Wendy is all about Wendy. God love her. The actress, Anne Marie-Martin went on to marry and have a kid by best selling author Michael Crichton and when they divorced in 2002 she reportedly got 30 million dollars. That’s my Wendy.
I’ve found that anyone who grew up in the eighties and caught Prom Night on late night TV will always feel sentimental towards it. It was always aired as the late-late movie after the news on Fridays and Saturdays and for those little kids who stayed up to catch it, it remains one of the most dark, haunting and somber slasher movies in the canon. From the unsettling childish chants of “Kill, Kill the killer is coming,” the sometimes overwhelming cinematography and it’s extremes of overexposed white and pitch black, to the sad, weepy finale (Nominee Most Touching Horror Movie Moment) Prom Night is almost oppressively gloomy. And as the final image of that upside down mirror reflection of the abandoned building Robin fell from and the melancholy strains of “Fade to Black” start up you actually feel (and I’m not kidding on this) the weight of the whole sad tragedy you’ve just witnessed. Slasher films are always thought of as cautionary tales of teenage sexual abandon. Prom Night offers thought another cautions. PRANKS CAN KILL…in more ways than one.
Horror Yearbook acknowledges Prom Night for it’s achievements in 1980!
Nominated for:
Best Kill: Wendy chased down hall.
Most Touching Moment: Read Here in our “Top Ten Touching Horror Movie Moments”
Best Song: “Fade to Black”
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And the Yearbook will be just that; a fun, off beat, satirical look at the films, people, villains, heroes, victims, performances, trends, box covers, tag lines, etc that made the year in horror films. And you’ll get Full reviews of every film released in theaters, video, and television that year. No more critical disregard for the lesser titles on your neighborhood video shelf, we wade through the muck so that you can do the same.
This series will serve as a nostalgic retrospective survey of the decade in horror film making frequently misunderstood, vilified and disregarded. Long Live The 80’s.
- by Gary G.
