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After watching Going To Pieces I decided to download some of the movies mentioned but never before seen by me, one of them being Prom Night. Now I have seen the remake that has been stabbed to death by critics and viewers around but having watched the original I wonder: was it really that bad? Because the original isn’t very good either. I must admit its been a while since I saw it but I gave it a 5-rating on the IMDB so it must have some entertaining factor. Probably higher than this one as this one had me dozing off when the killings start happening. That would be after the hour mark, and yes, this movie is only 90 minutes long so you can’t even really call it a slasher.
The movie starts off with what now is a really big cliche; a couple of kids “accidentally” cause an accident resulting in the death of one of them. They swear never to talk about this again and since CSI didn’t have all those fancy gimmicks in those days this is labeled as an accident with nobody ever asking any questions. But somebody is aware of this situation and 6 years later starts threatening the kids responsible and on Prom Night he will avenge this death. At the time this was probably a fresh plot, but having seen the I Know What You Did Last Summer Trilogy it feels old even though they are the ones copying Prom Night. But those movies do a better job.
The problem is with Prom Night is that it really takes up too long in so called character building that when the actual killing started I just didn’t really care anymore. The characters aren’t really that interesting and the star of the movie; Jamie Lee-Curtis, sister to the victim in the opening scene and not responsible for the accident, is from the first minute on never in danger. If the protagonist will never be in danger, it’s hard to get involved in the story. She could be the killer, but that is never hinted at. Actually, I had a pretty good idea of who is after the opening sequence and basically everybody who watches the movie should have too. The movie is too busy with its build up and that’s what makes it really boring. Especially since it even introduces plot lines, like some cops chasing a psycho on the run, which have absolutely nothing to with the main plot. When the killings do start the killer turns out to be rather wimpy and clumsy, the gore is pretty absent and only a decapitation with a head rolling on a stage in front of the entire school was pretty neat. But really, do you want to watch 80 minutes of perfectly good wasted celluloid just for that one scene?
But we do get Jamie Lee-Curtis doing some disco dancing though.
