On P List of Movie Reviews
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Prom Night (1980)
Rate:
3
Viewed:
12/19
12/19:
Wow, Prom Night is a bad, cheap horror movie that's guilty of overstylization which sometimes mimics
Black Christmas and Friday the 13th.
It has a good starting point (I Know What You Did Last Summer, anyone?) that's a cross
between Carrie and Halloween with a bit of
Saturday Night Fever thrown in because of the prom theme and
Jamie Lee Curtis. Yet nothing happens for an hour. By the time it does, the movie is almost over.
Yeah, there are several red herrings along the way, but I was dying to know who the killer was. Once his identity is
revealed, the film immediately becomes junk. If I think about it, why would the boy withhold his secret for so long?
In hindsight, the subplot in regard to the loony guy escaping from the mental hospital is a waste of time. The movie
should've been twenty to thirty minutes shorter with a faster pace and more action. Adding Slick to an already crowded
set of characters is a bad idea as he comes out of nowhere.
The death scenes are crap. I would've been fine if it had logic because of what
happened at the beginning. But the killer decided to off two more people who had nothing to do with it although I could
understand the need to murder one of them. A horror movie has either a strong plot or lots of creative kills, but when
Prom Night has neither, it dies.
A serious problem emerges during the second half when I forgot about the first ten minutes in terms of why the
movie was made in the first place. The four characters who had the girl killed have been reduced to "who cares?" I can't
remember anymore when it comes to which young female adult goes to which girl, having lost track of them over time.
All in all, Prom Night is a poor excuse for cashing in the slasher film craze during the early 80's.