Passes the Bechdel test
Prom Night
1980. Directed by Paul Lynch, written by William Gray and Robert Guza Jr..
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
9 women characters. 5 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 4 scenes out of 96. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.
The film
For six long years, Hamilton High School seniors Kelly Lynch, Jude Cunningham, Wendy Richards, and Nick McBride have been hiding the truth of what happened to 10-year-old Robin Hammond the day her broken body was discovered near an abandoned convent. The foursome keep secret how they backed Robin into a corner until, frightened, she stood on a window ledge and fell to her death. Though it was an accident, the then-12-year-olds feared they would be held responsible and vowed to never tell. But someone else was there that day--watching--and that someone is now ready to exact murderous revenge on prom night.
- Released
- 18 Jul 1980
- Genres
- Horror, Mystery, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 5.3 / 10
- Metascore
- 45 / 100
- Awards
- 2 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Kim 77 lines, woman
- Wendy 29 lines, woman
- Lou 21 lines, man
- Kelly 19 lines, woman
- Alex 18 lines, man
- Hammond 18 lines
- Henri-Anne 17 lines
- Jude 15 lines, woman
- Vicki 14 lines, woman
- Vivian 14 lines
Full cast, 34 people
- Leslie Nielsen as Mr. Hammond
- Jamie Lee Curtis as Kimberly Hammond
- Casey Stevens as Nick McBride
- Anne-Marie Martin as Wendy Richards
- Antoinette Bower as Mrs. Hammond
- Michael Tough as Alex Hammond
- Robert A. Silverman as Mr. Sykes
- Pita Oliver as Vicki
- David Mucci as Lou Farmer
- Jeff Wincott as Drew Shinnick
- Mary Beth Rubens as Kelly Lynch
- George Touliatos as Lt. McBride
- Melanie Morse MacQuarrie as Henri-Anne
- David Gardner as Dr. Fairchild
- Joy Thompson as Jude Cunningham
- Sheldon Rybowski as Seymour 'Slick' Crane
- Rob Garrison as Sayer
- David Bolt as Weller
- Beth Amos as Housekeeper
- Sonia Zimmer as Melanie
- Sylvia Martin as Mrs. Cunningham
- Elizabeth M. Mason as Adele
- Pam Henry as Car Hop
- Ardon Bess as Teacher
- Lee Wildgen as Gang Member
- Brock Simpson as Young Nick
- Leslie Scott as Young Wendy
- Tammy Bourne as Young Robin
- Dean Bosacki as Young Alex
- Debbie Greenfield as Young Kim
- Karen Forbes as Young Jude
- Joyce Kite as Young Kelly
- Nino Calabrese as Student (uncredited)
- Michele Scarabelli as Dancer at Prom (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 28% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 96
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | 8 | 5 |
| 3 to 4 | 8 | 0 |
| 5 to 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 to 8 | 1 | 0 |
| 9 to 10 | 6 | 3 |
| 11 to 12 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 to 14 | 1 | 0 |
| 15 to 16 | 1 | 0 |
| 17 to 18 | 0 | 5 |
| 19 to 20 | 0 | 0 |
| 21 to 22 | 2 | 2 |
| 23 to 24 | 3 | 2 |
| 25 to 26 | 2 | 0 |
| 27 to 28 | 2 | 0 |
| 29 to 30 | 0 | 0 |
| 31 to 32 | 7 | 5 |
| 33 to 34 | 5 | 5 |
| 35 to 36 | 2 | 2 |
| 37 to 38 | 4 | 5 |
| 39 to 40 | 0 | 7 |
| 41 to 42 | 28 | 5 |
| 43 to 44 | 0 | 0 |
| 45 to 46 | 0 | 1 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 0 |
| 49 to 50 | 3 | 3 |
| 51 to 52 | 4 | 8 |
| 53 to 54 | 1 | 7 |
| 55 to 56 | 4 | 1 |
| 57 to 58 | 0 | 0 |
| 59 to 60 | 8 | 7 |
| 61 to 62 | 3 | 2 |
| 63 to 64 | 11 | 0 |
| 65 to 66 | 9 | 0 |
| 67 to 68 | 8 | 0 |
| 69 to 70 | 1 | 0 |
| 71 to 72 | 5 | 0 |
| 73 to 74 | 0 | 0 |
| 75 to 76 | 3 | 6 |
| 77 to 78 | 15 | 0 |
| 79 to 80 | 0 | 0 |
| 81 to 82 | 7 | 0 |
| 83 to 84 | 3 | 0 |
| 85 to 86 | 1 | 0 |
| 87 to 88 | 2 | 0 |
| 89 to 90 | 0 | 0 |
| 91 to 92 | 0 | 0 |
| 93 to 94 | 0 | 0 |
| 95 to 96 | 2 | 3 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scenes
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
KIM: : So then she threatened me. VICKI: Wendy's a jerk!
KIM: What a pair! VICKI: Made for each other! Kim opens a carton of yogurt. KIM: You wearing that green gown tonight? VICKI: You kidding? That was last year. This year... red silk! Cut to here! ...
WENDY: You're all... children... She storms out. Melanie looks at Kim and Kelly, shrugs, follows Wendy. A DOOR SLAMS in the locker room. Kim and Ke… KIM: Watch it... Kelly covers her breasts with her arms, presses against the wall, terrified. Suddenly there's an EXPLOSION of SOUND. Kim screams…
KIM: What did you see? Kelly just shakes her head. KELLY: Just... just... a shadow or.,. Kim heads for the exit door across the room. Kelly stays with her.
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 67 are women's.
170 lines from women, 84 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
9 women and 12 men in the cast. 5 women and 9 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 3 of 352.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 18 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 66% of the words (1,903), men 34% (993). Women have 67% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit E: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
18
Two men
3
Exhibit F: behind the camera
1 of the 9 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 30% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Paul Lynch (man)
- Written by
- William Gray (gender not listed)
- Story by
- Robert Guza Jr. (man)
- Produced by
- Peter R. Simpson (man)
- Shot by
- Robert C. New (man)
- Music by
- Paul Zaza (man), Carl Zittrer (man)
- Cast by
- Karen Hazzard (woman), Sheila Manning (gender not listed)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
2 women, 1 men, 9 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 3 men, 7 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 3 men, 7 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 5 men, 4 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 1 men, 7 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 1 men, 5 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
3 women, 0 men, 3 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 0 men, 4 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 30 on average. Men: 38 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Jamie Lee Curtis 21, Anne-Marie Martin 22, Antoinette Bower 47
Men
Jeff Wincott 24, Robert A. Silverman 37, Leslie Nielsen 54
Exhibit H: the money
It made 9.9 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $1.5 million
- Box office
- $14.8 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 96 scenes and 352 lines of dialogue. How the test works
