PROM NIGHT (1980) A group of snotty seniors at prestigious Hamilton High are being targeted by a balaclava-wearing madman, the victims all having a secret connection to the accidental death of a childhood friend. The main suspect is an escaped murderer who was originally arrested for the kid’s death six years earlier, but the real maniac is most likely: a) Mr. Hammond (Leslie Nielsen), the school principal and father of the deceased child; b) Wendy (Anne-Marie Martin), the Queen Bee and organizer of the cover-up; c) Mr. Sykes (Robert Silverman), the horny groundskeeper who likes his enormous tree saw a little too much; and d) Alex (Michael Tough), the violent sibling of the aforementioned accident victim. The plot crescendos on the night of the spring prom when the killer goes axe-happy, chopping the cast to pieces, and going head-to-head with prom queen Jamie Lee Curtis. A good cast—Curtis gives one of her better post-Halloween Scream Queen performances—taut direction by Paul Lynch, and a thumping disco soundtrack help to rise Prom Night above the plethora of psycho-slashers of the time. B+
HELLO MARY LOU: PROM NIGHT II (1987) This in-name only sequel to the 1980 Jamie Lee Curtis original suggests what might happen if Carrie White came back from the dead as a Freddy Krueger-like monster. After going up in flames 30 years ago—the result of a prank gone wrong—prom queen Mary Lou Maloney (Lisa Schrage) enacts revenge by returning from the grave a spiteful ghost and going after those responsible for her death. Good girl Vicki (Wendy Lyon) is manipulated into becoming a flesh-and-blood host for Mary Lou, and allowing the Prom Queen from Hell to walk the halls of Hamilton High and slaughter at will. The perpetual bad girl, Mary Lou/Vicki doesn’t stop at just revenge, and dispatches anyone who gets in the way of her becoming prom queen all over again. (A computer nerd bribed into rigging the contest is short-circuited and turned into a human french fry.) Mary Lou’s otherworldly powers culminate when she literally rips out of Vicki’s body on stage and turns the prom upside down. It often feels like a ripoff of Carrie and A Nightmare on Elm Street, but Prom Night II is actually a clever movie filled with inventive special effects—including an impressive scene where a woman is swallowed into a blackboard that turns into a swirling whirlpool—and well-written characters who feel like authentic teens. Originally called The Haunting of Hamilton High until some brilliant distributor thought the Prom Night brand still had relevance. It didn’t, and the movie tanked in theaters before finding an audience on videocassette. B
PROM NIGHT III: THE LAST KISS (1990) Since her reign of terror in Prom Night II, Prom Queen mass murderer, Mary Lou Maloney (Courtney Taylor), has been held captive in Prom Hell. After cutting through her chains with a nail file, Mary Lou heads back the hallways of Hamilton High, where she immediately begins picking off school employees in comical fashion. “It wasn’t a person. It was a guidance counselor!” Mary Lou then sets her eyes on class nerd Alex (Tim Conlon), using him as a puppet to bring her more souls for her buffet of carnage. In return, she transforms Alex into the perfect student, even allowing him to score a touchdown for the football team. Alex eventually tires of Mary Lou’s bloodshed and wants out of their demented symbiotic relationship, but not before Ms. Maloney steals Alex away to Hell—which is 1957 Hamilton High, the night Mary Lou was crowned Prom Queen. Taylor is funny, Conlon makes for a likable schmuck, and there are several imaginative set pieces, including a flying football that turns into a metal spike and impales the school bully. Prom Night III ultimately shoots itself in the foot by offering a clever twist ending that it drops the ball on way too quickly, leaving the viewer somewhat dissatisfied. Still, harmless fun. B–
PROM NIGHT IV: DELIVER US FROM EVIL (1991) In 1957—the same night Mary Lou Maloney perished in a fire; see: Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987)—a psycho priest (Jimmy Carver) with chiseled abs and bad hair slaughters two teenagers in the backseat of their car. Three decades later, the maniac (who’s been kept in a drug-induced coma by a secret society of priests) awakens and goes after a group of kids on prom night. Believing he’s doing God’s work, Carver punishes the libidinous teens by ramming a knife fashioned out of a crucifix through their skulls and afterward atoning for his sins with self-flagellation. Prom Night IV diverges from the series by offering a new storyline unrelated to the previous films, but the script is often predictable and the direction too dry to muster much excitement. That’s not to say the movie doesn’t have its moments; it does in the form of two characters nailed to crosses and immolated to the horror of their friends. If anything, Prom Night IV proves to be a serviceable final entry in the Canadian franchise before Hollywood came a’knockin’ in 2008 with a pitiful remake. C+