kcvidkid's Movie Review of Prom Night (1980)

2 proms for the price of 1 (1980)
kcvidkid - wrote on 05/13/08

I have an obsessive compulsion to revisit the original movie when its remake is released in theaters. I just love to compare and contrast, then bitch about how the new one is not as good as its source material.

But something different happened with "Prom Night", not the least of which, this year's version seems to have borrowed only the title and most general of concepts from the 1980 version. Also, neither one is very good, the quality of the new one actually edging out the earlier version by the slimmest of margins.

I remember seeing the first "Prom Night" when it was first released in theaters in July of 1980. While I could not tell you much about it 28 years later, I do remember not particularly liking it. Upon my recent viewing, it is indeed a poor attempt to capitalize on the success of "Halloween", Jamie Lee Curtis not being the only thing in common between the two.

These days, the most horrific thing about it is the non-stop disco soundtrack of the high school's senior prom. There is no suspense to speak of, and the treatment of the red herring is not sufficiently introduced or nurtured to be effective.

But at least it attempted a twist, no matter how lame. "Prom Night" 2008 has no such aspirations. It is a simple story of a murderous teacher stalking the object of his obsession. I have to give it a little credit for veering from the teenage sex = death formula of "Prom Night" 1980 (and many, many others); these kids don't have to misbehave to be slaughtered.

There may have been some suspense in the new one, but it becomes tedious. I don't know how many times a movie can use the surprise-figure-appears-in-a-mirror trick before the audience, no matter how dumb, becomes bored by it.

But good production values and a very good soundtrack, which I assume is hip and trendy, make "Prom Night" 2008 at least an average horror film.

Skin Rating (1980) = 0 (out of 4). Skin Rating (2008) = -1 (out of 4). It's negative because it's a crime to not have at least a little skin when there's such an attractive young cast.