Prom Night (1980)

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1. 

   thestuman101694

   Saturday Night Fever meets I Know What You Did Last Summer.
   In short, this is an uneven film that could have been a lot better! Also, there are several times in the film where the camera has a closeup on a woman's butt just for no reason whatsoever. Just meaningless. 1 year 6 months ago
2. 

   Siskoid

   While young Kevin Bacon was starring in the first Friday the 13th, Jamie Lee Curtis, already established as a horror heroine, was heading north to be in Canada's own effort from that year - Prom Night - in which Leslie Nielsen plays her dad. There's an intriguing set-up, with an 11-year-old dying as a result of dangerous games and her four friends pledging never to tell what happened. 6 years later, at prom, some kind of revenge will be doled out (by who is part of the movie's Scream-like mystery and I won't rob you of one of its few pleasures). Because yeah... Prom Night has problems. For one thing, though the actors are in their early 20s, the way they're styled makes them look way older and I don't buy them as high schoolers (this is common but very distracting in this case). The killer makes us wait a long time for the carnage to begin, and then it's all in darkness and hard to follow. Horror fans who want a real money shot basically have to wait for the last 5 minutes. There's even a lack of cohesion as the original murder weapon - bathed in poetic justice - is abandoned for a bog-standard axe. But the biggest problem is the lack of immediacy created by Curtis having been cast not as one of the kids marked for death, but as the victim's sister. Death isn't coming for her. The sequence where the killer calls the targets is one of the better ones, but there's no sustained sense of dread, because they all think it's a prank phone call and don't know what's waiting for them. I don't mind an attempt at a PG slasher movie, but this is just disappointing. Not unlike my own prom. (Actually, my prom made me a lot more uncomfortable.) 2 years 6 months ago
3. 

   nick121235

   Takes certain cues from such greats as Halloween and Friday the 13th as well as Carrie but fails to create any sort of sustainable atmosphere. In the end it's nothing better than alright and only recommended for completists, it falls short of enjoyable.
   Highlight: the disco music and dancing at the prom event. 7 years 2 months ago

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