Prom Night
| release date | July 18 1980 |
| studio | Anchor Bay |
| director | Paul Lynch |
| writer | William Gray |
| starring | Jamie Lee Curtis. Casey Stevens, Leslie Nielsen |
| rating | R |
| tagline | If you're not back by midnight... you won't be coming home. |
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Well… once again a classice Jamie Lee Curtis Horror film… this Movie shines as a classic 70′s-80′s style slasher flick… def a must see and have for horror fans… HALLOWEEN meets I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER!
Good Movie nat a great movie it took to long to get going once it did-Heads Rolled really
very good slasher.
Very good slasher. A little slow to start, and some of the acting isn’t great, but it was better than 90% of the other slashers of the era (I love them, but they’re not good.)
This is such a hard movie to review. On one hand you have JLC who is always and forever shall be the scream queeen doing a bang up job as usual and yet the rest of the cast are cardboard cutouts! But, overall what a fun flick. I saw this when I was 14 and back then it was a little hokey for me but after buying it in a bargin bin for a mere 3.99, you can’t go wrong with a good genre flick and a really good kill that has unibrow losing his head! Overall 5/10
Prom Night was OK. Nothing too special, but OK. You’ll get through it once but you won’t need to watch it again for a long time.
A classic horror movie! It’s got a crank calling psycho killer looking for revenge, disco dancing and Leslie Nielsen. When you think about it, what else do you really need? Okay, maybe bowl of popcorn.
It’s just alright, i prefer the sequel to it.
a slightly above average slasher from the 80s that likes to play a who’s doing the killing in the film and when that revelation is revealed it was surprising at least for me it was.
I didnt really like it that much. Pretty boring. I did like the scene were the killer and the boyfriend are fighting on the disco floor with disco music playing. Haha classic.
Horrible movie.I dont know y lesli nelson and jamie lee curtas played in this movie.The only good thing about the movie was that its very funny and easy to make fun of.
One of the best horror movies that Jamie Lee Curtis did besides the Halloween movies
I’m shocked by the scores this movie has received. This movie is terribly overrated. Very boring and dumb. Don’t waste your time with it.
Pretty corny movie. The end is the only fun part. Don’t bother with this one, or the remake. The remake makes this one look good. Don’t see either of them, they both suck, but the remake sucks harder.
This movie is low-budget but its good to watch and is far more better than that piece of shit remake that they made.
not a good slasher,and i know slashers.
Wasn’t bad. When they revealed who the killer was at the end I was surprised even though it was typical, if you know what I mean. Also, the beginning part of the movie was kind of far-fetched. I’ve never met a single kid in my life that was as malicious as these kids in the movie were. But like I said, not a bad movie.
its Jamie Lee Curtis folks…the original scream queen…how can any movie of hers ever be bad?
I thought it was a bit bland. But whatever. It was entertaining. A little I Know What You Did Last Summer. Lol? But what isn’t these days.
it was okay
I thought this film was done exceptionally with it’s budget limitations.
Even though it’s one of those pictures that really doesn’t stand the test of time, it’s influential mark on other movies has cemented itself in time as a horror classic.
A classic slasher film, the kind we don’t see anymore because today’s generation is so fanatical over over-the-top gore, annoying teen stars, remakes, lack of storyline, Rob Zombie garbage, etc. It’s like today’s audiences are not happy with a horror movie unless there is splatter in the opening scene – movies like “Prom Night” took the time to build up the story and characters before the mayhem.
As for the idiot that posted, “AND I KNOW SLASHERS,” obviously you DON’T, because this ranks in the Top Ten Slasher Classics.
a great slasher with a lot of build up, disco music, and pretty good kills.
a good movie i assure you, but are you seriously telling me this is a horror/slasher film?
it looks more like a murder mystery movie, it wasn’t scary and it had a similar storyline to “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and “House on Sorority Row”, but it was a little bit suspensful with the killer chasing his victims.
still, not deserving for the name of “horror”, but certainly thrilling if you ask me.
I Thought this would be a great slsaher Movie but it wasnt it was chessy and not a good horror film but still OK but Scream Queen Jamie Lee Curties saved the movie =]
Its no Halloween but this is a pretty decent slasher movie. It has Jamie Lee Curtis and the disco music is something you don’t get to hear in any other slasher film. I liked hearing the music in the background when the killers chasing a victim or sneaking up on them for a quick kill. If you want a huge body count then your out of luck. If you want a bunch of guts and gore then you may want to look for something else to watch. I enjoyed this though. I liked the kills that were there and I didn’t mind the time it took to get to the first death scene. You should know it’s a little cheesey but hey it was made to capitalize off of Halloween’s success so don’t take it super serious and you might enjoy it.
Slow-paced slasher that turns into a (very) poor man’s Saturday Night Fever during the actual prom with a laughably loooong dancing scene by the disco duck, Jamie Lee–yep, hard to sit through. Jamie Lee and Anne-Martin look great, but they also are a bit too mature to play high schoolers in this one–a hard sell. When the “slasher” part of the “slasher movie” finally heats up a bit, it is tame to a fault—and that is even taking in for the age and style of the movie. I didn’t care for this much in the 80′s much less now, so….worth a view if you are into a hardcore retro-fix only, but not much else.
This movie looks like shit
Decent but highly overrated Halloween rip-off. Nice cast (Jamie Lee Curtis, Leslie Nielsen), great soundtrack, some great shots. Beginning and ending very good and atmospheric – unfortunately nearly everything in between is absolutely boring, plus the killer and his kills are mostly weak.
Prom Night is far from being a ground breaking, or even great film, but it’s fun to watch at least a few times.
I have to say this is like watching Staying Alive but with a two bit killer lurking around. This film is fun but boring at the same time. I have to put my foot down, I do not connsider this a true slasher film.
Great slasher!
I hated the remake….but man, this movie equally sucks as well. I think the appropriate word to describe this movie would be “BORING”. It’s so dark that you can barely see anything through half of the movie, and the end is just dull. Jamie Lee Curtis was so hot at the time this movie was released that the directors apparently thought that all she had to do was dance for 10 minutes and the audience would be happy with the movie. How about a good story? Or some awesome death scenes? Why the hell was Jamie Lee Curtis or Leslie Neilsen even in this movie?! Only watch this movie if you’re having trouble sleeping: it will knock you right out with boredom. Zzzzzzz……
For what it is, Prom night is entertaining enough, but it doesnt stand strong next to the other slashers of the 80′s.
love these slashers from back then a bit cheesy but still great plus jamie lee curtis is in it:D
Pretty good and Jamie Lee Curtis does an awesome job, as always.
Honestly this movie was mad boring, plus it was so dark you could barely see anything through half the movie. Another thing was there weren’t enough deaths they’re were only like 3. The only good thing about this movie was Jamie Lee Curtis, shes an awesome actress.
I’m a massive slasher fan, I like the good ones and I like the bad ones. But, the reason why I like the bad ones is because they’re usually fun ie. “Urban Legends 2″ or “Halloween Ressurrection” and they usually have a nice body count and some thrills. “Prom Night” was very disappointing because it was bad and it wasn’t even fun. In fact I don’t think that I would call it a slasher as there is only about 4 or 5 deaths! Some might defend it by saying it’s old. Well, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Halloween” came out way before this. So it has no excuse.
What was wrong with it then? Well, it wasn’t so much that the first death doesn’t occur until the last half hour although that was quite annoying. It just seemed like it was taking some aspects from “Carrie”. The biggest similarities being that the final sequence is set at a prom and that woman and her hired goon look and act exactly like John Travolta and his girlfriend. However, “Carrie” works because it’s not a slasher. I don’t believe in a slow-burner slasher and even if this was meant to be one, the pay-off wasn’t worth waiting around for an hour.
It was annoying that most of the deaths, bar one, were off-screen so wwe couldn’t see them! Honestly, the gore was the only thing that had going for this film and it decided to get rid of that. There was also only one chase scene, making the other deaths have zero suspense. The chase scene was also really poorly done, I shot a better short horror film when I was about 14 called “Caddy Killer” which was just a laugh and it resembled that chase scene with the long shots of people running, it was pathetic.
The whole film was actually really poorly directed. It definitely says “Paul Lynch” not David! The lighting was all over the place, with some shots being relaly over-exposed and others being far too dark to see anything. I did like the idea of a “I Know What You Did Last Summer” set-up but its potential was unfortunately ruined by the poor tenseless writing and zero-suspense directing. The writing also was uneccesarily sexist, giving excuses for the women to go around wearing hardly anything or maybe just a bra because they’re in the changing room.
I don’t particulary understand why Leslie Neilson was in this either. He didn’t have a very big part and it wasn’t a funny part either (the script carries virtually no wit at all). Jamie Lee was also far too good for this, her dancing was funny though, giving John Travolta a run for his money! The cast was far too old though to play they’re parts, we’re meant to believe these people are around 16? They were about 10 and then it says 6 years later. Some of them looked in there late 20′s!
“Prom Night” has very little going for it. It’s pacing is slow, it’s writing and directing poor and it’s death scenes unimagintive and kept to a minimum. It also carries a very unsurprising ending in which we’re meant to gasp in shock. Keep clear slasher fans, you aren’t missing much here.
“Prom Night” is derivative, boring, bland, ridiculous, stupid, and the worst “classic” slasher/horror film I’ve seen since “My Bloody Valentine”. The film offers no surprises, no suspense, and no substance. It isn’t scary, there’s nothing worth anticipating, and all-in-all, it just plain sucks. Why it has garnered a semi-large cult following, I shall never know. I’ll never quite understand what people see in such an unoriginal and unintentionally hilarious product such as this, but maybe that alone explains why so many people get off to watching a film, such as “Prom Night”, in which people are stabbed in lame ways, people are decapitated in lame ways, and in which Jamie Lee Curtis proves that she needs a better agent.
The film is intended as a tongue-in-cheek horror picture, but where’s the humor? I’m usually good at spotting satire within horror films, but then again, maybe “Prom Night” was aiming for different territories all-together. The film itself begins with the tragic death of a child, who falls to her unfortunate demise after a group of crappy, brat children scare her while playing a little “game”. Six years after the death, the kids, all teens now, are facing guilt and anxiety. It is the day- soon to be night- of the big prom, and one of the girls (Jamie Lee Curtis), son of the school principle (Leslie Nielson), has been chosen to be the Prom Queen.
The problem is that this night is about to become reckless as all hell. Earlier on in the film, a mysterious man phone-calls each of the kids from the opening scene. He knows they will be attending the prom, so that is where he is expected to turn up. The man may be seeking vengeance for the death, as he was a witness. Nobody really knows what he wants. That is, until he starts, as I mentioned, stabbing and decapitating teens (in lame ways).
We want to know who the killer is, in the end, and this is the only reason why we stick around. I liked- or at least somewhat liked- how the film THOUGHT that it was on to something, but when all is said and done, it needs to be a little more self-aware. Really, this might help it, you know, work.
Suspense scenes are poorly staged, even for a low-budget horror movie. The 80′s seemed like a good time for some filmmakers to stretch their creative limbs, as well as a good time for down-right morons to make movies that nobody really gives a damn about. Low-budget does not mean you have to give us an overdose of cheese and unoriginality. You can milk an idea until it has nothing left, or you can expand and be creative. Tell me, where’s the creativity here? What makes “Prom Night” a “good night” (at the movies)? If nobody can answer me, then hell, I’ll just give up.
Oh, now look what your movie has done, John Carpenter. Your horror masterpiece “Halloween” has transformed the brave and bold scream-queen Jamie Lee Curtis into a “type actor”. She is brave and bold no longer, but granted, she’s still a scream-queen. But still, it doesn’t matter. What matters is story, characters, and wit; all things which “Prom Night” simply does not have. Nielson is kind of pleasurable in his relatively small role, but forgettable in the end.
I don’t go into slasher movies expecting ANY of them to be good. That’s the beauty of the moment when, to my surprise, they turn out to be good. I approached “Prom Night” the same way, and got bored really fast, just like I have with other just-as-bad slasher movies. Believe it or not, there are good slasher movies, and then there are, obviously, the god-awful ones. The only truly scary thing attached to “Prom Night” is that it has an audience, and sadly, it’s a stupid one.
Pretty good horror film, the lighting could have been better though.
Not crazy about slow burns, but this is a classic. Can’t help but thinking my prom would have been more memorable if an axe murderer would have showed up.
This is a great slasher film. Love Jamie Lee Curtis in this movie.
I never get tired of watching Jamie Lee Curtis being badass and looking hot as hell. Besides her, there is little else to laud the movie with. Pretty good start, “eh” middle, and epic, moving ending. The kills: uncreative and unexciting, and in a slasher I’m looking for variety and hair raisers. I liked this movie, but I had to work at parts to pay attention. Watch it for Jamie, people! Watch it for Jamie!
Grea slasher! After black christmas my favorite slasher of the golden era! And for the first time the title song is very good and makes the movie even better! JLC once again is perfect and the characters overall are really good ! one thing it lacks is showing the deaths ! They all happen off camera and you only see the bodies afterwards! Also i would like to know why the original clique was split up and became enemies ! But the movie was great!
Prom Night everything is alright! Watched this again recently. Loved it as a youngster. Still say iit holds up well for an early 80’s slasher!