The Prowler

As I kid I remember stalking the horror section of the video store looking for anything that seemed like it might actually be scary. It was the late 80's and the whole horror comedy thing was hip. I remember seeing this video cover on the shelf but never got around to renting it. The Prowler was released in 1981 in the beginnings of the early 80's slasher craze and has the amazing Tom Savini as it's special effects artist. Needless to say the effects are spot on and the exploding head scene looks great.

The movie starts with a prologue of sorts that tells the story of Rosemary, a young debutant who sends a Dear John letter to her G.I. boyfriend who is off somewhere fighting in World War II.

It's June 28, 1945 and Rosemary and her current beau sneak away from the Spring Dance and her father's eye to the gazebo for a little alone time. The two are then murdered by a masked solider who leaves a rose for Rosemary and the viewer is left to guess that the solider is the jilted lover.

Fast forward 35 years later and a group of girls currently living at the boarding school run by Rosemary's now invalid father are preparing to hold the first Spring Dance since the murders.

The main character is Pam, a cute blond whose boyfriend is a local Sheriff's Deputy named Mark. Mark has some super hair on him. The Sheriff decides since Mark has been of the force for two years that he's going to go out of town anyway, event though an escaped convict is on the loose the next town over.

The movie from here is pretty standard slasher formula with the drinkers and fornicators getting whacked and the innocent looking blond being chased but always seeming to evade the killer. There is one scene that struck in my mind because it was almost the same as a scene in Friday the 13th Part 2 which was released the same year. The scene in The Prowler has Pam running through an empty room in the old man's mansion and hiding under a bed. The Prowler is behind her knocking over various furniture in search of her and spooks a rat which decides to hide with her.

In Friday the 13th Part 2 there is a similar scene in which our cute blond lead Ginny is hiding under a bed while Jason tosses the cabin searching for her and a rat decides to join her. The only difference is urine. If you've seen Friday the 13th Part 2 you'll know what I am talking about.

All in all The Prowler was pretty standard slasher fair but well worth the watch if nothing more then to say that I've scene it. I'm think I'm going to rent it again. My girlfriend sent it back to Netflix before I could fully watch it with the commentary By Tom Savini and Director/ Producer Joesph Zito, who later went on to direct Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter with Tom Savini as his special effects artist. The first five minutes of commentary I did see were pretty damn funny.

On a side note, I'd like to mention that on his blog yesterday David Moody posted that the final version of Autumn will become available. As posted from his blog:

"Over the course of the next few weeks and months, people around the world are finally going to be able to see the AUTUMN movie (and I mean the proper, finished movie – not the poor quality, unfinished rip that was leaked online and which has been unfairly generating bad press around the Internet recently). At the end of the day, AUTUMN is a low budget indie horror film which, like many indies, will be released wherever deals are made, whenever those deals are made."


I'm looking forward to it.