The Prowler

source: The Prowler

"The Prowler" is a shameless entry in the first wave of "Friday the 13th" imitators (even billed as such in its promotional materials), and also one of the most lazy. In a newsreel prologue, we are informed of troops returning from World War II, followed by a girl named Rosemary writing a "nice knowing you, I'm moving on" letter to her soldier boyfriend. After the uniformed man in question kills Rosemary and her lover, he goes back into action years later, on the eve of a collegiate dance. Since the prologue details the simple-minded plot, the rest of the running time is devoted to the requisite mild sexual encounters and graphic murders. Director Joseph Zito (as in "Friday the 13th–The Final Chapter") has no grasp of suspense whatsoever–we see brief flashes of the killer (who, by the way, looks really silly dragging a pitchfork around), but never given any context as to where he is in relation to the other characters on-screen. Not that suspense would have redeemed this slow-moving death march–the murders can be predicted miles in advance, but Tom Savini's meticulously detailed makeup FX at least give us something unpredictable to watch.

A psychopath in battle fatigues kills a couple during a certain dance in 1945 after returning from war. There's this certain letter sent to a person who is reading from Rosemary in regards to her dumping him. Perhaps this is a tell-tale sign of who the killer is and his motivation for bloodshed. It doesn't make much sense, but oh well. In 1980, the dance-hall will re-open and the mysterious killer laces his boots, zips his coat and makes sure those leather gloves are on nice and tight. The prowler is preparing for his massacre. Pam and sub-sheriff Mark(Vicky Dawson & Christopher Goutman)must find out where the prowler is before many people perish. The sheriff(Farley Granger, in the film maybe five minutes tops)is "taking a vacation" and puts Mark in charge while he is gone. Lawrence Tierney is Major Chatham whose daughter was the one pitch-forked at the opening of the film in 1945. Chatham has been able to keep the dance hall closed, but by 1980, he is wheelchair ridden and unable to do anything about the re-opening. Tierney is pretty much in cameo-form only as he grabs Pam by the shirt-sleeve when she is trying to escape the prowler who is closing in(why he is trying to slow her down is never explained). Pam gets away and calls on Mark to find out why Chatham is doing around that certain place anyway. When mark seeks Chatham out he is nowhere to be found and we never see him again. We do not know what happened to him or anything else. He just up and vanishes in thin air. The film's highlight is far from the idiotic plot and it's dead-as-lead pacing which operates in fits and starts. It drags a bit and some attempted humor(like when Mark calls this desk clerk, who is massive and lazy, looking for the sheriff)falls flat. There are characters who are left hanging in the plot as if sucked in by this illogic-plot black hole never to be touched again(like a drunk friend sleeping off a sick-spell, or this couple making love in the basement)..it's as if they were meant to be a part of the film but were scratched out at the last minute. The director tries various ways to build suspense and does when the story stays on Pam being frightened by whatever lies in the shadows. Mark is in the film to be her love interest, but does little to service the plot otherwise except carrying a flashlight around to at least attempt to be searching for the certain individual responsible for possible deaths. The prowler visits the home of Chatham and we get an idea that this place is important to him and explains to us that he harbors a desire to be around this place. Perhaps there's a reason he kills people who decide to venture outside the dance-hall..it would've been nice to know why, but I guess little details like that are merely annoyances the screenplay writer couldn't afford to get in the way of the killing spree. The film's true strength is the gore. Tom Savini's work here is solid as a woman gets her throat slashed and it looks real. The deaths are all shockingly graphic such as when the prowler thrusts his trusty pitchfork into the torso of a naked girl in the shower or when he lunges his bayonet in the skull of the naked girl's boyfriend. One woman gets the bayonet inserted into her throat. The exploding head by a shotgun gets the grand prize for best moment of the film, but these are the film's only extravagances because the story of the prowler and his reasons for methodical slaughter are just not handled with the same inspiration as Savini puts towards his gruesome effects.

To me, "The Prowler" is a lot better than any other early eighties slasher flick out there. The Tom Savini FX are excellent and very bloody. It all has to do with a phantom slasher dressed in combat fatigues stalking teenagers at the graduation dance. This is fast-paced for the first half, but then it slows down a lot until the exciting finale. Vicky Dawson is an attractive heroine, and the twist ending and nightmare sequences are first rate. Slasher fans should love this!

*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS* I was there for the start of the wave of slasher flicks in the 1970s, and have seen them all. As one of the original readers of Fangoria, I was interested in seeing The Prowler because of the cool stills published. Unfortunately at that time, even Fangoria did stories and published photos without having actually seen the films ahead of time, and of course I was hyped up to see this film. At that time, if you had not seen too many horror films, The Prowler might have shocked you somewhat because of the violence. That's stretching it a bit though, as it plods along in between the random killings and offers no real surprises. It takes a while to set up the "way back when" element, then once it gets to the present (or 1980), the way too obvious setup of the sheriff going on vacation is something I would find amazing if anyone was fooled by (after all, he IS played by Farley Granger, and is established as a person of interest too well to just "go away" for the rest of the film). At least in Friday The 13th the mother was not given any genuine screen time to give you any suspicion early on. Once the killer gets going, we are basically subjected to LONG, drawn out scenes of the cop and his gal wandering through a house (TWICE!), and wandering through a cemetery. Even when the girl goes back to her dormitory and misses seeing the bloodshed early in the story, we are treated to her going through general motions before and during the chase that truly needed the help of editing to beef up suspense. This seemed to be a problem as well with the film Prom Night -- remember the scene of the girl running up and down halls for what seemed an eternity? If you were to cut out all the walking around, the film might clock in at about an hour. The killer seemed to take way too long to smash up a room where she was hiding near the end, you forget about being tense she might be discovered because by that point you're just thinking, "Come on, already!" either smash it up a little faster or have her get out of there (oh come on, you knew she was too important to get killed, right?)! While some people have apparently considered this a classic, I consider it a classic only as a test of patience. The recent DVD from Blue Underground restores the graphic violence, but that's the main item of interest for this film. I always was bewildered by many Italian shockers in the 1970s and the U.S. slashers like The Prowler that always manage to find a way to have a naked girl getting butchered (like Pieces or Torso)-- for The Prowler, it's the naked girl in the shower, getting pitch-forked right under her breasts. Of course the guys that get a thrill seeing breasts are satisfied, but at the same time she's being stabbed, you're wondering "am I supposed to be watching the stabbing or her breasts?" It's a rather perverse way to get a thrill, I've just never understood that mentality. And trust me, I've seen them all and have quite a few favorites, but that scene was one for the psychology books. Calling this film truly exciting and intense (like the Creature Features Movie Guide did) is perplexing. I suppose each individual is scared by something differently, but for the life of me I can't find any true suspense in The Prowler. Just lots of scenes of people walking around, and when walking backwards obviously was going to run into someone for a false scare. Go ahead and praise The Prowler for the gore if you want to, but other than that you're scared way too easily if you consider this one "frightening." Oh, and why would a killer soldier's choice of weapon be a pitchfork?

I only rented this because IMDb patrons raved about how great it was. I was very disappointed. I fell asleep several times during the course of the movie (admittedly, it was after midnight when I watched it). I never cared about anyone in the film. The lead actress was not attractive. I never really knew why the killer was killing. There was nothing erotic about this movie. Yes, the gore was realistic, but that is not nearly enough to make me enjoy a movie. There were very many slow moving parts in this movie (and I think I fell asleep during every one of them). Maybe my expectations were way too high, but I felt this was soulless, by the numbers, slasher. Wake me when it's over.

As for being your usual copy-and-paste slasher. "The Prowler" was a modest attempt, but its looming reputation makes it out better than it actually is. Don't get me wrong. Everyone talks about Tom Savini's magnificently creative gruesome FX work, and deservedly so. But other than the potently bloody gore, and overall nastiness of some memorable deaths. What really drags this one down is how it gets bogged down with a scratchy story, and inconsistent script which led the film to plod along. Director Zito does his best to in-store some life, but while effectively demonstrating a grim, cruel atmospheric wound. In between the death sequences is little in the way of suspense, or even interest since there are too many vaguely ambiguous and padded distractions that cement themselves in the second half and only go on to annoy. Figuring out whose behind that ominous masked solider in uniform figure, doesn't take much. Baffling though was the choice of weapon… no not the army bayonet, but that pitchfork. When did they issue those things out? Odd, but I like it. The stalk 'n' slash angle doesn't entirely wear its self out, since while the jolts are basically telegraphed (but genuine) and having a flimsy story being strung together by its set-pieces that don't tie together. Still it managed to get the heart-racing when needed, and there are few piercing visuals and positioning work by Zito. The shady camera-work luridly focus on the action at hand. The performances are soundly delivered, but never did I feel anything for these rather one-dimensional characters. Vicky Dawson makes for a strong, likable heroine, but the rest of the cast don't have much affect. Stalwart actors Farley Granger looks embarrassed and there's rather an unusually pointless role for Lawrence Tierney (who also briefly appeared in Zito's 1979 film "Bloodrage") . Christopher Goutman as the local deputy sheriff just pines a lot, and looks clueless. Richard Einhorn's composed a forebodingly hummer music score that superbly complements the film. There are no pretensions here, in what it wants to be. A middlingly gritty, shocking slasher fare.

Like a true horrorfreak, I get a kick out of hunting down all the films for which Tom Savini did the make-up. `Friday the 13th' and `Dawn of the Dead' are the obvious ones, but the real treats can be found in the overlooked early 80's slasher section. `Maniac' and `Nightmare in a Damaged Brain' are perfect examples and so is this little gruesome tale. The Prowler doesn't outshine the mainstream horror movies when it comes to plot, characters or twists…but it does show some nauseating and hard to digest sequences. The film also has a pretty atmospheric and mood-setting opening. We learn how young WWII soldiers return to the US after the war. One of them finds a letter of his high-school sweetheart upon his arrival in which she's dumping him. During the Graduation celebration of her school, the girl (Rosemary) and her new boyfriend are brutally slaughtered by pitchfork. 35 years later, the town finally decides to organize a new school-dance. Unfortunately, this event also causes the return of the army-uniformed madman. The characters aren't exactly intriguing and the climax is far from surprising, but the brutality of the killings is definitely worth it. We're even treated to lovely head-explosion that lives up to the one in Maniac. Thank you Tom Savini! Compared with the overload of polite and ethically correct (read = boring) slashers, the Prowler looks fresh and very entertaining. Director Joseph Zito also signed for one of the better F13 sequels as well as a few over-the-top Chuck Norris action flicks. I took me quite some time to finally find The Prowler and I feel no shame in recommending it to real horror fans. If you can't stand blood or in case you have a sensitive throat, this film will not leave a good impression behind. Otherwise…enjoy!

Rosemary sends a "Dear John" letter to her boyfriend while he is serving in WWII then is mysteriously slaughtered with her new beau at a graduation dance. Flash-forward to 1981 and the current class of graduating collegiates are throwing the first dance in many moons and a killer pops up looking like a storntrooper from hell and dropping roses everywhere. 80's slashing is in the house. This rather predictable and slow slasher is saved by the gore set-pieces by effects maestro Tom Savini. That really is the only saving grace and highlight of "Prowler". Everything else on display is a bit bland and rather standard.

During a college graduation dance, a WWII veteran comes home and finds his ex-girlfriend kissing her boyfriend in a pagoda and kills them using a pitchfork and a bayonet. He goes around in full WWII combat gear with a mask over his face. Jump 35 years later and at the new graduation dance (the 1st one since 1945), the killing begins again with various college students having their throats slit, pitchforks in their bellies and being chased all around Cape May, New Jersey. And that's pretty much the plot. Except for Farley Granger (who must've sunk pretty far career-wise in order to do this) and an unspeaking cameo by Lawrence Tierney sitting in a wheelchair, I've never heard of the rest of the cast. They're all unknowns to me. The only thing saving this otherwise mediocre HALLOWEEN clone is the great special effects by Tom Savini. The throat slittings and the pitchfork piercings look particularly realistic and gruesome, some of the best I've ever seen. And with no lame CGI anywhere in sight. It's all done the good old-fashioned way. With latex and blood bags. Blue Underground gives this one the class treatment with a nice wide-screen print that looks about as well as can be expected for a medium grade 80s horror film. However the real jewel of this DVD is Savini's 12 minute videotape from late 1980 showing the behind the scenes special effects set-up, including the leading antagonist's head being blown off by a shotgun. That in and of itself is worth more than the whole movie put together. Without the special effects, I'd give it a much lower rating. 5 out of 10