December 05, 2009.

Blood and Disco Music.

Rating: 3
If you can pass thru the anoying disco music, the bad acting teenagers, some obvious cliches and the guy who thinks he is John Travolta, the last 20 minutes will do the trick.

December 02, 2008.

Prom Night - was never this boring!.

Rating: 1
Doubt if was even scary when originally released during this [ugh!] Disco period. Best parts: Jamie Lee Curtis's young and too-brief 38D's brazier shot in the locker room and the ending credits; cutting her teeth on two-bit films like this, Jamie eventually evolved into both a sexy and superior actress (i.e, 1994 True Lies). Worst parts: documentary-style scary scenes, over use of twilight filtering and the lazy editing with redundant 4-second shots of meaningless high-school bulletin boards, vacant walls, etc., before eventually the actors walk or run into these shots. And the sound-track competes as worst element.

December 10, 2008.

really a 2 and 1/2 star.

Rating: 2
A pretty standard "who's killing the teens?" movie. Nothing great about it, but it is not a bad movie. Would have given it 2 1/2 stars if available.

December 12, 2008.

Underrated Slasher.

Rating: 3
Fifth movie in the boxset. I actually like this movie. A childhood favorite. Granted that it still has it's flaws. My friend says the reason this movie gets blasted all the time is because he thinks this was made mainly to exploit Jamie Lee Curtis' career, since she had been in movies like Halloween and The Fog.

The movie starts off in 1974. A group of kids are playing hide-and-go-seek in an old school building when all of a sudden, one of the kids falls to their death. The other kids vow to keep quite about it, but one of the kids knows. Flash foward 6 years later, the kids are now in High School. On the night of their senior prom. What they don't know is that a masked killer is stalking them. The main problem with this film (which is the REAL reason why so many people hate it) is because of how long it takes to get to the killings, which don't happen until the last minute (Bad move there, I'm afraid), and the kills aren't even close to perfect, but enough about that.

Overall, there were some parts that creeped me out, some parts that bored me, and some parts that made me laugh, especially the scene where one of the girls mooned the nerdy janitor. Another one is of course, the cheezy disco music. So if you're a horror fan who has a lot of paticience and likes cheezy slashers, this is for you.

And on the topic of the remake, just forget about that. It was so awful, it's hard to believe it ended up #1 at the box office. The power of horror, I suppose.

December 02, 2008.

"Now It's Time To Fade To Black".

Rating: 4
Their identity hidden by a ski mask, someone is slashing the student body on Hamilton High's prom night. What dark secret links the victims? What terrible pain has the mysterious stranger suffered in the past that compels him to kill and kill again? Terrifying elements of "Halloween" and "Carrie" have been blended together to create a great gem from the slasher frenzy era.

Jamie Lee Curtis does a terrific job playing Kim Hammond, disco queen and sister of ten-year-old Robin who was found dead at an abandoned school six years ago. In fact, of all the slasher movies she starred in, this is one of my favorites. Why? The decapitation that evacuates the gym is awesome. Also, the fact that the killer's identity isn't revealed until the end gave it a mysterious feel that reminded me of an Italian giallo. I also love the "Fade to Black" song sung by Gordene Simpson during the closing credits; it accurately describes the pent up rage that led the killer to his emotional unhinging. In fact, the movie has a great musical score, which was provided by Paul Zaza.

Though "Prom Night" is enjoyable, the DVD from Echo Bridge doesn't receive many accolades. The video is grainy, the audio is weak, and there is the absence of extras, not even a trailer. It was cheaper for me to buy it at Best Buy than trying to purchase an out of print version from Anchor Bay, which was probably a better product all around. At least Anchor Bay's DVD had a trailer.

Let me also say that this "Prom Night" is so much better than the predictable "Prom Night" remake of 2008. The remake was void of any plot twists and turns and the viewer knows who the killer is from the very beginning.