Outside of Halloween and Friday the 13th, both of which were already considered spooky days, probably the next holiday/annual event that slasher films tried to take over was Christmas. And after that, it’s perhaps prom, the high school dance held during spring semester. In addition to the “Carrie” films, there are five films in the “Prom Night” franchise (plus a sixth if you count 1994’s “The Club,” which started as part of the saga and retains the prom setting).
I know what you did six years ago
“Prom Night” (1980) is a middling slasher film at a crossroads: It owes a lot to what came before, but also influenced a lot of what came later. We start with a nostalgic Stephen King-y opening of tweens playing “killer” (an edgier hide-and-seek) in a creepy-ass abandoned building. The game ends in tragedy similar to “I Know What You Did Last Summer” (which was a 1973 young-adult novel before it was a 1997 slasher).
After a “six years later” jump to 1980, “Prom Night” riffs on “Halloween” with stalker-POV shots and the presence of Jamie Lee Curtis as the Nice Girl, named Kim here. It’s understandable that writers William Gray and Robert Guza Jr. have “Carrie” on their minds. But they don’t know what to do with the prank-at-prom structure other than having Mean Girl Wendy (Anne-Marie Martin) plot with musclehead Lou (David Mucci) to somehow “get” Kim and her boyfriend Nick (Casey Stevens), who is Wendy’s ex (and we can’t blame him in the least).
“Prom Night” (1980)
Director: Paul Lynch
Writers: William Gray, Robert Guza Jr.
Stars: Leslie Nielsen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Casey Stevens
This week, RFMC looks at the films of the “Prom Night” saga.
“Prom Night” has more of a mystery structure than “Carrie” or “Halloween” or even “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” though. Gray and Guza Jr. pepper us with possibilities, including a mostly off-screen sex offender who has escaped custody, a school groundskeeper who is harassed by students, the harassers themselves, and one of the investigators.
Ultimately, this is another slasher-mystery where the answer was right under my nose but I overlooked it; many viewers will figure it out. It’s a believable-enough ending in that post-“Psycho” fashion wherein a brief explanation of trauma explains all, something also used in “My Bloody Valentine” (1981).
Director Paul Lynch’s film prefigures John Hughes’ masterpieces, as Gray and Guza Jr. give distinct traits to the teens and the natures of their coupledom. We have Nick and Kim being in love; and Wendy being angry enough to recruit Lou, who figures she’s hot enough to date. Actually the two best couples are on the side: a chubby but slick guy who likes the girl who thinks she’s undesirable, and a guy who wants sex from a girlfriend who isn’t ready yet.
The last days of disco
Time has been kind to “Prom Night’s” coolness factor, as the exact point when disco became uncool is now nebulous. The film was a little behind the times by having the prom theme be Disco Madness. “Airplane!” made fun of disco earlier that year, and “Freaks and Geeks” (set in 1980) later had Jason Segel’s character keep his love of disco a secret because he was ashamed.
At any rate, we get lots of dance-floor action that’s not impressive enough to justify the screentime. Today, I don’t mind soaking up the vibe of a different era, but I can’t deny that this is “between the killings” stuff. In retrospect, though, I suppose the killer can’t exactly rush from one victim to the next.
If the genuineness of the teen romances is the strong point, the script’s messages about responsibility, guilt and revenge are muddled. The killer calls the guilty teens on the phone with “I know what you did” warnings, yet – unlike “I Know What You Did Last Summer” – the teens barely give it a thought. “Scream’s” ideas about the virgins being safe while the promiscuous teens are targeted doesn’t apply in “Prom Night,” and this seems random, rather than a pointed reversion of the trope.
I can’t end this review without mentioning that Leslie Nielsen – right after “Airplane!” – plays the principal and stepfather of Kim in “Prom Night.” Although he would continue to play serious roles, everyone now knows him for comedies. I’m surprised to say Nielsen’s presence didn’t take me out of the movie, partly because several authority figures trade off the point position. He kind of disappears from the action.
“Prom Night” will likely disappear from your memory, but it’s a solid launch to a slasher franchise.