Yay the Amplitude Kickstarter hit its goal!

Oh shit I have to update this blog five days a week for a month. I didn’t think this through that well.

Actually, I did think this through. While there were some reasons for my lack of updating earlier this year (too busy, health issues, computer problems) now I have no excuse, and I just haven’t been writing as much because I’ve been lazy. So I’m glad that my gambit paid off, it’ll force me to sit down and actually write some shit again.

But notice that I said “a month” not “next month.” Between my backlog of stuff that I haven’t recorded yet and a sudden family visit due in the beginning of June, the five-day-a-week plan probably isn’t going to come to full fruition until July. It’s for the best tho, with a month to plan, those posts are going to be pretty damn great.

In the long-term, I hope this schedule gets me back in the habit of updating this site twice a week, and Mostly-Retro at least once every other week (I’m planning on some longform things that take time for that one).

But for now, here’s a disco-filled soundtrack to a horrifically bad horror film.

Prom Night – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Complete Album Download Link)

The hierarchy of Jamie Lee Curtis horror films (1978-1981):

1. Halloween
2. Roadgames
3. The Fog
4. Halloween II
5. Terror Train
6. Prom Night

No, I’m not overselling Terror Train. It’s a piece of shit. But that only goes to show you just how much of a piece of shit Prom Night is. In an era that was pumping out more forgettable slasher flicks than you can possibly imagine (And they were forgettable, anyone remember Tourist Trap, The Prowler or Slaughterhouse, just for starters? Didn’t think so.) Prom Night is one of the worst, with absolutely nothing to set it apart from the deluge of masked killer movies of the week aside from its somewhat interesting cast, which also includes Leslie Nielsen in one of his last “serious” roles. The killer in Prom Night is forgettable, the murder scenes are forgettable, the plot is forgettable. It’s the Deep Blue Something’s “Breakfast At Tiffanys” of slasher films.

About the only thing that makes the movie stand out at all, aside from its cast, is its wonderfully cheesy discotastic soundtrack, which actually comes to play in the only memorable scene in the film, an axe fight on the prom’s disco dance floor.

No doubt the movie’s disco-heavy soundtrack was created with commercial aspirations, but for some reason the soundtrack itself was never released in the states or in Canada (where the film was produced). Nope, the only country that was blessed enough to get a proper LP release of it was Japan – because if there’s one thing Japan loves, it’s horrible disco scores to shitty 80s slasher films.

Okay, that’s not true at all, I’m just trying to find some sort of rationale behind this.

The soundtrack was primarily the work of two people: Paul Zaza and Carl Zittrer. The two often worked together in the 80s, and either separately or combined created the scores to films such as Porky’s, Turk 182, A Christmas Story and even the theme song to Mr. Wizard’s World. On his own, Zaza also contributed to the scores of Prom Night II and III, making him probably the only continuous thread between those two films and the first (they have nothing in common from a narrative standpoint). Zittrer also worked as a music supervisor and editor, working as such in big name pictures like New Jack City and Moonstruck.

Oh, and Zaza also has a credit on a Kid Cudi album, but I’m going to guess that’s because of a sample.

Like I said, those two make up most of the soundtrack, but there are three tracks on the LP that are credited to a group called Blue Bazar, who I can find next to nothing about online. From what I can tell, Prom Night was the beginning and end of their musical output. So if anyone out there can shed some light on who they are or what they did afterward, I’d be very interested.

Anyways, as cheesy and silly as this music is, I do have to admit that I admire and respect it’s tenacity and upbeat feeling. This is made for the dance floor disco at its purest, silly and stupid. Don’t try to think about it too much and you might enjoy it a little.

 

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