Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.5

Prom Night Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf September 17, 2014

1980’s “Prom Night” holds a peculiar place in the slasher film spectrum. Created to cash in on the wild success of 1978’s “Halloween,” the movie arrived just before standards for this type of horror dipped into pure financial calculation. It’s a tad slower than its brethren, offers limited violence, and submits a noticeable effort with editing and performances, making it quite interesting if not entirely triumphant. It’s a mixed bag of delights, but “Prom Night” retains appeal through its unusual tone and care with motivation, adding just a hint of real-world torment to ground the masked killer shenanigans. Also adding to the picture’s appeal is its era-specific setting, eschewing timelessness to whip up a disco inferno, gifting the feature a bewitching time capsule-style allure.

For the students at Alexander Hamilton High School, the senior prom is the most important social event of the year. For Kim (Jamie Lee Curtis), a smooth night as prom queen is planned, but sadness remains, with the anniversary of her sister’s mysterious death casting a pall on the proceedings, also taxing her father, Principal Hammond (Leslie Nielsen). As Kim and her friends gear up for the “Disco Madness” celebration, working out dance moves and acquiring dates, a deranged man is using phone calls to terrorize select members of the student body, with the cops, including Lt. McBride (George Touliatos), trying to recapture the man responsible for the murder of Kim’s sibling, who’s recently escaped from prison. As the party commences, teen jealousies reign supreme, and for Nick (Casey Stevens), Jude (Joy Thompson), Wendy (Anne-Marie Martin), and Kelly (Mary Beth Rubens), a different type of torment awaits them at the prom, with their past sins returning to haunt them.

“Prom Night” takes its sweet time setting up the story, commencing in 1974, where the death of Kim’s little sister is explored through an unsettling mix of the game “Killer” and a pack of bullying kids. From there, it’s on to 1980, where Kim is getting ready to make her prom night one to remember with boyfriend Nick, accepting her duties as party royalty while Wendy watches with disgust, teaming with school dirtball Lou (David Mucci) to make life miserable for the future queen. Instead of sprinting right to the carnage, the screenplay allows the characters to lead the way, with director Paul Lynch taking special care with red herrings and devious motivations. In fact, “Prom Night” is all about misdirection, working hard to keep the audience off its scent, introducing malevolent students, a creepy groundskeeper, and a killer on the loose, all contributing to a decent whodunit that doesn’t have the flair of a truly cracking mystery, only the proper mechanics.

Topping murder is dating gamesmanship, which eats up nearly as much screentime as the suspense. “Prom Night” takes its juvenile crises with some degree of seriousness, with these virginal characters desperate to find a partner for the dance. Jude is especially haunted by her inability to land an available guy, ending up with Slick, who, in true 1980 fashion, drives a make-out van filled with marijuana. “Prom Night” takes over an hour to arrive at any type of mayhem, leaving much of the movie to the concerns of its characters, adding a curveball to the slaughterhouse checklist. Obviously, this will likely frustrate those craving purity of horror, but patience fits the film, which seems almost unconcerned with cheap thrills until it absolutely has to deliver some to prevent riots at the multiplex.

Prom Night Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (1.78:1 aspect ratio) presentation has brought "Prom Night" to HD with a truly filmic and respectful restoration effort. Although the movie is inherently soft, fine detail is exceptional, preserving textures on skin and costuming (the killer's mask displays its intended sparkle), while set design achievements and locations retain depth and nuance. Colors are vivid and accurate, emphasizing blazing red dresses and drippy bloodshed, while disco hues also make an impression, covering a range of blues and yellows. Skintones are natural. Grain is managed with ideal results, keeping a celluloid feel to the viewing experience. Blacks are tested throughout, yet delineation remains, with the finale and most of its dark corners open for inspection.

Prom Night Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA sound mix joins the visual elements in giving "Prom Night" a full Blu-ray feel, offering a tasteful sampling of circular movement that envelops the listener with suspense elements and atmospherics. Scoring is felt in full, with crisp instrumentation and steady volume keep up tension. Soundtrack cuts bring a pleasing low-end to the track, sampling the disco beat on numerous occasions. Dialogue exchanges are defined, capturing emotional surges and group dynamic, while echoed hallway activity is isolated without muddiness. Damage isn't detected.

Prom Night Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary features director Paul Lynch and screenwriter William Gray, moderated by Paul Jankiewicz.

• "The Horrors of Hamilton High" (41:04, HD) is the "Prom Night" making-of, gathering select cast and crew members (sadly, no Jamie Lee Curtis) to reflect on the feature. Director Lynch leads the charge here, exploring the creative origins of the project, its casting successes, and marketing achievements. The tone is celebratory, with those appearing quite proud of their participation, and some still have props from the movie, sharing them with the camera (one severed head has not aged well).

• Motion Still Gallery (6:20) contains 74 images from principal photography and the publicity campaign.

• "Never-Before-Seen Outtakes from the Original 'Prom Night' Shoot" (23:15, HD) is a fascinating look at the daily business of film production, presenting a collection of raw footage (without sound, with scoring from the movie added for atmosphere) that spotlights how certain shots were created before editing generated the required tone.

• "Additional Footage Added for Television Broadcast" (11:11, HD) catches up with editor Michael Maclaverty, who discusses the changes required to bring "Prom Night" to the small screen. The scenes are negligible, but most interesting is the deletion of a daffy office secretary for Principal Hammond, adding a touch of slapstick to the effort.

• Two Original Radio Spots (1:06) are offered.

• Six Original T.V. Spots (3:17, HD) are provided.

• And a Theatrical Trailer (1:49, HD) is included.

Prom Night Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"Prom Night" is artfully composed and nicely edited, delivering a bit more texture than the average slasher enterprise provides. Tension with a masked killer finally arrives in the final act (though violence is muted, with Lynch almost afraid to detail the blood and guts), breaking up the disco carnival with some stalking scenes and chaos, offering a decent payoff to the mystery -- the ending is wonderfully blunt, making its climatic point and hitting the end credits without wasting any time. Sequels followed and a wretched remake arrived in 2008, yet the original "Prom Night" stands as a minor achievement in the genre, content to play down knife-wielding anarchy and track the concerns and suspicions of the personalities involved. And there's disco too. Sweet, sweet disco. Nothing sells a horror show from 1980 like Jamie Lee Curtis catching boogie fever.