Prom Night ** (1980, Leslie Nielsen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Casey Stevens) – Classic Movie Review 10,026

Director Paul Lynch’s 1980 Canadian teens in trouble serial killer horror thriller Prom Night stars Leslie Nielsen and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Can gruesome death be far away when a masked killer is stalking the teens at the Hamilton High School senior prom?

Jamie Lee Curtis plays Kimberly Hammond, whose sister was killed a decade earlier and her brother Alex (Michael Tough) is the DJ at the disco. The killer is stalking the four teenagers – Kelly Lynch (Mary Beth Rubens), Jude Cunningham (Joy Thompson), Wendy Richards (Anne-Marie Martin) and Nick McBride (Casey Stevens) – responsible for the accidental death of a classmate six years earlier when they were 12. Leslie Nielsen plays Mr Hammond and Antoinette Bower plays Mrs Hammond.

Prom Night is just the kind of tacky horror film that Curtis made her name in as the Scream Queen in the early Eighties and she was anxious to get out of as soon as she could.

The screenplay is written by William Gray, from a story by Robert Guza Jr.

It was a nice little earner. Costing CAD1,500,000, it grossed $14,796,236 in the US. Prom Night II: Hello Mary Lou followed in 1987. Prom Night III: The Last Kiss followed in 1989. Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil followed in 1992.

Also in the cast are Casey Stevens, Anne-Marie Martin [Eddie Benton], Antoinette Bower, Pita Oliver, Robert A Silverman, Michael Tough, David Mucci, Jeff Wincott, Mary Beth Rubens, George Touliatos, Melanie Morse MacQuarrie, David Gardner and Joy Thompson.

Prom Night is directed by Paul Lynch, runs 92 minutes, is made by Guardian Trust Company, Prom Night Productions and Simcom Limited, is released by Astral Films (1980) (Canada), AVCO Embassy Pictures (1980) (US) and Barber Rose Film Distributors (1980) (UK), is written by William Gray, from a story by Robert Guza Jr, is shot by Robert New, is produced by Peter Simpson and is scored by Carl Zittrer.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,026

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