A masked man stalks four teenagers who are responsible for the death of a girl they knew when they were kids. He plans to kill then during their high school prom.
Blaine: Director Paul Lynch’s previous films did alright, but they weren’t box office hits and so he decided to do a horror movie next and he called it “Don’t See the Doctor”. “Halloween” was a huge hit and became an inspiration for the slasher genre. Paul had made a poster and presented his idea to a production company. They were impressed with the poster, but they turned down the project because they didn’t think anyone would see a movie about a doctor. They told Paul to come up with something better. One of the things that was suggested to Paul was holidays sense “Halloween” took place on Halloween day. Paul was trying to think of an idea for a slasher film and one day he passed a high school and there was a sign saying “Prom Night Tonight”. Paul thought that something like that would be a good idea for a horror film.
Paul Lynch had met with a writer named Robert Guza Jr. and asked if he could turn this idea he had into a horror story. Robert had told Paul about this short story he had written about an incident that comes back and haunts these high school kids. Paul thought that story would go great with his idea and so they mixed the two ideas together and developed a script in less than a month. Embassy Pictures financed “Prom Night” and then it was on to casting. Paul Lynch had a TV actress in mind for the lead female character, Kim. Jamie Lee Curtis wanted to do the movie after reading the script and Paul couldn’t believe it because he knew how big of a star she had become after the huge success of “Halloween”. Paul’s thoughts of having that TV actress in the movie had faded away after meeting with Jamie Lee Curtis. Paul already knew what Jamie was capable of after seeing her in “Halloween”. In her audition, Paul tested Jamie to see if she could dance because her character dances in the film. She danced really well and after that it was official that Jamie Lee Curtis would be in “Prom Night”.
The other kids in “Prom Night” came right out of acting school. Principal photography for “Prom Night” began in August and only was shot in 29 days. “Prom Night” was shot in a real high school and they had to get everything done before the school semester started. Paul really liked the camera work that the camera crew did during the scene where Jamie Lee Curtis and the late Casey Stevens, who plays the boyfriend, dance in front of the other high school kids. The camera crew didn’t have a lot of practice with a camera and yet they were able to shoot in different angles of Jamie and Casey. The late Leslie Nielsen had never done a series role before in a movie, but off camera he was a real jokester. He would walk around with this machine that could make fart noises and that would make people laugh. Leslie would tell everyone on the set to have fun even though it’s work. “Prom Night” was meant to be a mystery thriller with some fun added to it because it would show teenagers having fun at the prom.
The masked guy was a stunt person and Paul really liked all the running and fighting moves he did in “Prom Night”. No one ever saw that stuntman again after he finished his work for “Prom Night". There was one actress who was nervous because she had to be naked for a scene where her character gets murdered. It was her first movie and she didn’t want her parents to see it. The contract she had signed for the picture never said anything about nudity, but she did it anyway. Towards the end Kate gets a good look at the masked man’s eyes and recognizes them right away. The masked man who has been murdering the high school students is Kate's brother, Alex, and the reason why he is killing those teenagers is because he knows they are responsible for killing his sister, Robin, all those years ago. He witnessed her death and saw the kids who were responsible. He never told anyone who killed his sister and he has felt rage for those kids ever since then. Alex had been trying to figure out ways to avenge his sister’s death and it isn’t till prom night that he decides to murder them. Paul Lynch thought that moment where Kate recognizes the eyes was movie magic because of the look on Jamie Lee Curtis’ face and the way the camera zooms in on the killer’s eyes. Michael Tough, the actor who plays Alex, took the ending very seriously and wanted to make sure he did good job with how he performed. “Prom Night” became another successful slasher film hit and another inspiration for the slasher genre next to “Halloween”.
My rating on “Prom Night” is four and a half out of five stars.
