PROM NIGHT - Disco. It's what they play on prom night, and it's reassuring to learn that both Jamie Lee Curtis and Leslie Nielson are about as dancefloor gifted as I am. 'Prom Night' really lays it on thick the way only an old skool slasher can; "He's burned, horribly deformed... he's escaped from the hospital, he's heading back here tonight!" etc 'He' is the guy who many hold responsible for the death of a local kid in an abandoned house back in the seventies, when things were probably a bit more prog than disco. We know from the credits sequence that actually a mean-spirited bunch of urchins did the kill when their game of hide and seek took a psychopathic turn, laying the groundwork for the classic set-up; slasher as avenger. 'Prom Night', in its blatant steals from 'Halloween' and 'Carrie', is as derivative as it gets, but just about weaves in enough suspense and atmosphere to help you overlook that it's taking its time about things. A balaclava'd baddie finally arrives to do some tame kills, making the big pay-off as anticlimactic as most proms, though the early eighties dancey stuff, all the high school drama, and the presence of luminaries like Nielson and Curtis give the film a bit of glow.
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