There isn't a whole lot to spew here about the original Prom Night from 1980 because it's a slasher classic that pretty much everyone knows about these days or has seen at least once because of it's pedigree-except for me of course. It's kind of weird because I did in fact have a print of this flick compiled in with a bunch of other seemingly random films when I was still engrossed in buying up and hoarding physical copies of horror movies, and at one point I did try to sit through this one way early in my collecting days-except I never made it to the end. Mainly because whatever print of the film that was used to make the version that I had was so fucking dark that I could barely make it past the first five minutes or so because I just couldn't see anything on screen. So I just never watched it and never bothered to seek out a better way to ingest this piece from the beginning of the 80's. I always thought that the poster art was really cool looking with a young Jamie Lee Curtis standing in a dark high school hallway with a crown, bouquet and a bloodied axe looking like she did some shit to someone that deserved it. And with what happens here in Prom Night, there are a few people that get what they deserve, albeit at the opening heralding all of our main characters which couldn't be anymore than maybe ten or eleven years old. They are all playing a game of tag or "killers" if you will, and one of the girls basically falls out of a window while the rest of them are chanting "killer" over and over again, building her paranoia and anxiety as she feels the need to escape further by falling to her death. The rest of the kids get scared of being caught or accused, so they make a pact to never tell anyone about what happened at the abandoned school and ride their bikes away like nothing ever happened. Seems like a solid plan until six years later when they're all juniors in high school and the time comes to start getting dates and stoking the hype for the biggest dance in school history for any hormone riddled teen-the prom. I did everything I could when I was in high school to not go to prom, and I somehow was still bamboozled into going because of various girls and other things that changed my mind-but I'm not here to talk about that. We're here to talk about a Black Christmas-esque weirdo (the killer calling them also made me think of the bizarre phone shit that takes place in the film Night Killer) calling all of the surviving girls one by one to tip them off that someone is watching them and is planning on snuffing them out. I will have to say that having Leslie Neilsen as Jamie Lee Curtis' father here (and the principle of the high school) is kind of off and funny at the same time because every time I saw him on screen I was expecting some kind of hilarious bit from Airplane! or Naked Gun or Dracula Dead And Loving It or anything like that-but he's as straight as he can get here and it almost brings the energy of the entire film down. Prom Night does take it's time dragging itself to where it wants to be and makes the viewer slime their way to the third act which is when things start getting hectic and electrifying-especially the scene where Lou is about to go onstage to claim being the prom king with Jamie Lee, although he wasn't supposed to because he knocked Nick's ass out backstage and stole the crown out of hatred and jealousy. He's just standing there like a chump waiting for the cue to go on and shock everyone when all of a sudden the killer shows up with said axe that is being held by Jamie Lee on the poster art and chops his head clean off in one strong swipe. His head lands perfectly on the lit up runway where Jamie Lee and Nick are supposed to be crowned prom king and queen, and everyone loses it because Lou actually lost his head (literally) and it's just sitting there in a pool of blood for all to see. That scene alone is worth the price of admission here in my opinion because it's the biggest stress release valve you could of possibly opened with how slow the first two acts were, and it brings the viewer exactly where they need to be with the final fight on the empty dance floor between Nick, Jamie and the killer. I'm not even going to remotely hint at who the killer ends up being, but you can take a pretty good guess and you'll probably end up getting it without little outside help. Now that I've finally seen the original Prom Night, was it worth my time zits and zombies? Yes, absolutely. It's not perfect (very few slashers are) and the first two acts tended to be on the sluggish and lethargic side, but if you can get through that and make it to act three when everything starts ramping up, this ends up being a fun early 80's slasher that does deliver. I hate disco music, but I do have to say that it does fit here very well and the soundtrack is just great. I'm going to continue on with the franchise and just put out reviews for all of them so I will be watching part two soon. Tear it up on the dance floor and punch Lou in the face. That unibrow having bastard.