Prom Night was a Canadian slash movie released in 1980. It starred Jamie Lee Curtis, who was also in the original Halloween. I haven't seen the original film so I can only evaluate this one as it stands alone.
The premise is that a young girl's teacher develops an obsession with her, and is fired from the school. He then breaks into her house and kills her entire family in front of her as she hides in the closet. 3 years of intense therapy and adoption by her aunt and uncle later, she's all grown up and about to graduate high school.
However, the killer escaped jail and tracked her down on the night of the senior prom. In his obsessive jealousy he then stalks the hotel where the dance is held, killing off hotel employees and all the girl's friends. The majority of these kills are quick and obfuscated stabs to the abdomen with a large pocket knife.
All the killings are identical, so they all blur together. This effect isn't helped by how generic all the characters are. At best case the character has shown enough personality to be disliked as a shallow caricature of a high school stereotype. There's no one to identify with, so there is no horror to what is happening. Even the lead character, who we spend a lot of time with, fails to connect. The actress was decent, the writing just didn't give her anything except a series of scenes to wander through.
The movie's glossy and well constructed but flat and utterly uninteresting. It's not even particularly bloody or suspenseful. I can't say I disliked watching it, I was just a little bored because I didn't get anything gory to watch or anything interesting to think about.
Next up: Friday the 13th (2009)
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