PROM NIGHT Movie Review

PROM NIGHT (1980)

While playing a diabolical game of hide and seek in an abandon building, four friends are joined by another pre-teen. When the four decide to gang up on the poor girl to scare her, she accidentally falls to her death. The four make a pact never to tell anyone about the accident. Now six years later, on the anniversary of Robin's death which happens to coincide with the high school prom night, these four friends are marked for death. As the light in the gym fade and the disco beats start pumping, am axe-wielding masked killer is stalking the halls looking to finally give Robin her justice. But just who is behind the mask? An escaped mental patient that was blamed for Robin's death? Robin's father and principal of the school? Robin's older sister Kim? Or even the school bully? When the spotlight is put on Kim to receive her crown as prom queen, everyone is going to find out!

As one of the earliest movies to take advantage of the slasher craze that make its mark on the early eighties, PROM NIGHT definitely has plenty going for it, and unfortunately against it. The plotline seems somewhat original, or at the very least not absolutely derivative. Jamie Lee Curtis stars as Kim, who looks like she just stepped off of the set for HALLOWEEN, and you half expect her to break into a monologue about the boogeyman at any moment. It also stars Leslie Nielson as the principal, in one of his final "serious roles" before transforming into the comedic genius most of us know him as.

Screenwriter William Gray takes cues from the Italian giallo style as multiple frankly unnecessary subplots are injected to make everyone seem like the potential killer. He takes so much time pushing one suspect that you instantly discount him as the real killer. Between this subplot, and his attempting to build the current relationships of the four teenagers through standard high school bickering and rivalry, there is no time for anything even scary to work its way in until almost an hour into the movie. Even the eerie phone calls and heavy breathing don't seem to bring any threat to the four.

Director Paul Lynch, who has gone on to be a prolific director of sci-fi and horror television shows, cuts his teeth here one of his first movies. For the first two-thirds of the movie, Lynch plays it mostly like a cop show or teen soap drama, and the two dueling storylines almost feel like your flipping back and forth between two movies. Once the prom starts, and the horror begins though, Lynch gets a little more creative with camera usage to build up a bit of tension and sticks to the shadows with some FRIDAY THE 13th inspired POV shots. Nothing ever gets the heart racing too much, but the effort is there.

However, as one of the first films to really go for the newly born slasher target audience, Lynch doesn't know just what to fully exploit to the fullest extent. There is only a brief flash of nudity from one of the victims, though Jamie Lee Curtis does go through a scene with her low-cut bra exposed. The gore level, as well as the body count, are at a minimum, with the only great effect being a decapitation that does deliver the goods at the height of the massacre. The attacks though even have to take a back seat to a dance sequence with Curtis, which goes on for several minutes. Disco horror? Now that will put chills down your spine!

PROM NIGHT retains a strong cult following among slasher enthusiasts, mostly due to its starring of Curtis and its assistance in molding and following the "rules" of horror. Though it has fallen off the radar for most horror lists, definitely check it out at some point. There is plenty of 80's low budget cheese to be had, and it makes for a good history lesson in the evolution of horror over the past thirty years. Plus any movie that has the balls to throw a twelve-year-old out a window into a pane of broken glass has got count for something.

SUPERBAD Review

SUPERBAD (2007)

With two weeks left until high school graduation, best friends Seth and Evan are coming to grips with the fact that they will not be going to college together, and try to devise the perfect plan to get girlfriends for the summer with the sole purpose of learning to become masters of bedroom pleasuring before they become freshmen in the Fall. A sketchy plan comes to fruition when their annoying tag-along friend/nuisance Fogell gets a fake ID the same day that one of Seth's lustful crushes asks him to come to a party she is having, and he offers to buy some booze.

That afternoon, Fogell attempts to purchase said alcohol, and when Seth and Evan think that Fogell is being arrested (though he is really just talking to two cops about a robbery), the co-dependant pair set out on epic journey into the night to score some booze in order to gain access to the party that should bring them into manhood. Meanwhile, Fogell sets out on his own fantastic adventure when he becomes a backseat companion to two of the coolest cops to ever hit the beat. [Read The Rest Of My Review at Geeks Of Doom]

BRICK (2005) Movie Review

BRICK (2005)

In a southern California high school, loner Brendan is a sharp-witted senior who keeps to himself, though he seems to be known by just about everyone else. His ex-girlfriend, Emily, has been missing for a month, until she makes a brief contact with him via phone. Brendan realizes she is in trouble, and starts compiling information to figure out what has happened. After following up on a clue, he finds her dead body in a drainage tunnel. He immediately sets his sights singled-mindedly on discovering the who's, how's and why's of her murder. He hides the body, so that he may investigate without police interference, and brings his only real friend, The Brain, as surveillance and intelligence gathering.

Using his fists to back up his wit and words, Brendan begins to uncover a large drug distribution circle that is headed by the mysteriously unknown Pin. As more clues pile up and the motives and loyalties of those around him are uncovered, the truth behind Emily's death comes within his grasp, even as a potential drug turf war threatens to explode because of his actions. To embellish the plot and story any further would be to rob the viewer of what is perhaps the finest detective story to grace the small screen since LA CONFIDENTIAL was first released on VHS.

What PUMP UP THE VOLUME did for high school loners wanting to express themselves in the 90's, BRICK will do for high school loners wanting to prove themselves in the new millennium. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who is no stranger to the role of a high school student (he's been playing one since the late 90's), takes on the role of Brendan, and delivers what may be his best performance yet. He tackles the tricky dialog (more on this in a moment) with the superior gusto and a natural ability that would make you think he talks like this all the time. The movie follows Gordon-Levitt exclusively, and thus he is in almost every scene. Even the most trained actors could break under this strain, and possibly destroy the movie in the process, but he dryly flows from scene to scene with the same confidence of his character, and makes the movie work.

All of the supporting cast work with the same confidence and diligence as Gordon-Levitt, and everyone in this film looks like they could have been pulled from a local high school. This is a rarity in today's slick and polished high school film, and is essential for making the movie work. They each perform a certain archetype (again, more this in a moment), but never all themselves to be cornered as a stereotype, which is paramount for this movie to play as it does.

Rian Johnson, the director and writer of BRICK, returns to the world of sullen teens, a world he first helped to edit in 2002 with MAY, a horror-drama in which a young woman, who's desire for the perfect friend, goes to extreme lengths. Here, Johnson pulls from seedy 1940s noir worlds of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, and places them in a contemporary school setting. If you were to watch the film with only the volume, it could easily be misinterpreted as something made during the film noir hey-day. It is written that flawlessly. The characters speak their lines, which about as far from how a teenager would normally speak, as if they really did speak this way. Each character fills the needed void of what is needed in such a scenario. Brendan takes on the role of the private dick who do what he must to get the answers he wants. Emily does the standard dame in trouble that winds up dead. The Brain takes on the bookworm assistant who can decipher the clues. Tug takes on the role of the muscle-head heavy. Laura takes on the dressed-in-red femme fatale. The Pin, who at 26 is the only character not in high school, is the crimelord who thinks he is pulling the strings. Finally, the vice principal personifies the hardly seen but always looming by-the-books law.

With all fingers crossed, hopefully this film will land in the hands of teen movie watchers, and make them realize that a smart and purpose driven film can play out in the halls of a school, and that there is more out there than BRING IT ON, JOHN TUCKER MUST DIE and the rest of their substandard ilk. If this film does find its audience, and with the correct word of mouth it should, this may open the doors for a resurgence in smart detective thrillers. This is a smart film, and needs to be actively watched and listened to. So pour yourself a double scotch, get your a pocket notepad, prepare the ice to stop your bloody lip from swelling and set out to discover the mystery behind BRICK.