the killer. Filming Prom Night was filmed over twenty-four days in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with principal photography beginning August 13, 1979, and completing September 13. The majority of the crew were recent graduates from film schools in Canada. Don Mills Collegiate Institute served as the main school location, while the Langstaff Jail Farm in Richmond Hill was used for the abandoned building featured prominently in the beginning of the film. Art director Reuben Freed had wanted to take advantage of Toronto's Victorian architecture, and felt that the Langstaff building had an appropriate Gothic appearance. Because of the way the film is structured, the majority of the film's cast spent little time together collectively, as each appear in their own individual subplots leading up to (and during) the prom. The initial shoot took place in the school, as the crew had to complete before school was back in session in late August, while the remainder of the shoot was spent filming the sequences at the various characters' homes. The filming of the dance numbers, which were choreographed by Lynch's sister, were completed without the use of a Steadicam. Lynch stated that he was "amazed they turned out as well as they did", as the crew had little experience with filming such sequences. Special effects In terms of on-screen violence, Lynch had intentionally devised the film to have a minimal amount of gore, as he did not want it to be overtly gratuitous; however, the distributor, Avco Embassy Pictures, mandated that they include some graphic violence, resulting in the on-screen beheading of Lou Farmer in the finale. In order to make the sequence appear realistic, the special effects team decided to build a prop floor through which the actor, David Mucci, could place his head, creating the illusion of his severed head lying on the floor. For the filming of this sequence itself, a dummy head was crafted via prosthetics, and moulded around a prop skull. Music The Prom Night score and soundtrack was composed by Paul Zaza and Carl Zittrer, with additional writing by Bill Crutchfield and James Powell. Director Lynch sought Zittrer after hearing his compositions in Black Christmas (1974). The soundtrack of Prom Night includes several disco songs which are featured prominently in the film's prom scenes. Originally, the film was shot with the actors dancing to then-popular tracks by Gloria Gaynor, Donna Summer, France Joli Patrick Hernandez and