The Prowler
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Movie Reviews of The Prowler
Movie Review: Movies
Summary: 4 Stars
Good movie. I love classic 70's-80's horror films. Tom Savini's special effects are always top notch for their time.Movie Review: GREAT 80'S SLASHER MOVIE
Summary: 4 Stars
ANOTHER WONDERFUL 80'S SLASHER MOVIE. THIS MOVIE STARTS OFF KINDA SLOW.BUT WELL WORTH THE WAIT.Movie Review: A Formulaic Slasher, constucted better than most
Summary: 3 Stars
People who actually enjoy slasher movie's will probably want to see this. They may not think it's great, but they'll probably find it sufficiently entertaining. Those who don't like slasher movies... well, duh. Still, this is an above average slasher movie, with less grating performances than usual, well done gore, reasonably well designed stalking scenes and some slight suspense at times.
Alright, the plot's like this: there's a killer who's killing on the anniversary of his previous killings, and there are a bunch of faceless young adults for him to kill. I can't remember a single characters name in this film, and there is virtually no characterization.(Which, I might add, is not a flaw in this particular kind of film) Well, let's think, there's the inexperienced deputy guy, the blonde chick, the crazy fat balding guy, the sheriff, the surly clerk dude. Those are perhaps more specifics than I could usually come up with after watching a slasher film, but that ain't a whole lot. There's a certain amount of investigation into the killer's identity, but it is of no particular interest. I already knew the killer's identity before watching the film, but most people say that there's absolutely no difficulty guessing who it is, and I don't doubt them. Obviously, the afrorementioned aspects of the film aren't very important at all. All that matters are the killing and the stalking, and it's all pretty well done.
The killer is a veteran, and thus he does his slashing in his old infantry garb. I think this is a pretty effective outfit for him, though he has no particular characteristics beyond this, other than that he tends to use a bayonet and a pitchfork.
This is a fairly early slasher film, so it's got a relatively low body count, and actively tries to generate suspense a bit more than some other films. Some of the stalking scenes go on for ever and ever, initially being a bit suspenseful, sometimes, but eventually becoming kind of dull. I will give the movie credit- there was a false scare in the film that I initally believed would be a real scare, and a sudden murder that I wasn't actually expecting. Still, even if most of the stalking scenes really aren't surprising or all that suspenseful, it's still fun to watch, even before the killing starts. Why this is a couldn't really say, but it's still interesting enough.
The gore in this film was done by Tom Savini, and it holds up very well.(Most of the work holds up better than what he did in the more famous/infamous Maniac) This film is unrated, so you don't get sudden, jarring cutaways, which is nice. The film takes the violence a lot more seriously than lots of other slasher movies, not really emphasizing creative methods of murder, and also trying to make the deaths more genuinely horrific. The film is not extremely gory, but it is unflinching in the face of the violence, and it makes killing people look a lot more difficult than many other films.(Exemplified by the effort and surprising amount of time it takes for the prowler to impale someone on his pitchfork, and how long it takes the bayonet-through-the-brain victim to die. The throat-slashing in the pool is quite nasty as well) There's also a shotgun-head explosion. It's not Savini's best, or as good as the Scanners exploding head, but an exploding head is always amusing.
Yeah this movie's pretty cool.(Don't let the 3 star rating fool you: As much as I enjoy them, I can't think of a single out and out slasher movie that I'd give 5 stars. So, this is reasonably high up on the slasher-meter)
Movie Review: Pitchforks and Bayonets and Knives... Oh My!!
Summary: 3 Stars
** Contains Spoilers **
A group of students are ruthlessly murdered by a grudge holding killer dressed as a soldier and armed with every sharp object he can get his vindictive little hands on. The charming prologue set in the mid 40's, hints of revenge after a WWII soldier receives a break up letter from his sweetheart named Rosemary. During her graduation dance, she, along with her new beau, are savagely murdered by what appears to be an angry soldier wielding a pitchfork.
This slick little chiller is better than your average slasher film thanks to several tension filled moments, great atmosphere and of course Savini's great gore effects. The body count here is not as high as you might expect. It definitely isn't greater to other genre films like Friday the 13th (and it's gazillion sequels), My Bloody Valentine etc however the murder sequences, in some instances are a bit more explicit as they are elaborately played out infront of our curious eyes. Highlights are many but I must state the pitchfork through the bare abdomen is extremely well done (even as the killer lifts the victim up with the pitchfork, you get to hear the sound of the pitchfork scrape up against the bathroom tiles) as is the slaughter of an unfortunate soul taking a midnight swim. The latter scene even displays the poor victims body give off a quick "quiver" as her blood drains out giving the scene a gruesome edge. Where the film falls short is with some of the performances. This should be expected since mediocre performances permeate slashers of the time period. The pacing also could have used a bit of work. Although the film starts off great and the first half hour is tension filled with some messy demises, viewers may loose interest half way through as it slows down quite a bit and the characters are not interesting enough to keep us interested.
If you can get past the negatives, "The Prowler" is still a pretty decent chiller. Tom Savini's gore effects reign supreme here and fans of the genre should not be disappointed. Not to mention, the actual killer himself is pretty creepy and there is a scene, when one of the characters opens a door, only to be greeted by this soldier of doom, face blacked out, voice inaudible, holding out a rose to give to her before he attempts to cut her to pieces.That scene always manages to send a chill up my spine. As a slasher film, this is gory good. Recommended.
Movie Review: Fork You
Summary: 3 Stars
Little seen 80's slasher pic that contains some great gore special effects courtesy of Tom Savini, and not a whole lot else.
In 1980 a college decides to throw a graduation dance even though the last one 35 years ago ended in a double murder with a pitchfork. You can just bet that even though it's been awhile there's gonna be more trouble this time around and, before you can say boo, the prowler is back again.
Now, on the plus side, as I already mentioned, the gore effects by Savini are terrific, especially the pitchfork shower scene, the knife through the guy's head and the pool throat slitting. Also good is the photography and atmosphere of the campus. This DVD release has a good picture and sound, sadly the musical soundtrack is awful. Though the plot is reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine, Black Christmas, Prom Night and Halloween, it offers up some decent twists that differentiate it from those. Finally, the killer's outfit is cool and pretty creepy.
On the negative side, the acting is about as poor as you would expect from this type of low budget film. Particularly annoying is the lead girl who I hoped early on might get killed. No such luck. Her boyfriend, the deputy sheriff is also an idiot, and has a terminal case of bad 80's helmet hair. The movie drags in too many places and becomes repetitive in the last half hour with the heroine getting chased by the killer, escaping, then getting chased again when she insists on putting herself back in danger. I can't tolerate imbecilic behavior in these films. The final twist which reveals the killer's identity is odd, and his motives are never explained, not to mention that a key red herring character simply vanishes from the flick after his brief appearance.
A must see for 80's slasher completists, though not as good as Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th. 2 1/2 stars