Of all the red herrings one that never gets mentioned is Slick. We see him in the beginning of the movie introducing himself to Jude. It does seem a little funny that he just comes out of nowhere to ask her to the prom. Of course, once he gets killed off we know this isn't the case but up until then we know NOTHING about him.
shareNo. I never bought into any of the red herrings in this. It was so clear that the stalker knew what happened to Robin and cared and was out for revenge. So unless Slick was a friend of her's and hiding in the building and saw the whole thing, it wouldn't make sense for it to be him. They could have done something like that, at least it would have been a shock.
Honestly, I thought the whole time that Robin had survived the fall and was back for revenge. I know that sounds crazy, but that's because I got so bored after the first scene, that I wasn't really paying attention and when they show the flashback of Merch in the hospital bandaged, I thought it was Robin, that she had been disfigured and in a hospital being hidden for years.
Really? That's strange that this would have been your thought during the movie. Robin was a 10 year old girl, I doubt she'd have been able to be on her own without her parents. We see her as being clearly dead at this time and if the fall didn't kill her the window with the shattered glass falling on her certainly would have. No, I never thought she was alive and well at all. Two people were last with Robin before she went into that abandoned school and that was Kim and Alex. Either one of them equally would have made sense to be in that area. Although both parents had motive as well and could have possibly been there.
shareI thought Robin was severely disfigured and immobilized, and basically a vegetable, so the parents pretended she had died. There was a storyline like that on The Bold and The Beautiful, where the mother pretended to the family that the severely handicapped child had died, in her opinion it was protecting the family from the pain of seeing the girl in such an awful state.
Then I thought Robin miraculously recovered enough to come back and seek revenge.
I personally think that would have been more interesting than Alex, lol.
I never thought the parents were doing it, because had they known who killed Robin, they'd have told. They'd have had no reason to keep it hidden. Also, it seems clear to me that the mother just found out about the accident, and that the father didn't know anything.
Kim I never suspected because she was around when some of the weird stuff happened.
To me it was just too obvious it was Alex. The janitor doing it wouldn't make sense. Why would he target that group? Unless we're to think he knew Robin and was fond of her and saw the accident?
Merch didn't make sense to me because if he'd known who did it, he'd have told the cops when they were harrassing him as the killer.
I don't think this movie did a good job as a who done it.
Some of the best slasher movies have killers that are obvious. Billy and Stu from Scream for example were even more obvious than Alex, and that film is a classic. There may have been a few more suspects in it, but the film pretty much told you throughout it was them.
shareI didn't think they were obvious. If I remeber it correctly, we didn't know Billy's connection to Sydney's mom, did we even know the killers motive? And I thought most people were surprised it was two killers. Also, Billy faking his death threw it off for a bit.
shareThe video store scene made them ridiculously obvious (rewatch it). Yeah, we didn't know Billy's back story, but Scream was supposed to have a bit more mystery to it (since we didn't get an opening telling the audience the killers motive like Prom Night did).
shareIt's been a while since I've seen that movie so I don't remember it all that well.
Still, I still felt like it was less easy to predict than Prom Night. It was also better paced.
You're right, but I was just throwing out that there's other slasher films where the killer(s) are rather obvious (some even have killers that come back every film). It just doesn't hurt the film for me.
shareI don't mind if they have a killer that's obvious as long as they don't try to make it a who done it. It was not necessary for this film, and it just wasted time that could have been better used.
shareI know, but I'm sure there were many people in 1980 who thought it was one of the parents, or someone else completely. Sometimes being too obvious can throw people off too. At least this film actually gave suspects with a killer who was in the film unlike Friday the 13th who had people guessing until the killer was revealed to be someone who wasn't even in the film until the last 15 minutes .
shareTrue, but I think it would have benefitted ths movie to pull out a surprise killer. I wanted it to be Robin herself. Or a friend of Robin's who saw the killing.
With Friday, we didn't know the motive until the end so that leaves us guessing. They also did some tricks to throw us off, like the jeep, the plaid shirts, etc.
This to me would have worked better as something like Halloween, or the Friday sequels, where we know who the killer is, that or give us something we didn't see coming.
I guess we'll have to agree to disagree :).
shareI thought Billy in Scream was the one the filmmakers were purposely trying to make obvious. We all thought that when we watched it. Then we thought "Nah, too obvious." But you still weren't sure because he gave you the creeps. Then he stages his own death and you figure you are wrong about it the whole time. But in the end you are right when he comes to again.
So sometimes the most obvious choice is the right choice and the filmmakers know that you probably just think it is a red herring. But in all honesty, if you "knew" who the killer was you would have stopped watching. No, you just "suspected" who the killer was in these movies.
In Prom Night there are plenty of red herrings. It could be any 4 of the Hammonds. Then the janitor, Nick, the escaped killer, etc. Slick is a long shot until he gets killed and is eliminated. I had it narrowed down to Alex and Mr. Hammond at the end because I figure Kim and Mrs. Hammond could move quite so fast like that.
But either way, just because I "thought" I had it narrowed down to two doesn't mean I knew for sure. Heck, in "Happy Birthday to Me" it is obvious the WHOLE movie who the killer is, right up until the reveal until...............well, I'll leave it at that.