SeveredNitrate Presents Prom Night (1980)

Salutations Severedheads. 🧟

I am your hostess Necrosecta and this is SeveredNitrate where we review horror flicks. This week's flick is Prom Night. 

SPOILERS!!!!!!! Duh...

Trigger Warning: 

-Sex

-Drugs

-Booze

-Nudity 

-Profanity (grow up) 

-Death

-Murder

-Blood

-Prom 

-High School setting 

-Smoking 

-Disco

-Rock N' Roll 

-Dance Sequence 

Let's start off with the lovely cast: 

Jamie Lee Curtis as Kim Hammond

Casey Stevens as Nick 

Anne-Marie Martin as Wendy 

Michael Tough as Alex Hammond

Mary Beth Rubens as Kelly

Joy Thompson as Jude 

Pita Oliver as Vicki 

Tammy Bourne as Robin Hammond 

PLOT: 

Wendy, Nick, Kelly, and Jude are playing a very homicidal version of tag. Little Robin Hammond wanders into their game and is bullied to the point of falling out a fucking window! The four swear to never tell believing they'd be imprisoned for what they did. Unbeknownst to the group Robin's fraternal twin Alex witnessed their crime and vowed revenge. 

Kim, Robin and Alex's older sister, unwittingly befriends Kelly and Jude as she grows up. And as the prom Queen, Kim is going with Nick who is that year's prom King. Kim isn't really aware of her friends being picked off until the killer comes after Nick. Kim fights Alex off, not knowing the murderer is her own brother until she wacks him in the head with his own axe. Before he passes out though he's able to tell Kim what happened the day Robin died. 

That's pretty much how it ends. At least the main plot. There is a second plot about a psycho, who was first believed to be Robin's murderer, escaping and Nick's father trying his best to catch him only to find him 50 miles away. So, he's innocent of the High School killings. 

A tertiary plot about Nick's ex-girlfriend Wendy plotting to humiliate Kim at her coronation with the school bully Lou. Alex takes care of Lou and Wendy though so no humiliation happens. Sorry, Prom Night, Carrie you are not. 

THOUGHTS: 

I like this movie but not as much as I like Terror Train. I find more plot holes that are rather annoying than interesting. Such as with Alex, he witnesses his sister being killed and instead of telling his father, mother, or the cops, he keeps quiet about it. Why? I don't think he was plotting murder since he was a kid. So, he lets the kids that murdered his sister get away. I'm dubious. Now, if Alex would have originally told on them and they got away because it was an accident and he decides to get revenge later, that would make sense. But I guess they really wanted to keep the twist on the DL that the masked slasher is Alex. When really it's not that hard to guess in the first place. 

The better twist would have been Kim doing the killings. That way her befriending Jude, Kelly, and Nick would be a way of keeping her enemies close. Or better if Kim and Alex's mother were doing the killing. She disappears halfway through the Prom anyway. Or if Mr. and Mrs. Hammond were both the killers. Since they both actually disappear and never show back up. And the killings don't start until they're gone. Actually, what if the entire Hammond family is in on the murders? Alex kills Wendy and Lou. Mr. Hammond kills Jude and her date and Mrs. Hammond kills Kelly. Leaving sweet Nick for Kim. 

See, all rather good possibilities with just a few adjustments to the plot. Also, why so many red herrings? If there are a pair of twins in a story and one is murdered then it's always going to be the twin who's doing the killing. The Angsty Surviving Twin trope is a thing darlings. 

Other questions. Why does Alex keep saying 'Now' over and over? WTF was that game the kids were playing? Why bully the girl all the way onto the window sill? Why thrust shoulders forward to make it look like Robin was going to get pushed? Why would Nick even befriend the sister of a girl he murdered? The same goes for Kelly and Jude! At least Nick feels guilty. We never know how Kelly and Jude feel. And I'm sure as hell that Wendy never gave Robin another thought. 

I think that Robin would have survived if that second window hadn't fallen. That's when she got severed glass in her throat. There is no way that Alex died in the end. If that axe was supposed to cut into his face then they should have made a prosthetic where a fake axe would hang from. Or show Kim putting some effort into taking out the axe. The gash on Alex's head isn't even that deep, plus not enough blood. Head wounds bleed profusely. If Alex's head had been chopped he'd be bleeding all over Kim when she's holding him at the end. 

And don't give me the lame excuse of 'but the budget didn't allow it'. They got a decapitation in there then they can have Jamie do some extra pantomiming yanking out the axe and a little bit more blood on Alex as he 'dies'. Not that much extra shit needs to be done to be just a tad bit more convincing. 

In the end, when Alex is revealed with makeup on his face are we supposed to be thinking that Robin was working through Alex? That Alex took on Robin's persona? Something like that? 

So, what do I like about this movie? Jamie Lee Curtis is usually entertaining to watch. I believe the relationships between these characters and while I feel things could have been more fleshed out there are very few people that I want to see get killed. They easily could have made all the characters that were going to die hateable but they didn't. Just two. The actors played their parts well. There's a lot of potential here and I actually would have liked to see a proper sequel or remake. Sadly, Prom Night had neither. Will I do the 'sequel' and remake, maybe a little further down the road. 

Plus, knowing that Jamie Lee Curtis went from this straight into Terror Train, with barely a month's break, is damn impressive. 

Have you seen Prom Night? What did you think of it? What did you like or dislike? Do you have a request for me? I'm happy to watch something new feel free to ask. Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the review! 

'Till next time stay twisted darlings. 

Lapshi! 

-Necrosecta 

Next time on SeveredNitrate: Gojira (1954)

(Did you think I'd say another Jamie Lee Curtis movie? Well, I had one planned but I got a request so The Fog will have to wait.)