PopHorror Let's Get Scared
When I was a kid, my dad was on swing shift at the water plant, so that meant he worked weird hours. He always worked until Midnight on Monday and Tuesday, so that meant it was just me, my sister, and my mom at home on those nights. The three of us would eat dinner in the TV room and would watch movies while we ate, and most of the time they were horror movies.
One night when I was in first grade they showed Prom Night on our local NBC channel, and after hearing my favorite uncle talk about how great it was, I had to watch it. We settled in that night with our burgers and French fries, I put on my Scooby-Doo pajamas, and we checked it out.
So, what did I think about it? Was it as good as my Uncle Jerry claimed it was or did, I go to bed that night with a stomach full of hamburgers and disappointment?
Keep reading to find out…
Synopsis
10 years after a tragic accident claimed the life of a little girl the kids that were responsible for her death-now high school students-are picked off one-by-one by an unknown killer on prom night.
Directed by Paul Lynch (The Keeper, Frozen with Fear) and Scream Queen Supreme Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween, Terror Train), Prom Night is a fun little slasher/whodunit flick that has likeable characters, some great death scenes, and the longest chase scene to ever take place in a horror film (at the time, anyway).
While it may not be my favorite slasher flick of all time, I have always enjoyed Prom Night and think that it is a decent film. It isn’t perfect and has some flaws, but I have seen it several times since that night I originally watched it and think that it holds up nicely for the most part. I always thought that the premise-which involves an unknown person seeking revenge on the people responsible for the death of a young girl years earlier-was interesting and it’s fun to try to figure out the person’s identity the first time you watch it (though it is painfully obvious who it is when you watch it again).
I have always dug horror movies that require you to figure out who the killer is, and the night we watched it for the first time my mom, sister, and I all had our own theories about who was behind the murders and why (my sister guessed correctly) and it made watching it that much more fun for all of us.
Prom Night has a lot going for it, including one of the creepiest opening scenes ever. It freaked me out when I first saw it and the little girl’s face after she falls out of the window is pure nightmare fuel. The fact that we see the shadow of some unknown person walking up to discover her body is a very nice touch too and helps set the tone of the film in general. Seriously folks, watch that opening scene where the kids are running around playing a game where they pretend to be murderers and the resulting accident that sets everything up and tell me it isn’t unsettling and just plain creepy.
While the death scenes aren’t as graphic as they are in other slasher films from the 80s, there are still some memorable ones. We get stabbings, a little girl falling out of a window to her death, and some fun with an axe which results in someone losing their head (literally). As I mentioned before, it has an extremely long chase scene where the killer is trying to take out a would-be victim named Wendy at the school while the prom is taking place that goes on forever and is so full of suspense that you’ll be setting on the edge of your seat the whole time.
You really want her to make it and by golly she tries her best to survive and watching the chase between them take place is sure to make some viewers extremely anxious. It’s just a fun scene in general and I love the fact that it goes on as long as it does. In addition, the voice that the killer uses when he calls to threaten the victim is effectively disturbing as well and helps crank the creepiness level of the film up to an eleven.
On the other hand, the movie does have some issues. There are some pacing problems at times and things tend to get a little boring as a result. I think some scenes could have been cut out just to help the pacing as they don’t add a lot to the movie in general and not having them wouldn’t have hurt the quality of the film.
I also thought that Leslie Nielsen was miscast as well. Don’t get me wrong, I love the guy, but he just seems a little out of place here as the school principal as it is a serious role and every time he was on screen I expected him to make a fart noise, fall down, or so something else comedic. I know that he did serious roles back in the day, but in my head when I watch it now, I just see him as the bumbling Frank Drebin from the Naked Gun series. I’m not saying that he is a bad actor or does a bad job here, but I just don’t think he was right for the role.
It’s like if they had put Chris Farley in a serious role in a horror film back in the day or something as you would expect him to do something goofy instead of playing it straight (and for the record, I love Chris Farley, but never had the desire to see him in a horror film).
I have always dug Prom Night as it is a good movie, but I am not sure that it is on my top ten list of favorite 80s slasher flicks of all time. There is a lot to like about it, but it isn’t without its flaws. I always thought that the folks behind 1997’s I Know What You Did Last Summer heavily borrowed (and even blatantly stole) some elements from this movie, but they didn’t do as nearly as good of a job as the makers of Prom Night did back in the day.
It seems as though it sort of got lost in the shuffle over the years thanks to there being so many 80s slasher flicks, which is a shame as it is a film that every fan of the slasher film should see at some point. It was somewhat popular back in the day as it inspired 3 sequels (that have nothing to do with the first movie) and a terrible in name only remake in 2008 that is nearly impossible to watch due to how bad it is. It is without a doubt a slasher film classic, so check it out if you haven’t seen it as I am sure you will enjoy it if you are a fan of 1980s horror films.
