You won't be disappointed!

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

The acting in this movie is really good.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Director Joseph Zito really cranked 'em out in the 1980's, with films like Invasion U.S.A., Red Scorpion, the original Missing in Action and 1984's Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. This one's an interesting tweak to the slasher formula, plus it has what all gory movies need most: the imaginative grand guignol artistry of Tom Savini.June 28, 1945: World War 2 may be coming to an end, but Rosemary Chatham is also ending her relationship with her boyfriend. The war's gone on too long and she can't wait for him any longer. As she attends the Avalon Bay graduation dance with her new boyfriend, they decide to slip out and make out at the point. Mid-tryst, a man in an army uniform impales them both, leaving behind a rose.June 28, 1980: Pam McDonald has finally convinced the town to have a graduation dance, the first since Rosemary was murdered. Her boyfriend, Mark London (Christopher Goutman, who went on to be a soap opera director) is the town's deputy and in charge as his boss, Sheriff Fraser(Farley Granger, Strangers on a Train, What Have They Done to Your Daughters?, Amuck!) is heading to his cabin for the weekend.Pam has some help - or well, she did - in Lisa, Sherry and Carl. The latter two are killed by The Prowler from the opening - Carl with a bayonet through his brain and Sherry by pitchfork. The blood is copious in both murders and the murderer leaves behind a rose.At the dance, Pam gets upset when Lisa dances with her boyfriend and she gets a drink on her dress. Back at her dorm, the Prowler chases her, but at the last minute, she runs into Major Chatham (noted Hollywood crazy person rulebreaker Lawrence Tierney, who was arrested a dozen times in seven years and claimed he "threw away about seven careers through drink." You may know him as the boss of the Reservoir Dogs and as Elaine's dad on Seinfeld. During the shooting of that episode, he stole a butcher knife from the set and when Jerry Seinfeld asked him about it, he made threatening motions toward him while claiming he was just imitating Psycho. I could - and can and will and do - go on about Lawrence Tierney), a war veteran who grabs at her.That's when Pam realizes that the major's daughter was Rosemary, the girl killed 35 years ago. Right around then, Lisa and Paul argue and he gets arrested for public drunkenness. Lisa decides to go swimming and gets her throat cut by The Prowler. Another girl, Allison, tries to find her and is killed as well.Mark tries to call the Sheriff, but can't get through. A shopkeeper tells the deputy that there are some kids up in the graveyard and when he investigates, Lisa's body is in an open grave. They go to the major's house to investigate and Mark is attacked and left for dead. Pam is chased through the house, learning that none other than the Sheriff is the Prowler. She is able to turn his gun on him and blow his head his shoulders.After its all over, Pam returns to her dorm and discovers the bodies of Sherry and Carl. Carl comes to life and grabs her, but she's just in the end of the movie hallucination shock scene that we all know and maybe love from Carrie.The Prowler is mostly worth it for the extended gore sequences. It came out in the middle of the slasher cycle, so it has plenty of the hallmarks (maybe that's not the right word) of the genre.

Preparing for a lavish party, friends decide to hold it at a local dance hall start to realize that their missing attendees have been killed off by a vicious killer seeking revenge among them for a wrong that was committed back at the end of World War II and try to escape alive.This is undoubtedly one of the greatest slashers around. What really works for this one is the fact that it uses a simple story yet manages to string together something so watchable which is a big accomplishment. This one here never produces a dull moment, staying interesting for the duration of its time and moves seamlessly through several top-notch stalking scenes along the way. The opening ambush of the couple works nicely, the bathroom encounter is outstanding with the narrow misses of getting caught while they tease each other leading into the mistaken play in the shower, the poolside stalking of the couples leaving the dance are quite fun and the couple being stalked down in the basement is quite a suspenseful ambush. The next big one is the stalking scenes on display, which are just exceptional from the first chase through the dorms moving through the different levels without giving away the killer through the maze in the hallway designs out the side and down out into the street, the search of the killers' house in the dark where they go looking for the clues to his identity and the graveyard encounter with the gravestone discovery and open grave makes for a great suspense scene. The eventual confrontation with the killer is again top-notch, as the systematic search of the bedroom is reason enough to really enjoy it, being one of the best suspense scenes in the film while the final big kill is a showstopper. There's also the fact that the killer in here is actually kept off-screen for the majority of the film, using only a few clues to keep the identity a secret until the final surprise revelation, while the fact that most of the time is devoted to keeping it to the shadows is yet another great way to build the suspense. Add in together with the greatness of the gore and kills in here, this one comes off as one of the absolute best ones in the genre. This here only has the very mildest of flaws. The fact that the body count is pretty low is a little hard to accept, as it doesn't even reach double digits, which shouldn't have been that hard to accomplish considering all the potential corpses on display. The fantastic gore makes it hard to recognize, but this one wouldn't have been hurt to knock off another one or two more. The suit that the killer wears is also a little hokey, and wearing a military uniform doesn't really make much sense. It does in the back-story, but rather than meaning anything, it rather feels like an attempt at originality gone a little screwy. These, though, are hardly deal-breaking and don't even come close to unseating the positive ones.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Nudity, Graphic Language and a mild sex scene.

The slasher is probably the most derided of any horror type. People criticize the films are formulaic, gore-for-gore's sake, mindless, or even misogynistic. These things are sometimes, true, yes. Which isn't to say that a satisfying, suspenseful, well made film can't be made within those outlines. "The Prowler" is one of the best examples of the subgenre.How much does "The Prowler" fit the traditional outlines of a slasher? It opens with a crime in the past. After his girlfriend breaks up with him via a Dear John letter, a just-returned World War II veteran murders the girl and her new lover with a pitchfork. On what night did the deaths take place? The night of the big graduation party. Thirty five years later, the New Jersey town of Avalon Bay is having a graduation party for the first time since that night. Naturally, this event inflames the still-living killer's rage, forcing him to kill again. Just to go down the list, that's a crime in the past, a special holiday event, an anniversary of a crime, and a killer in both a mask and with not one, but two!, trademark weapons. On the surface, "The Prowler" is about as typical as it gets.The story is not what makes "The Prowler" special. Instead of shot in some dark forest or other, uninteresting isolated location, "The Prowler" was lensed in New Jersey's historical district. This gives the film a unique look, the old Victorian buildings adding a certain gravitas to the proceedings. Joseph Zito's direction is equally handsome. The nights are made up of contrasting blues and blacks. Zito frequently employs less then typical shots, like a long sequence reflected in a mirror. My favorite bit is when the girls getting ready for the dance are intercut with and contrasted against the killer preparing his weapons and outfits. "The Prowler" might just be the prettiest slasher ever made. It's certainly far more polished then must of the output of the time.The film is also, perhaps, the goriest film of the first wave of American slashers. This is primarily the reason why the film ranks so highly among the fandom. Tom Savini declared it his best work. It very well might be. Pitchforks are dug into backs, a large puddle of blood oozing from the victims. An eighteen inch long bayonet is shoved all the way through a victim's head, his eyes rolling back until they're completely white. "The Prowler" one-ups "Psycho" by the having the naked, bathing beauty nailed to the wall with a pitchfork. Savini marches out his trademark of exploding a fake head with a real shotgun fantastically. The bayonet is, earlier, shoved directly into a woman's jugular, blood spurting from the wound, her shoes painted red. All of these are fantastic. Yet no kill is more impressive then the girl with the slit throat in the swimming pool. Sorry, did I say "slit?" "Embedded" is more likely. The villain saws her neck open until he hits bone. The latex stretches and tears, torrent after torrent of corn syrup flooding the pool. It's extended, brutal, and borderline pornographic. I love it.Buckets load of blood and gore are fine and dandy. However, "The Prowler" backs it up by generating actual suspense. A scene where the heroine is delayed by the creepy old man works well. The girl being unaware of the killer in the same room is another potential cliché enlivened by excellent execution here. The sudden surprise of a corpse in a fireplace or discovery of a fresh body in a casket jolts audiences nicely. Most slashers have a long chase scene between final girl and killer. The one presented here stands above the rest. Final girl Pam enters a room of old furniture covered with white clothes. Hiding under a table, she watches helplessly as the killer tears the room apart, flipping tables and smashing things. Even when a big ass rat crawls through her hair, she remains silent. The same year's "Friday the 13th Part II" featured a similar sequence but this one is far more effective. This is how you do it, kids.About the only thing that doesn't work about "The Prowler" is its cast. The film earns points for not featuring the typical horny teenagers. Instead, the hero is a deputy police officer, his girlfriend spunky and strong. The middle chapter of the film is composed of them sleuthing out the mystery, investigating graveyards and old homes. Scenes like the boyfriend trying to convince the girl to stay behind add some character. Also among the cast: Horny college students. Most of the victims are just random by-standers. I suppose it's fair to develop the central duo while filling the body count out with minor characters. Vicky Dawson is likable enough as the final girl but Christopher Goutman, looking all the world like a young William Fichtner, is too blandly heroic to register. The film also makes the mistake of wasting Lawrence Tierney, sticking him in a speechless, undefined "creepy old man" part and not even giving him the dignity of a death scene.The killer's military garb gives him a distinctive look. His habit of leaving roses with his victims gives him personality. I enjoy the bizarre comic relief scene involving a lazy hotel clerk. The last jump scare is totally bogus but effective all the same. "The Prowler" is one of my top slasher picks, fantastically gory, beautifully shot, well structured and paced. I'd rank it above "The Burning" but just below "My Bloody Valentine."

This movie is a disappointment, mostly because it has such an awesome sounding concept to it. It's only something that sounds good on paper though, since the execution of it all is far from awesome, exciting or original.Just purely by watching this movie you could tell that director Joseph Zito just wasn't a very good genre director. He did an extremely poor job with handling its concept and with building up its tension. Even the killings are disappointing in this movie, while this normally would be something that still could make a movie like this worthwhile, even when the rest of the movie isn't being very good.It just does absolutely nothing with its concept. It sounds so promising; a killer, seemingly randomly killing people in a WW II outfit but an annoying and weird aspect to begin with is that the outfit isn't even WW II-looking at all and for some odd reason he uses a pitchfork as his weapon of choice. It's such an odd combination, that just doesn't make any sense and also never gets explained.That's another problem of the movie; nothing ever gets explained. Instead of creating a mystery and a whole back-story, the movie is simply being a whodunit, Scooby-Doo style, that doesn't focus at all on the why's and by the end the movie only leaves more why's. As a matter of fact, at least a Scooby-Doo episode always explain at the end why the person committed all of the monstrosities. This movie does nothing of that sort.But it does not only handles its killer poorly; also the rest of its characters remains underdeveloped. Of course this isn't being anything too uncommon for a slasher but at least most slashers feature a good and likable enough main character in it, while this movie only features a bunch of boring looking and acting people in it, you just couldn't have cared less for. Besides, it only has an handful of characters in it, so 'guessing' who the killer is shouldn't be too hard for anyone.There is being absolutely nothing about the story that ever makes this movie stand out. Just like its characters, everything else in it also remains extremely underdeveloped and the little stuff that it tries to do is being extremely formulaic all. This just is a bad, bad slasher, I'm sad to say.4/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/