Prom Night (1980)

1980's "Prom Night" is very well known, but speaking frankly, it's one of the blander entries in the early slasher genre -- which is what makes it an oddity. There's too many characters, the story's under-developed, it's more than an hour into the 90 minute film before anyone's killed (excluding the accidental death in the opening prologue which is the catalyst for the story) and only the first and last deaths are particularly memorable. A little girl accidentally died, and now the little kids who witnessed the event are grown up and going to the prom. One-by-one, each of the teens receives a sinister phone call and gets bumped off.

Not knocking the movie, but overall it's kinda forgettable. If not for Jamie Lee Curtis and Leslie Neilsen (bizarre combination) -- and the stunningly horrific disco sequences -- it probably would've been ignored and forgotten like so many other mediocre slashers from that era. Strangely, this was a case where the sequels were actually better. The completely unrelated "Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2" is a great flick in its own rite, "Prom Night III: The Last Kiss" is a likable, dopy comedy (best in its uncut format), and Prom Night IV:Deliver Us From Evil" is a decent little thriller. Still, compared to the 2008 remake, the original "Prom Night" looked like an Oscar-worthy masterpiece.

Thing is, looking at the script it's apparent that the film that was shot and the one that was released were two different things. The script clocks in at 122 pages, which means that it was intended to be a two hour movie. There's a wealth of extra scenes which makes the characters seem last vapid, random and forgettable. Leslie Neilsen has a bigger role and the family dynamic was pushed a bit further. Most of the scenes are arranged in a different order, and many are longer. Avco Embassy clearly pussed out and released a hacked up movie that emphasized the disco sequence, since Disco was making money. Considering the lackluster treatment it's gotten on home video, it's doubtful that any of the additional scenes exist -- though a few surfaced in American TV prints -- but someone really needs to look for them, as this shoulda, coulda been a better movie than it is.

There have been numerous VHS & DVD releases, but none of them have been especially good. Anchor Bay's 1998 release was probably the best, which really isn't saying much as it seemed to be transferred from a print. Alliance's 2004 release was clearly duped from an early Beta transfer and, like all early video transfers, the picture's too dark to discern what the hell's going on half of the time. Echo Bridge's 2007 disc (released solely to cash in on the remake) was sourced from a PAL transfer, it runs too fast and there's some serious ghosting issues. And furthermore, none of the home video releases include the additional scenes that appeared in the network TV version (which is absolutely typical). Frustrating.

Just as annoying as the treatment of the film itself is the treatment of the soundtrack, which has never had an official release. Sometime in the early '80s, a soundtrack popped up on vinyl in Japan. Bootlegging is rampant in Asian countries and, despite the RCA Records logo on the cover (doubtlessly added to make it appear official), the album was nothing more than a bootleg of leaked tapes. Two of the songs on the LP, "Forever" and "All is Gone" by Blue Bazar, were intended to be used in the movie but didn't make the final cut. The only other song which is credited to a singer is "Fade to Black" by Gordene Simpson --uncoincidentally it's the only song credited in the film, as she was the ex-wife of the producer. Mp3s of this album have been circulating on the internet for years, leading to more bootlegs and the assumption the releases were official.

The disco songs were written by composer Paul Zaza and performed by various uncredited stock studio singers. The prom sequence was filmed with the actors dancing to disco hits like "I Will Survive" and "Born to Be Alive," but obtaining the rights to use the songs was too costly, so Zaza was instructed to imitate the songs. The producer told him to create knock-offs that were "close enough that we get sued - but not close enough that they’ll win." With a release date looming on the horizon, Zaza had only a week to compose and record the songs. Though rushed, both "Love Me 'Til I Die" and "Tonight It's Prom Night, All Night" have gone on to become fan favorites, and the latter was used again nearly three decades later in "Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever."

Zaza's score for the film was never issued on disc, and the myriad of rock songs that played in the background throughout the film before the prom have never seen the light of day (and some of em sound kinda good!). Portions of Zaza's score, however, wound up being recycled in two other forgotten (and more interesting) films, 1983's "Curtains" and 1986's "Ghostkeeper." Of course, neither of those films had soundtracks either.... though mp3s of the :"Curtains" score have surfaced on the internet.