Prom Night [1980]
The death of a little girl might be the catalyst in a series of murders that occur six years later on the night of the prom.
***
I guess when it comes to the back story of Prom Night
(1980), it as good as any in the slasher genre. Oftentimes something like the
death of a child, a sister, a friend, a loved one, causes a trauma that
eventually triggers (at a certain point and time) the murder spree. Those
involved (in this film’s case, those children who were responsible for the
little stuttering female innocent’s out-of-the-window plummet into a window’s
glass) will be targets of a killer, moved by a quiet rage that perhaps isn’t noticeable
but is there just the same. In Prom Night (1980) the murders that will result
are planned and premeditated for the night of the prom. “Now” is whispered by
the killer as he suddenly emerges to do in those who left him emotionally
scarred for life. The key to the identity of the killer is that while Jamie Lee
Curtis is the headlining star of the film she never appears to be in danger
while her friends/school-mates are specifically signaled out when they each
receive phone calls from him. Really, the film doesn’t exactly have a list of
suspects a mile long regarding the person wearing the ski mask and hunting the
high school kids responsible for the death of the girl at the beginning. But
the motivation behind the rage seems understandable. The death doesn’t
necessarily condone a young man pursuing the kids (..now young adults) with a
murderous agenda, but, nonetheless, the long-term effects of a loss that left
an indelible mark can be reasoned to result in the dormancy of psychopathy
eventually to be unleashed from its cage. I can only imagine this loss was felt
every single day. Why wouldn’t it?
Anne-Marie Martin might not be the headlining star of the
film, in regards to drawing power or appearance on a poster, but, for me, she
has the more interesting character. Probably due to her stereotypical bitch out
to get Jamie Lee Curtis’ man, Martin was delightfully hissable. She sure rocks
that red prom dress, too! It was too bad she couldn’t have set her sights on
someone else other that Curtis’ beau. The claws come out, but Martin definitely
comes out on the losing end. A killer with an ax sees to that.
The chase. It is common knowledge to slasher fans that the
chase is one of those essential ingredients that seems to leave a film within
the genre naked without one at some point or another. I think Prom Night has a
really solid late chase that culminates, as almost always, with the pursued
ultimately running out of real estate or making that wrong turn (or wrong
noise) that resulted in his / her demise. I think what makes the chase in Prom
Night effective was the dance music and chatter of the prom quite alive and
well, no one having a clue that inside the school (and just outside), members
of the graduation class were being sought and murdered by one of their own.
Martin hides in a science class, flees throughout the halls, and even into the
auto body shop, but with doors chained and no exits available to her, the
killer is equipped to end her without anyone noticing. The chase is often
designed this way.
A lot of the time, the final girl (the Friday the 13th
films are good examples, and especially Wes Craven’s Scream) gives the killer a
nice run around before successfully avoiding the same fate as the unlucky
characters like Anne-Marie’s Wendy. I think what sells the chase in Prom Night
besides the ongoing activities of the prom committee (the Disco theme quite
excessive, wonderfully dating this film) is that it all occurs in the emptied
halls and rooms of the school. Derelict and night-swept, the unoccupied school
has only two, killer and victim. The hiding, kneeling down, breathing hard,
eyes on the lookout, the body shivering, Anne-Marie does well as the
scared-shitless human target the killer wishes to bury an ax. At least she
gives him a run for his money. But the chase at this point of the slasher
typically ends with the inevitable…Anne-Marie cannot avoid execution. That
inevitability exists in slasher after slasher after slasher. It isn’t a matter
of if, but when…and with what weapon.
And the fact that it had been six years and still the mother
was grieving, this could fuel the killer’s purpose. The girl’s spirit, her cute
face in the picture frame, still so ever-present, continues to linger. The
wound still bleeds and so will those who
ended her life.
Of course what’s a slasher without a couple of proposed
suspicious characters? Mr. Sykes, the school janitor with the tape-framed
glasses or the escaped lunatic from a state institution possibly heading to the
location’s setting. Leonard Mirch is the escaped killer, and he could be out to
get revenge on the cop responsible for not only putting him away but causing a
car crash which caused the psycho to be severely burned in the process. Lt.
McBride wants to know if Leonard might be on the way to his town.
Nick is the young man in between Kim (Curtis) and Wendy. He
broke up with Wendy, started dating Kim, and Wendy is a bit miffed (to put it
mildly) about his not taking her to the prom (taking her rival, Kim, instead). I
enjoy a conversation Nick has early with his detective father, the
aforementioned Lt. McBride, who comments that for someone so fast on the disco
floor the kid is awfully slow in the morning. Nick’s father also remarks he
wishes he has his son’s women problems. Funny. Wendy hears the phone ring,
waits a moment expecting Nick to be on the other end of the line, and instead
gets that whisper from her future killer. Her mom asks if she’ll be home for
dinner, and Wendy answers in snarky tone, “How the hell should I know?” Yes,
lot of respect there, right? She’s your basic coddled diva who believes there
should be entitlement for her due to that high school status that means very
little once graduation happens.
I used to have one of those little radios when I was a kid.
Nice to be reminded of it, too.
The hook of the killer--and slashers in general have some sort of way of stylistically presenting him/her--in Prom Night is a phone book, phone, notepad, a regular pencil any student would use in class, and a silhouette of the caller, promising to "see them at the prom". Later in the film, there's broken glass in one of the mirrors of the girls' locker room / shower, a missing piece that is later used to further foretell doom for the victims, along with their pictures from the high school yearbook, ripped from page, taped inside their school lockers. It might seem like a cruel joke, but the killer isn't kidding.
I do like how this film builds to the night of the prom without a kill to get it all started before the festivities. I do think that many slasher filmmakers felt (and continue to feel) the need to kick the whole movie off with a murder to keep the fans satisfied until the onslaught begins after some exposition for the characters that will be targeted. It is all methodical. This has built up for some time. I liked how the killer doesn't carry that appearance of the expected psychopath. The look of Mr. Sykes, a near mute and antisocial janitor, seems to be the ideal candidate for a cold-blooded sociopath. The escaped lunatic from the asylum [natch] seems to be too perfect for such the role as stalking psycho. But the film goes out of its way to establish that the motives behind the killer's agenda is the death of the little girl. Since Sykes or the lunatic from the asylum neither have reasons to be associated with the little girl's demise, they seem unlikely to be the mystery killer established in this film. This is too personal and has too much intimate vengeance to be just any killer.
I do like how this film builds to the night of the prom without a kill to get it all started before the festivities. I do think that many slasher filmmakers felt (and continue to feel) the need to kick the whole movie off with a murder to keep the fans satisfied until the onslaught begins after some exposition for the characters that will be targeted. It is all methodical. This has built up for some time. I liked how the killer doesn't carry that appearance of the expected psychopath. The look of Mr. Sykes, a near mute and antisocial janitor, seems to be the ideal candidate for a cold-blooded sociopath. The escaped lunatic from the asylum [natch] seems to be too perfect for such the role as stalking psycho. But the film goes out of its way to establish that the motives behind the killer's agenda is the death of the little girl. Since Sykes or the lunatic from the asylum neither have reasons to be associated with the little girl's demise, they seem unlikely to be the mystery killer established in this film. This is too personal and has too much intimate vengeance to be just any killer.
The director and screenplay find it is important to build to the prom night with activities of the day. Preparations are in order and relationships are probed. The love triangle, the phone calls to the victims, a family's grieving, the hunt for the escaped killer, the prom king and queen under the nervous and demanding attention of the prom committee's director's orders to "get it right", the janitor's labors (he cleans up the broken glass from the girls' shower room's mirror) and those who question why he has a job at the school to begin with, the principles of the cast and their dates, etc.
The darkened halls of the school; the director, for me, does a swell job of giving the other areas of the school a sinister edge. The killer freely moves about because he isn't necessarily involved in anything of such importance it couldn't afford him to go missing a bit, to hole away in the darkness, the shadows, and, while clad in black, can be unnoticeable.
The film started at the early of the day, took us into the halls of the school before classes began and shortly afterward, and soon right before the prom begins. It does seem like that typical day leading to the prom, but it will not end oh so typically.
The disco prom I reckon brings an appeal especially to those who were graduating or attending school at that time in 1979 / 1980. Seeing Leslie on the floor with a grooving Curtis, stiltingly trying his best to put up an effort to not look totally square is a thing of absolute beauty. Certainly one of the most amusing and memorable moments of Prom Night is Curtis showing her disco dance moves as her Kim is trying to prove a point with Nick when Wendy arrives looking smokin' in that red prom dress. It is an attention getting moment for Wendy, quickly defused by Kim and Nick's boogie on the dance floor to the booty shaking song, "Prom Night" (still rather popular with the disco lovers who refuse to to lose their passion for the music most consider dead, but its spirit (like those who love disco) lives on). It is indeed Curtis' John Travolta moment, forever entrapped on celluloid for our viewing pleasure.
I have to hand it to the filmmakers as they go out of their way to get across the potential threat of the psycho on the loose; then, when convenient, dismiss the character (he's been caught miles away from the setting's high school). Still, it is easy to use this kind of character; the slasher genre has thrived on the red herring escaped psycho.
The place of significance that is shown at the very beginning and end is of such tragedy, its influence could not cease, and lives are lost because of what happened here.
I wish I could see a decent copy of the movie. I'm not sure I will ever get such a chance unless a company makes a concerted effort to clean it up and give it a decent audio and visual improvement, because the current Echo Bridge release is nothing to swoon over. You'd think with its share of fans (even if a huge number of slasher fans consider it subpar and dull), the film could get a solid blu release, at least. As is, most of us are stuck with the lo-fi VHS-rip quality dvd version that leaves much to be desired. I thought I was getting an Anchor Bay copy but that fell through; it probably wasn't much better than what many of us currently have, but could it be much worse?
In the slasher genre, Jamie Lee Curtis grew up with us. Funny, isn't it, that she cut her acting teeth in such a less-than-admired genre as the slasher. Her slasher movies were among the tamer, less gratuitous, and stylish. I do think Prom Night has style and directorial flair. It depends on a narrative that is familiar and old as the grave. That said, it really is a bad start for beginner slasher fans who are blood thirsty and craving lots of gore (or those violent pops that come from the likes of Jason and Michael; money shots, if you will), up for thrills that Prom Night isn't that dependent upon. There's blood. There's some sliced throats. There's a killer in black, ski mask, with an ax. Oh, but he also uses a shard of broken window glass taken from that aforementioned girls' locker room. There are moments of violence, but, let's face it, Prom Night isn't Maniac (1980) or The Prowler (1981).
That is a problem for a majority of slasher fans who actually like dumb bitches and smart ass jocks getting their heads chopped off and blades slicing their throats. The victims here are just the ordinary girls (not models like in the 2008 remake) you walked past in the school halls everyday. The girls worried about losing their virginity, or concerned about who will get that prom king they so covet, are in this film. The reason I like films from the 80s and in the slasher genre is that many of them have the regular, average, ordinary girls that aren't so totally hot or so gifted with model Maxim looks that I cannot identify with them. Slashers are made on the cheap for the most part and plenty of them used local talent, working for a minimum because most are on their way up (and some never work much again), taking the parts through either desperation (or as a favor to friends making the movies). A Curtis could certainly help a film, but even she was an actress with no experience when Halloween (1978) came her way. Sure, I can enjoy the eye candy of today's slasher babes, but I find myself more emotionally responsive to girls I can relate to because they're not blessed by great DNA.
This was among the "slasher tetralogy" for Curtis. She would conclude (unless you count Halloween H20, which came out in 1998) her work in the genre with Halloween II (1981), get a break in Trading Places (1983), stating she could do much more than just fleeing from killers after her, that she actually had comedic chops. Funnily enough, she would continue to play a majority of career in comedy. She's so well known for her slasher work, too. Still, she's a seasoned vet who had quite an interesting start to her young career as an actress. It's mostly Activia now, but I like to look back when she could bust a move with the disco lights shining.
The finale of prom night has a head lopped off because this jerk (who can't seem to shake an obsession with Curtis' Kim) gets his boys to attack Nick and subdue him prior to the walk out as Prom King, while Curtis was busy getting prepared as Prom Queen. With the killer believing he's Nick, Lou (David Mucci) gets his head removed in the process. Lou walked right into that. Poetic justice? Nothing worse that realizing that man behind the ski mask is your brother and I think Curtis has the perfect expression of absolute horror as it comes to her. Leslie Nielsen has top billing, and I recall as a teen renting it on VHS how pissed I was with how little he has to do. His part is maybe, approximately five/ten minutes. He's concerned for his wife, tired of Lou's bullying, disruptive antics, and bops a little bit with Curtis during the prom. That's it, basically. It isn't a substantial part by any means; he certainly doesn't deserve the top spot in the closing credits over Curtis.
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The darkened halls of the school; the director, for me, does a swell job of giving the other areas of the school a sinister edge. The killer freely moves about because he isn't necessarily involved in anything of such importance it couldn't afford him to go missing a bit, to hole away in the darkness, the shadows, and, while clad in black, can be unnoticeable.
The film started at the early of the day, took us into the halls of the school before classes began and shortly afterward, and soon right before the prom begins. It does seem like that typical day leading to the prom, but it will not end oh so typically.
The disco prom I reckon brings an appeal especially to those who were graduating or attending school at that time in 1979 / 1980. Seeing Leslie on the floor with a grooving Curtis, stiltingly trying his best to put up an effort to not look totally square is a thing of absolute beauty. Certainly one of the most amusing and memorable moments of Prom Night is Curtis showing her disco dance moves as her Kim is trying to prove a point with Nick when Wendy arrives looking smokin' in that red prom dress. It is an attention getting moment for Wendy, quickly defused by Kim and Nick's boogie on the dance floor to the booty shaking song, "Prom Night" (still rather popular with the disco lovers who refuse to to lose their passion for the music most consider dead, but its spirit (like those who love disco) lives on). It is indeed Curtis' John Travolta moment, forever entrapped on celluloid for our viewing pleasure.
I have to hand it to the filmmakers as they go out of their way to get across the potential threat of the psycho on the loose; then, when convenient, dismiss the character (he's been caught miles away from the setting's high school). Still, it is easy to use this kind of character; the slasher genre has thrived on the red herring escaped psycho.
The place of significance that is shown at the very beginning and end is of such tragedy, its influence could not cease, and lives are lost because of what happened here.
The film doesn’t exactly operate in a need to hurry basis.
There isn’t as much a concern about body count as much as those who could be
responsible for it and why. The teens and their prom night, and the killer who
will not allow a certain number of them to live beyond what is supposed to be a
memorable night never to forget.
I wish I could see a decent copy of the movie. I'm not sure I will ever get such a chance unless a company makes a concerted effort to clean it up and give it a decent audio and visual improvement, because the current Echo Bridge release is nothing to swoon over. You'd think with its share of fans (even if a huge number of slasher fans consider it subpar and dull), the film could get a solid blu release, at least. As is, most of us are stuck with the lo-fi VHS-rip quality dvd version that leaves much to be desired. I thought I was getting an Anchor Bay copy but that fell through; it probably wasn't much better than what many of us currently have, but could it be much worse?
In the slasher genre, Jamie Lee Curtis grew up with us. Funny, isn't it, that she cut her acting teeth in such a less-than-admired genre as the slasher. Her slasher movies were among the tamer, less gratuitous, and stylish. I do think Prom Night has style and directorial flair. It depends on a narrative that is familiar and old as the grave. That said, it really is a bad start for beginner slasher fans who are blood thirsty and craving lots of gore (or those violent pops that come from the likes of Jason and Michael; money shots, if you will), up for thrills that Prom Night isn't that dependent upon. There's blood. There's some sliced throats. There's a killer in black, ski mask, with an ax. Oh, but he also uses a shard of broken window glass taken from that aforementioned girls' locker room. There are moments of violence, but, let's face it, Prom Night isn't Maniac (1980) or The Prowler (1981).
That is a problem for a majority of slasher fans who actually like dumb bitches and smart ass jocks getting their heads chopped off and blades slicing their throats. The victims here are just the ordinary girls (not models like in the 2008 remake) you walked past in the school halls everyday. The girls worried about losing their virginity, or concerned about who will get that prom king they so covet, are in this film. The reason I like films from the 80s and in the slasher genre is that many of them have the regular, average, ordinary girls that aren't so totally hot or so gifted with model Maxim looks that I cannot identify with them. Slashers are made on the cheap for the most part and plenty of them used local talent, working for a minimum because most are on their way up (and some never work much again), taking the parts through either desperation (or as a favor to friends making the movies). A Curtis could certainly help a film, but even she was an actress with no experience when Halloween (1978) came her way. Sure, I can enjoy the eye candy of today's slasher babes, but I find myself more emotionally responsive to girls I can relate to because they're not blessed by great DNA.
This was among the "slasher tetralogy" for Curtis. She would conclude (unless you count Halloween H20, which came out in 1998) her work in the genre with Halloween II (1981), get a break in Trading Places (1983), stating she could do much more than just fleeing from killers after her, that she actually had comedic chops. Funnily enough, she would continue to play a majority of career in comedy. She's so well known for her slasher work, too. Still, she's a seasoned vet who had quite an interesting start to her young career as an actress. It's mostly Activia now, but I like to look back when she could bust a move with the disco lights shining.
The finale of prom night has a head lopped off because this jerk (who can't seem to shake an obsession with Curtis' Kim) gets his boys to attack Nick and subdue him prior to the walk out as Prom King, while Curtis was busy getting prepared as Prom Queen. With the killer believing he's Nick, Lou (David Mucci) gets his head removed in the process. Lou walked right into that. Poetic justice? Nothing worse that realizing that man behind the ski mask is your brother and I think Curtis has the perfect expression of absolute horror as it comes to her. Leslie Nielsen has top billing, and I recall as a teen renting it on VHS how pissed I was with how little he has to do. His part is maybe, approximately five/ten minutes. He's concerned for his wife, tired of Lou's bullying, disruptive antics, and bops a little bit with Curtis during the prom. That's it, basically. It isn't a substantial part by any means; he certainly doesn't deserve the top spot in the closing credits over Curtis.
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