Prom Night is a classic horror film; pre-teen’s Nick, Wendy, Jude & Kelly play a game in an abandoned building and end up bullying younger Robin Hammond who accidently falls out a window to her death, the kids are terrified of getting in trouble so they make a pact to never tell what happened and flee the scene not knowing someone saw them. Robin’s death is blamed on a sex offender captured shortly after her death, and the children never deal with it until six years later on prom night they begin to be stalked and terrorized.
In my opinion Prom Night is utterly stupid. I found it unintriguing, hard to follow and basically bland. I honestly do not understand why this movie is considered a horror classic. I could really like someone to explain that to me.
Other than the thin, incoherent plot what really bothered me was the literal look of Prom Night. The film looks like it was shot on video and though my guess is it was shot on a budget bigger than Halloween, Halloween looked better. Prom Night looked like it was over lit and washed out.
What was interesting about Prom Night was the editing. While I am not 100% the editing trick was done well, it was interesting. The director chose to juxtapose images in flashes to create an ominous setting for the killer so that we never get a complete picture of how he operates or even what he looks like until he is revealed at the dance; the same trick is used to integrate the past into the present. It’s interesting, if a bit overdone.
I also have to say that the disco dance number that was inserted into the middle of the movie was completely stupid and out of place. I don’t understand why it was there or why exactly it went on for so long.
On the positive side it was incredibly interesting to see Leslie Nielsen in a serious role. Though the way he was written was an incredible problem for me; he is the principal of the school and he literally goes to the prom and then disappears for the rest of the movie. Question to the screen writer: where did he go????
Director: Paul Lynch
Writer: William Gray
Mr. Hammond: Leslie Nielsen
Kim Hammond: Jamie Lee Curtis
Kim Hammond: You seem a little anxious, Wendy. By the way, who are going with tonight?
Wendy Richards: It's not who you go with, honey. It's who takes you home.
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