Canadian Horror Marathon: Prom Night (1980)



The third movie in the Canadian Horror marathon was a little flick called Prom Night.  This is the second of, I think, three movies in the marathon which are centered around a certain day or time, and were remade in the past decade.  The other two are Black Christmas and My Bloody Valentine.  Each one takes the horror to a time that wouldn’t typically be associated with the gruesome events.  I discussed that after watching Black Christmas.

There is quite an interesting thing about Prom Night and its remake.  The remake, as it was called when it was released, has almost nothing to do with the original.  In fact, the movie I Know What You Did Last Summer has much more in common with the 1980 Prom Night than the remake has to do with the original.

Prom Night (1980) is about a group of teenagers who have hidden the fact that they accidentally caused the death of another child a few years prior.  Someone who knows about this decides to attempt, and perhaps succeed, at killing the teenagers during their high school prom.  That’s fairly similar to the plot of I Know What You Did Last Summer, where a group of teenagers accidentally hit someone with their car, cover up the murder, and get harassed and/or murdered the next year by someone who knows about the accident.

The remake of Prom Night, from 2008, doesn’t have much to do with the original outside of the title, however.  An escaped pedophile (that’s the best description I can think of) comes after the girl he is obsessed with on her prom night, three years after murdering the girl’s family.  He murders/harasses the girl and her friends.  This isn’t too much like the original.  In fact, the remake of Prom Night is to Halloween as I Know What You Did Last Summer is to the original Prom Night.

This isn’t really me getting in depth about anything.  I’m trying to figure out why it would be called a remake if the concept and plot are entirely different.  Did the people in 2008 think that the name value of Prom Night would help and only wanted to cash in on the name value, rather than the story value?  Did they think they might be considered a rip-off of I Know What...?  Then why make their movie into Halloween set on the night of the prom?  I don’t understand Hollywood sometimes.  I am confused.

I guess I should say what I thought about the original Prom Night, since I saw it and all.  It was enjoyable.  The first half was okay, but once the revenge began, I fell in love with the movie.  The action scenes as the movie approached the end were great with some good stunts and great action for a slasher movie.

Next up, I might as well finish out the trilogy and watch My Bloody Valentine.  I’ve never seen the original.  This should be interesting.  And that’s all I have to say about that.

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