Prom Night

Watched April 8, 2014

1980
Starring: Jamie Leigh Curtis, Leslie Nielson, Casey Stevens, Anne-Marie Martin, Michael Tough

We recently picked through Jen's VHS collection and pulled out a selection of movies that we either had never seen or wanted to watch again to decide if Jen should keep them. She is maxed out on her shelf space and needs to make some room by getting rid of some dude. So now we've got a long list of movies to watch, some of them look terrible and others I'm very excited to watch. Prom Night was on top of the pile we made.

I had seen Prom Night before, but it was at least five years ago. Once the movie started we all had memories of the beginning, but we had forgotten most of what happened. We had previously watched Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2 and for the most part really liked it so it was nice to revisit the original. As we would find out that aside from the theme of prom and murder, Prom Night and Prom Night 2 have very little to do with one another.

Kim and her siblings Robin and Alex are walking home from school one day when they see a group of kids playing in an abandoned building. Kim and Alex aren't interested but Robin runs to join the group. The group consists of four kids: Wendy, Jude, Kelly and Nick who let Robin join but then starting picking on her. They back Robin into a corner in front of a window and ultimately Robin falls out the window to her death. The four bullies make a pact to never discuss what happened. Robin's death is pinned on a known rapist, who is jailed for the murder.

Six years later, Kim (Jamie Leigh Curtis) is getting excited about the upcoming prom. All the kids involved in Robin's murder are reintroduced as teens. Wendy (Anne-Marie Martin) the leader of the group is still very much a bully. She assumes Nick (Casey Stevens) will take her to the prom, but Nick is going with Kim. Jude (Joy Thompson) doesn't have a date until she's approached by a dude in a van, she quickly accepts a ride from him and her date is secured. Kelly( (Mary Beth Rubens) has been going steady with Drew (Jeff Wincott) but they haven't gone all the way so there is a lot of pressure for prom night to be the night.  All four of the kids responsible for Robin's death get threatening phone calls from a mysterious man who they don't know and that kicks off the night of magic and murder.
 
Everyone gets to prom and are ready for the best night of their lives but little do they know a murderer is on the loose. Kelly and Drew head to the romantic locker room where they make out but Kelly still isn't ready to go all the way. Drew leaves in a huff, then Kelly is attacked by a mysterious man, her throat is slit with a shard of glass.

Jude and Seymour (the van guy) ditch prom to go have sex in his van. They are getting high post coital when the back van door is swung open and Kelly is stabbed multiple times in the throat. Seymour lunges to the driver's seat and tries to drive away. The movie we had was so dark that I couldn't see that the black-clad killer was attacking him as he tried to drive away. I just though Seymour was so scared he was driving erratically. The killer knocks Seymour out, gets the van in drive, it races over a cliff there it instantly bursts into flames.

The killer makes it back to the prom and stalks Wendy with an ax. Wendy is pretty crafty but the killer corners her in a closet.

Next on the killer's list is Nick. Wendy had worked out a plan with the deadbeat Lou (David Mucci) to ruin the prom for Kim.  Lou and his friends tied up Nick and Lou was taking his place as prom king. The killer decapitates Lou and his head rolls down the runway where Kim and Nick were supposed to walk down as king and queen. Kim finds Nick and unties him, the whole gym was evacuated once they saw Lou's head. Kim and Nick fight with the masked killer and lead him out to the front of the school where the cops are waiting.

Angela called it on who the murderer was but I was pleasantly surprised as they throw out several red herrings. I usually just spoil everything with a dry plot synopsis but I leave the killer out of it this time so you can discover it for yourself. 

While this is no doubt a slasher film the prom theme; Disco Madness also plays a huge part. Kim and Nick do a big dance routine once they're crowned prom royalty. The decorations include one of those awesome gridded light up dance floors. This is a fun slasher movie. I like how they reintroduce the older characters as teens, well thirty year old teens. Wendy is a great lead bitch. Jamie Leigh Curtis is a solid heroine as ever.