Prom Night (1980 film)

This article is about the original 1980 film. For the remake, see Prom Night (2008 film).

Prom Night
Original theatrical release poster
Directed byPaul Lynch
Screenplay byWilliam Gray
Story byRobert Guza Jr.
Produced byPeter R. Simpson
Starring
CinematographyRobert C. New
Edited byBrian Ravok
Music by
Production
companies
  • Simcom Productions[1]
  • Prom Night Productions[1]
Distributed by
Release date
  • July 18, 1980 (1980-07-18) (US)
Running time
93 minutes[1]
Countries
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.5 million[1][3]
Box office$14.8 million[i]

Prom Night is a 1980 slasher film directed by Paul Lynch and written by William Gray. Jamie Lee Curtis and Leslie Nielsen star. The film's plot follows a group of high school seniors who are targeted at their prom by a masked killer, seeking vengeance for the accidental death of a young girl six years earlier. The film features supporting performances from Casey Stevens, Eddie Benton, Mary Beth Rubens and Michael Tough.

Prom Night was filmed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in late 1979 on a budget of $1.5 million. Distributed by Astral Films in Canada and AVCO Embassy Pictures in the United States, the film was released on July 18, 1980 in select cinemas and was an immediate financial success. The film's theatrical release platform was expanded to major USA cities such as Los Angeles and New York City in August where the film was again met with high box-office receipts. At the time, the film was AVCO Embassy's most financially successful release, breaking weekend records in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New England.

By the end of the film's theatrical run, Prom Night had grossed $15 million in the United States and was Canada's highest-earning horror film of 1980. Critical reaction to the film was varied, with some dismissing the film's depictions of violence against young women, while others alternately praised Prom Night for its more muted violent content. Prom Night received some critical accolades, garnering Genie Award nominations for editing and also for the leading performance of Jamie Lee Curtis. An alternative cut of the film was popularly aired on American and Canadian television networks in 1981.

In the intervening years, Prom Night has accrued a substantial cult following[7] for the film's horror content and also for the film's soundtrack album (which was released by RCA Records in Japan in 1980). Some film scholars have cited Prom Night as one of the most influential slasher films of the period.[8] Several companies released Prom Night on video and the film was also released on DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment in 1998. A remastered Blu-ray edition of the film was released by Synapse Films in 2014.

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Prom Night (1980)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Los Angeles, California: American Film Institute. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  2. ^ "Prom Night". Canadian Feature Film Database. Library and Archives Canada. May 12, 2015. Archived from the original on August 14, 2024.
  3. ^ Felsher 2014, 9:02.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference bo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Prom Night (1980)". The Numbers. Archived from the original on August 14, 2024.
  6. ^ Donahue 1987, p. 292.
  7. ^ Wise 2001, p. 174.
  8. ^ Nowell 2010, p. 10.


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