Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageProm Night (1980)
Director: Paul Lynch
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
It looks promising: a sincere Halloween rip-off which takes time out to milk Carrie, Saturday Night Fever, and all those B feature 'lust and rivalry' high school sagas. The masked axeman terror here coincides with the anniversary of the death of a small girl, caused accidentally by four older kids who swear to keep their guilty secret. Corny, but not enough for Lynch, who also throws in the escape of a homicidal maniac wrongly imprisoned for the child's murder, and a confusion of red herring conflicts which mark the plot as a poor imitation of John Carpenter's patient terrorism of good by evil. But if you forget motivation, the visual trick-or-treat of slow revenge is entertaining enough: a weirdo janitor dribbling at the window; the victim's year book photos pinned with shards of shattered mirror. Jamie Lee Curtis is superb as Miss Naturally Popular and Prom Queen-to-be, isolated in empty high school corridors: if you like your psychologising loose and edited to that unstoppable disco beat, it's a night out, just.Author:
User reviews of this film
-
- hanna smith said...
- Posted on Jun 19 2008 10:00 its shit scary !!!! I started to cry at the scary bits!!! i wunt wanna watch it again
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Beckie boo x said...
- Posted on Jun 19 2008 09:58 its real good but quite scary ha ha ha :) i would watch it again n again lol x
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Paul Lynch
Producer: Peter R Simpson
Cast: Leslie Nielsen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Casey Stevens, Eddie Benton, Antoinette Bower, Michael Tough, Robert Silverman full cast
Genre(s): Horror
Duration: 95 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Our verdict on Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson ends a triumphant decade with a sentimental misfire with this lush Alice Sebold adaptation
On the set of Ken Loach's 'Route Irish'
Dave Calhoun meets Ken Loach on the set of his forthcoming Iraq war movie
Stephen Poliakoff discusses 'Glorious 39'
Stephen Poliakoff’s ‘Glorious 39’ is his first film for cinema since ‘Food of Love’ in 1997. Dave Calhoun met him
Is 'Paranormal Activity' the new 'Blair Witch'?
How does a film go from DIY experiment to box-office smash? 'Paranormal Activity' director Oren Peli explains
Steven Soderbergh on 'The Informant!' and 'The Girlfriend Experience'
We talk to Steven Soderbergh about his two forthcoming films: one featuring a porn star, the other a chubby Matt Damon
A gateway to all things 'New Moon'
In anticipation of 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon', Time Out is offering the chance to pick up a limited edition pack with three exclusive magazines and a free poster.
London Children's Film Festival
Read our exclusive reviews of films playing at the 2009 London Children’s Film Festival
The films that deserve a TV spin-off
With Roland Emmerich suggesting he'd like to make a '2012' TV spin-off, we propose some more movie-to-TV serialisations
The Coen brothers discuss 'A Serious Man'
Masters of contrary comedy, Joel and Ethan Coen have struck gold again with their latest, ‘A Serious Man’
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations
What do you think?
Post your review now