By 80s standards, The Prowler is a sensational slasher film. By today's standards, it's actually still pretty good, but in general, there are some things that could have been better.
In the beginning of the film, a ship full of troops from WW II is returning home to New York Harbor. One of the troops on the ship had been in a relationship with a girl named Francis Rosemary Chatham (Joy Glaccum), daughter of Major Chatham (Lawrence Tierney). However, it took a long time for the troops to come home so Rosemary writes her lover a letter telling him she cannot wait for him to return any longer. As a result, her now former lover kills Rosemary and her new boyfriend at the 1945 graduation dance in Avalon Bay. Fast forward 35 years to 1980, for the first time since the incident in 1945, another graduation dance is being held. Coincidentally, Rosemary's killer had never been caught, and he's back to reek more vengeance on the graduates in the name of Rosemary, the girl who broke his heart. The major characters in the film are Pamela McDonald (Vicky Dawson), Deputy London (Christopher Goutman), and the prowler himself (Peter Giuliano).
The plot for the film is simple; it's simply a tragic love story leading to the killer's actions. In the case of this film, we are given a vague identity of the killer (he is Rosemary's ex-boyfriend) and we are given his motive for reeking revenge right in the first five minutes of the film. I know that sounds bad, but it actually isn't. It was very helpful to know this in the beginning of the film; the plot is not meant to be complex; this is a slasher film. So they set up the background right in the beginning, and the rest of the movie is about the prowler slicing and dicing the students at the graduate dance. When the story is so simple like this one is, it is essential for the movie to keep the audience interested by making sure there is a lot happening in the way of action, in this case that would be a lot of killing.
This brings me to my first problem with The Prowler: There simply weren't enough kill scenes. After the beginning when Rosemary and her new boyfriend are killed, only four people other than the main characters get killed. That may sound like a lot, but the murders are not spread out enough. The first two deaths happen within two minutes of each other, and then we wait about another 20 minutes and the next two kill scenes happen one right after the other and then that's it. There's still 30 minutes to go in the movie and no one else gets killed until the main characters confront the killer at the end of the film. In a movie like The Prowler where the visual effects were astounding and gruesome (more on that later), you want to show them off continuously throughout the movie, especially when there is not a complex story that can keep the audience interested while we divert from the killings. I would have been satisfied if one of these two things were true:
1.) A total of 6-8 minor characters getting slashed would have been better than just 4. This would have allowed the movie to flash its visual effects often and would keep the audience thrilled as the two main characters try to find out what is going on.
2.) The 4 kill scenes are spread out more effectively instead of bunched together in separate pairs. Because the killer spends an inordinate amount of time stalking the two main characters but doesn't do anything to them, there is a lot of time where nothing is happening. Hey, you're a killer! Why don't you find some more stupid, useless characters to kill instead of standing around not doing anything to Pamela and Deputy London the whole time. They are the main characters, we know they will be alive until the end of the film, so provide us with entertainment and kill some more deadbeats instead!
Just to provide a specific example, after the fourth person is killed, there is a couple making love in the basement of the building where the dance is taking place. This would have been absolutely perfect for a gruesome murder scene but no, they live. I was highly disappointed about this.
As I said before, there is a lot of time where nothing is really happening- basically Pamela and Deputy London are just wandering around the town and through Major Chatham's house for half the film and that gets quite annoying after a while. However, the one thing it does is it shows how Pamela is putting the pieces together as she figures out what is going on, which is good.
The visual effects were absolutely fantastic. Although there were only 4 murder scenes, they were gruesome as hell with copious amounts of blood being spattered all over the place. For 1981, this was very well-done and even audiences today will be thrilled and disturbed by these messy killings. I was shocked at how graphic they were, especially in a 1981 slasher flick. The graphic nature of this film makes some of today's modern slasher flicks look horrible, Prom Night (2008) being one example, as there was little to no blood associated with the killings in this film. I am highly impressed with the work of Tom Savini in this film! Now, the killer himself is very clever, very sneaky, and very methodical. Being in the military probably helped him out a great deal. He carries three weapons: a gun, a knife, and a pitchfork. He knows which weapon to use in which situations. For example, in instances where has the victim restrained in his arms and there's no way of escape, it is more practical to use the knife. For the second kill which takes place in the shower, it might be hard for him to grab hold of the victim because he can't ambush her by surprise, so the use of the pitchfork rather than the knife prevents her from escaping. He is an extremely smart and well-equipped murderer. His military outfit just adds to the character. I was very happy with the killer in this film; he didn't act incredibly stupid like killers in other films do (except stalking the main characters gets a bit boring).
The acting was pretty good on most accounts. I was pretty much mesmerized by Vicky Dawson's performance as Pam McDonald. She gave her character much emotion and personality and made her fun to watch. Plus, she makes Pam a very likable character; she is very smart and brave when it comes to confronting the killer (after she is done hiding from him of course). She plays off being scared very nicely. Excellent job Vicky! Goutman's performance as the deputy was also good, but his character was so stupid. Deputy London literally had no idea what he was doing. After Pam gets chased by the killer out of the dorm house, he looks around outside and then Pam has to actually tell him to go look inside. Come on, police officers are much more thorough. I was relieved when he finally called state police to intercede as this killer was not going to be caught by this clueless idiot.
Finally, Pam has a thing for Deputy London so that adds a bit of richness to the plot, but he constantly pushes Pam away, which made me like his character even less. So they really don't build anything on to this, which for me was a bit of a disappointment. This could have made up for the kill scenes being so far apart. Oh well. Probably better she isn't with that guy anyway, he wouldn't be able to protect her from anything!
Overall, The Prowler is a good slasher film, definitely one of the best to come out of the 1980s time frame. Although there are disengaging and uninteresting moments throughout a decent portion of the film, the graphic kill scenes and Vicky Dawson's performance hold it together pretty well. Despite the fact that this film could have been better, I still recommend The Prowler to fans of slasher films and horror freaks in general.
BaD BiRdS: GOOD BUT NOT GREAT
~MJ Aufiero
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