Jamie Lee Curtis was only 19 years old when she made her big-screen debut as final girl Laurie Strode in John Carpenter's classic horror Halloween (1978). Now 63, and with a long career to boast, Curtis is considered Hollywood royalty and has made a name for herself as one of horror's most iconic Scream Queens: a title she coincidentally shares with her mother, Psycho actress Janet Leigh.
Despite this legacy, Curtis's appearance in two horrors post-Halloween easily slips the radar; these movies, both released in 1980, areTerror Train and Prom Night. Both slashers with teenage victims, these later horrors might revel in blood and gore like Carpenter's classic, but that's where the similarities end. Unlike Halloween, which has spawned its own franchise and several remakes, Terror Train and Prom Night flopped with critics and audiences alike. And a look into them explains why.
Terror Train
Director Roger Spottiswoode's first movie Terror Train follows a group of teenage friends whose prank on an awkward pledge comes back to haunt them. Here Curtis plays Alana, a member of the group who plays a pivotal role in the prank. At the behest of the sadistic Doc (Hart Bochner), Alana lures the victim Kenny (Derek McKinnon) to a bedroom where he is shocked to find the dismembered corpse of an old lady.
Three years later and the group celebrates New Year's Eve with a costume party on a train. It is revealed that Kenny was institutionalized after the hazing, though no one knows where he is now. As the party-goers distract themselves with sex and magic, Kenny reappears to kill the friends one by one, and by alternating between drag and his victims' masks he succeeds in doing so for a painful 80 minutes.
As many critics have argued, Terror Train did not need to be that long, and since it is, the movie could have done a better job at creating suspense. Though the killer's identity is kept under wraps until the end, it is abundantly clear that Kenny is the terror on the train. He is the only character with a motive, and his enactment of revenge — particularly decapitating bodies — is far from subtle as it references his own trauma. Additionally, the movie's setting is less than ideal. Whilst the idea of being stuck on a train with a crazed killer is terrifying, the novelty of this concept wears off very quickly, and from witnessing the same scenes over and over again, audiences are left feeling as stifled as Terror Train's passengers.
Prom Night
Paul Lynch's Prom Night follows a killer hellbent on avenging the death of a young girl who was bullied by her classmates. In this movie, Curtis plays Kim, the older sister of the girl who died. Though this sounds to be a minor role, Kim is at the center of Prom Night as the Prom Queen who is connected to the bullies and, as it turns out, the killer too. Regarding the former, Kim is dating one of them, and another is her best friend. Of course, Kim doesn't know what happened those many years ago: that these people helped scare her sister to death in a game of hide-and-seek. And as such, she can't comprehend why a crazed maniac would target them on the anniversary of her sister's death, no less.
With its backdrop of prom and central theme of revenge, many likened the movie to a "watered-down Carrie." And this is a fairly accurate description. Far less scary than Carrie, Prom Night is also less innovative for it regurgitates horror tropes without bringing anything new to the table. Like Terror Train, the killer is pretty obvious too. Audiences must only pay attention to whose off-screen during the murders to work that one out.
Though, for better or worse, Prom Night has more funny moments than Terror Train. Besides the overdramatic acting — a requisite for any 80s horror — the sleazy rebel Lou (David Mucci) provides some laughs, and so does Curtis herself when, as Kim, she dance-battles with her Prom King boyfriend Nick (Casey Stevens) to Paul Zazza's "Tonight Is Prom Night." Is this sequence out of place? Yes. Is it a little corny? Also yes. But three minutes of this prom night is better than 90 minutes of that Prom Night.
Terror Train is available to watch on Shudder, and Prom Night is available to watch on Hulu.