PROM NIGHT
1980 Canada
Directed by Paul Lynch

It’s a slashtacular good time as Leslie Nielsen and Jamie Lee Curtis unleash disco madness on an unsuspecting audience in this fairly standard entry in the psycho-killer-on-a-bloody-rampage-of-revenge genre.
Our story starts in 1974 with a group of fun-loving kids who accidentally taunt a young girl to death while playing the hide and seek game Killer...she falls from a window -OOPS! Well, somehow tough-talkin’ Wendy convinces the rest of the kids that they’ll all go straight to jail so they need to swear to keep it a secret FOREVER! No sweat-they all do so and go happily about their lives.
Now...jump forward to 1980 –it’s the six year anniversary of young Robin’s accident and a mysterious madman is bent on avenging her death. Luckily for us, it’s also the day of Hamilton High’s senior prom! Follow along as all the kids from the prologue have grown into teenhood and are getting ready for the big night. As our masked killer taunts them by telephone and plots the ultimate revenge, we the viewer are subjected to a lot of red herrings, teen drama and an excessive amount of character development (you know-so that you really care about the characters before they are senselessly slaughtered). Will Jude find a date for the prom? Will Kelly really go all the way? Will Nick tell Kim the truth about Robin’s death? Will Lou really get expelled from school? Will the disco floor be ready in time? Will the police catch the escaped lunatic before he kills again? Will the creepy janitor get caught spying on the girls? Will Wendy get away with her practical joke? Will Kim’s mom find her favorite lipstick? Fret not, trash fan...just when you think you can’t take it anymore, it’s finally time for the prom and the real fun begins. Watch in amazement as Jamie Lee dances like there’s no tomorrow to a seemingly endless string of bad disco tunes, unaware that her friends are being knocked off one by one.
But be warned-Prom Night is no bodycount masterpiece...it’s often badly lit, the pacing is somewhat slow, the disco numbers are excruciating and some of the characters are just plain ridiculous. But despite its flaws, Prom Night manages to be a pretty decent little whodunnit-style mystery. Once you know who the killer is, it’s painfully obvious, but just like the heavy lose-your-virginity subplot in the film, there’s nothing like the first time, baby!
And with that, I leave you with a bit of advice from Prom Night...rich bitch Wendy reminds Prom Queen Kim (Curtis) that “it’s not who you go with, Honey...it’s who takes you home.”

-Creepy Christy