Pretty much your typical slasher film, this is one that was clichéd when it came out, and that was twenty years ago! Strange to see how films like I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER are still using the same clichés even now, perhaps in twenty years time we'll be watching yet more blonde girls getting stalked through corridors by mad people...Still, as an example of its type, you could do a lot worse, and at least this presents a nice variety of clichés for us to enjoy, such as (deep breath): an escaped lunatic who kidnapped a nurse, cf. HALLOWEEN; some threatening phone calls, cf. BLACK Christmas; a weird cleaner as a main suspect; teenagers having sex and then getting killed, cf. just about any slasher film in existence! Although filmed on a low budget in Canada, the film succeeds by building up lots of red herrings and potential murderers in the cast, before bumping off half a dozen teens in the last third (although it's never explained why the fat guy in the van gets murdered when he had nothing to do with the original accident).The cast is mainly populated by nobodies, headlined by two stars; one up-and-coming girl, one middle-aged actor going through a lean patch in his career; that is, Jamie Lee Curtis and Leslie Nielsen. Curtis was typed as a screaming heroine at this time, having appeared in HALLOWEEN, TERROR TRAIN, and THE FOG, to name but three, and here she performs perfectly adequately - apart from her embarrassing moves on the disco floor, which should have been consigned to cutting room history! It's difficult to watch Nielsen acting seriously - you expect him to start blowing things up accidentally or killing people in a comic fashion. He looks as if he doesn't want to be in this film, and he actually isn't...near the end, he suddenly disappears, never to be heard of again! Where did Nielsen go? One minute he's dancing, the next...people are looking for him but to no avail! Was this some secret hint that there was actually a conspiracy involved that night - and maybe Nielsen was a second murderer? Or maybe the budget ran low and the producers had to quickly ditch the most expensive star.For a slasher film, there are surprisingly few deaths, and most of the film's running time is padded out with endless conversions about the prom, some low lifes at the school fighting, drugs, sex, flashing, and girls putting make up on. Not to mention some obvious spooky scenes, like a window smashing suddenly and nobody being there. When the deaths do come, they're pretty simplistic and disappointing - some blood, throat slashings, nothing spectacular apart from a flying severed rubber head moment at the end of the film (pretty funny, but not exactly worth waiting for). The killer dresses entirely in black and wears a balaclava; personally he reminded me more of a ninja than a murderer.PROM NIGHT was a moderate success, spawning three unrelated sequels to date. There are a few effective stalk and slash moments in the film to enjoy, but not really much horror content. If you want the blueprints of the genre then it's probably a good idea to go with the two most popular slasher films which were responsible for all of these imitations: HALLOWEEN and Friday the 13th (themselves influenced by many other pictures, I know). Or even something gory like THE BURNING. This film falls about the middle of the scale of slasher film quality.

An unintentionally hilarious disco dancing scene featuring scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis is the improbable highlight of this early '80s slasher, which gives some idea of just how disappointing Prom Night is as a horror movie, the film achieving nowhere near the level of carefully crafted scares to be found in Curtis's classic genre outing Halloween, nor delivering the exploitative thrills of its far more gory contemporary Friday the 13th.Just about as formulaic and predictable as the genre gets, Prom Night sees a killer bumping off a group of oversexed teenagers who were responsible for the accidental death of a young girl six years earlier. Who could the murderer be? The weirdo working as a handyman at the high school? The disfigured sex offender originally blamed for the girl's death? The dead girl's father (played by Leslie Nielsen) Or someone else? Seriously, it's not hard to figure out who killer is, so the film doesn't even work as a whodunit. No atmosphere, very little splatter (a decapitation is the only decent death; the rest is too dark to make out), the barest minimum of T&A, a simple to solve mystery, and Jamie Lee grooving it up on the disco floor: hardly the stuff that nightmares are made of.4.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

A second viewing that turned out to be rather disappointing. In spite of the solid premise (and opening scene), the nice cutting between fragments and the rather human approach of the characters, 'Prom night' does not get very far. The detective's attempts at saving the day are numerous, but ultimately inane. The kill(scenes)s are mostly dragged out too long and hardly captivating in their outcome (except maybe the chase through the school and the beheading scene of a young Tom Cruise - I mean David Mucci, of course). The chicks are certainly not hard to look at, at all (one bare butt, some almost naked breasts and J.L.C. wearing not much more than a bra), but they can hardly save the day.5 out of 10.

In the Sixties, a group of children are playing a game in a decrepit and abandoned convent school when a younger kid attempts to join them (Robyn). The kids begin to bully Robyn, accidentally getting her killed, and they make a pact to keep it a secret. The cops on scene assume it was a pedophile and Robyn's murder is forgotten... but somebody saw the 'accident' and they want to avenge Robyn...Prom Night follows the lives of the group of children now in high school, each preparing for the supposed most romantic night of their lives, unknowing that a killer is lurking. Could it be Mister Sykes, the pervy school janitor? Could it be Luke, the school thug? Or is it someone much closer to home? The soundtrack was written by the man responsible for the soundtrack to the 1981 horror classic 'My Bloody Valentine', Paul Zaza. The acting was great, the plot suspenseful and a funny yet creepy movie, especially to watch with friends. The only scene that seemed to drag a bit was the scene where the popular girl is chased down by the killer, it got a little boring.