Trivia / Prom Night (1980)

• Actor-Inspired Element: Robert A Silverman came up with the idea to put tape on his glasses.
• Billing Displacement: Leslie Nielsen is billed first, yet has only five or six scenes, maybe 10 minutes of screen time, and is almost completely absent from the last half-hour of the film.
• Canada Doubling: Set in an Ohio suburb (as shown by the presence of American and Ohio flags in the background, as well as Ohio license plates), but filmed entirely in Richmond Hill and Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Colbert Bump: Many modern fans of the movie know about it from Scream (1996) referencing it.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Argentina: Graduation Night
  • France: The Horror Ball
  • Colombia: Revenge of a Witness
  • Denmark: Bloody Midnight
  • Finland: Coronation of Revenge
  • Greece: Slaughter in School
  • Hungary: The Phantom of the Prom
  • Italy: Don't Go Into That House
  • Mexico: Bloody Graduation
  • Peru: Terror on Prom Night
  • Portugal: Fatal Midnight
• Dawson Casting:
  • The cast included 21-year-old Jamie Lee Curtis (Kim), 22-year-old Anne Marie Martin (Wendy), 26-year-old Casey Stevens (Nick), and 24-year-old Jeff Wincott (Drew). The rest of the cast's birthdays are unknown, but Joy Thompson (Jude) did comment in the making-of documentary that it felt strange walking down a high school hallway after so many years.
  • Averted however with Michael Tough as Alex, who was seventeen when he was cast. Mary Beth Reubens (Kelly) had also just graduated high school.
• Deleted Role: Adelle Cooper, Mr Hammond's secretary, had all her scenes removed from the theatrical cut (besides one brief shot at the prom). They're restored on the TV version of the movie, and she's still listed in the credits.
• Deleted Scene:
  • After the family visits Robin's grave, Mr Hammond takes his wife to visit Dr Fairchild. The men would talk briefly in the hallway, where it would be revealed that Robin and Alex were twins.
  • Mr Sykes would be shown witnessing Wendy's murder. In the theatrical cut, he can still be seen during her chase.
  • The girls would be passing notes in class, which was Jude telling them about Slick. Kim would be caught with the note and forced to read it aloud to the class.
  • Another scene showed Mr. Hammond chopping wood outside his house as Kim comes home.
• Executive Meddling:
  • The whole "Leonard Murch" subplot was nowhere in the original script and was forced in upon studio insistence.
  • The plan was for the film to have minimal gore, and focus on suspense. Avco Embassy however insisted on some graphic violence, such as Lou being decapitated.
• Follow the Leader: Came in the wake of Halloween (1978), also starring Jamie Lee Curtis. Specifically, the director was advised to set the story around a holiday by Irwin Yablans, who had also produced Halloween.
• No Stunt Double: Jamie Lee Curtis apparently did all the dancing and the entire final fight without a stunt double.
• Orphaned Reference: When Kim arrives late at the gym, Mr Weller calls her "the literary Ms Hammond", referencing a deleted scene in which she and her friends would be caught passing notes in class.
• Playing with Character Type: From watching Scream (1996), you'd think Jamie Lee Curtis is a straight Final Girl. However, there are a few things that set Curtis' Kim Hammond apart: she has a more cavalier attitude about sex (most of her conversations with Kelly, who is a virgin, is debating with her about whether or not Kelly is okay with having sex with Kelly's boyfriend Drew), is in a morally gray area regarding the Love Triangle between her, Wendy, and Nick, doesn't remain fully clothed (see the Best Known for the Fanservice entry on the YMMV page), and is no Damsel in Distress: the killer a) repeatedly knocks her out of his way (he's gunning for Nick) when they fight, and b) would never have targeted her at all, given that they were family. She's also a possible suspect for the killer, since the victims killed her sister.
• Real-Life Relative: Brock Simpson, who plays Nick as a child, is the son of producer Peter Simpson. He later appeared in the next three Prom Night films in roles of varying sizes.
• Remaster: The film didn't receive a digital scan until 2014 when it was released to Blu-ray by Synapse Films. All prior DVD releases had been sourced directly from poor quality VHS and LaserDisc masters. The difference in quality was revolutionary for fans of the film. In previous editions, the muffled audio and dark picture had made certain scenes incomprehensible and given the whole thing the appearance of a glorified made-for-television film.
• Uncredited Role: There's no record of who played Leonard Murch.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Eve Plumb (Jan Brady from The Brady Bunch) was the first choice to play Kim until Jamie Lee Curtis expressed interest. The film was also supposed to be a far cheaper production before she was attached.
  • Paramount Pictures was very close to being the film's distributor, but producer Peter Simpson backed out of the deal when Paramount only wanted to open the film in 300 theaters. AVCO Embassy purchased the film at Cannes, and agreed to open it in 1,200 (though only with around 600 prints moving to different locations). Paramount instead purchased another slasher film... Friday the 13th (1980), and opened it two months earlier.
  • The subplot about Leonard Murch wasn't in the original script. It was added late in the production.
  • The filmmakers originally planned to have the characters dancing to contemporary disco hits by artists such as Gloria Gaynor, Donna Summer, and Pat Benatar, but were unable to afford the clearance rights.

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