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The Prowler

The Prowler

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I'll give it a solid 4.
Review: If you think you're safe, you're dead wrong! On the night of her graduation dance in 1945, young Rosemary and her date are brutally murdered by a prowler thought to be a jilted soldier home from the war. The killer was never found. Thirty years later, the dance is held again for the first time since that horrific evening--but something else may have also returned. Back in the eighties one of the unsung secrets of the horror video scene was the little seen shocker 'Rosemary's Killer' (aka 'The Prowler'). Widely available for rent in many UK video shops, horror fans in the know keenly sought out copies to view the welcome collaboration of Joseph Zito and splatter king Tom Savini. Following that initial underground interest the film seemed to disappear from not only the video shop shelves but from the attention of the genre fan, that was until Blue Underground announced that it would be one of their debut release titles. Now more than twenty years later, a whole new generation of horror fans can discover the slasher sleeper gem that is 'The Prowler' It's decent but a little cheesy in some parts. But with so many slasher movies out there what makes 'The Prowler' stand out and justify your deserved attention? Well once we break through the basic regulation genre plot (the only thing original it offers is the plot setting opening sequence) you'll find that the real stars of the show are not in fact the story or even the actors but the collaborative work of director Joseph Zito and effects guru Tom Savini. Zito confidently keeps the pace flowing, carefully building the suspense levels and priming you for 'the fright' with great confidence. He also very welcomingly opens the door for the legendary Savini to take centre stage whenever the blood needs to flow, allowing him to deliver some of perhaps his most classic gore set pieces without having to worry about quick cut editing for all us splatter fans to savour his work. Sure at the end of the day 'The Prowler' is very much [related to]'Friday the 13th' that no one seems to talk about, but like Blue Underground I think it's time fans of the slasher genre rediscovered this bloody gem again. You know what you're getting, so you should also know that you should pick this up. Nice one!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great 80's Slasher Flick
Review: iF you think youre safe youre dead wrong! Awesome slasher flick. What more can you ask for Savini's effects were great in this film. Its great to see the behind the scenes Gore effects and theres no censoring here. The extras were great. ONCE AGAIn BLUE UNDERGROUND does a great job with there horror flicks. They make sure they release a quality flick. Check out any of Blue Undergrounds DVD's.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Rosemary's Killer
Review: In Australia and the United Kingdom too I think, this movie is called Rosemary's Killer. In America it is ofcourse called the Prowler. I personally like the title Rosemary's Killer better. I just bought an ex rental of the movie and unfortunately is not the best of copies but it is better than nothing. I can't say what the DVD is like because I haven't seen it, but I have seen the movie. I recommend it a lot. It is one of the best horror films out there. It was made when horror films were in their prime. Back in the early eighties when they were turning them out like sausages.
The story is about a young woman who is dating a GI and she writes him a letter ending their relationship. The soldier returns home from World War II and he finds his girlfriend and her new lover in a gazebo and impales them on a pitchfork.
Jump to 35 years into the future and a graduation day is coming up.For some reason this triggers Rosemary's Killer into action again and more murders occur. The killer sticks a knife through the top of a man's head, pitchforks another in a shower, almost severs the head of a girl in a pool. The special effects are great, I would go so far as to say they are the best. They are created by Tom Savini who is much better at horror effects than he is at acting.
Just before the murders occur the sheriff tells his deputy that he is going on a fishing trip.Then the murders start occuring. The only person that could have been old enough in the picture to have done the murders of Rosemary and her new boyfriend was one man.Once you got that down the identity of the killer is pretty obvious although I will say when I found out it did shock me even though it should've been obvious to me. I must have been caught up in the movie.This movie is more gory than the Friday the 13ths, even the final chapter. I don't understand why the Friday the 13ths should be cut more if they were than this.So maybe would have been considered less popular and therefore didn't bother to censor it as much.
I agree with one review. It is not clear what the reason is for the killer to start killing again. Maybe it is simply a graduation.
Be warned-this movie is how it should be. It is a little slow in some places, but the gore makes up for that.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Uninspired
Review: It's not scary. It's not interesting. There is only one good aspect of this movie and that is the superb effects by Tom Savini. They are some of the best I have seen him do (I have yet to see Maniac.) Otherwise, this is a big waste of time. You just wait for the next grisly death scene, but could care less about any of the characters or where the movie is going (nowhere.) Very typical slasher flick with some gory deaths. No suspense, no wit, no depth, no nothing.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: 2.5 Stars...pretty decent 80's slasher flick.
Review: Joseph Zito's "The Prowler" is a somewhat interesting adaptation of the "slasher horror film." While the plot is average at best, fairly mundane and definitely full of cliches, this movie does provide some great death scenes and this is where the film shines and earns its keep on my DVD shelf.

Very good blood and gore scenes for a film made in the early 80's. The killer is somewhat original and reasonably creepy. But, the problem with this film is that it is so very predictable and the killer's prowess is somewhat diminished when you actually see his face.

Great death scene in the end, however. I think if you enjoy slasher films with an average plot but some great kills, you will not be disappointed with this movie. But, the acting is average and there aren't too many surprises for those viewers that love a good twist to your horror film.

Basically, this film is an average slasher flick with great death scenes...other than that, nothing special. I do own this DVD because I love horror movies and I have an extensive collection of horror film DVDs, but I would not call this movie a must own, but if you are into the horror genre, it is definitely worth a rent.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Ferociously Violent Slasher Film
Review: Joseph Zito's relentlessly cruel THE PROWLER is one of the very few memorable films to have emerged from the vast wasteland of 80's era slasher cycle crud. Like THE BURNING and MY BLOODY VALENTINE, THE PROWLER tells an undeniably cliche ridden tale but compensates with memorable characters, decent production values, a surprisingly effective musical score and, of course, some of the most inventive and grotesquely realistic murder sequences in the genre. In fact, this may very well be the most violent movie of its ilk ever made. Despite its ferocious gore, this film somehow managed to get an uncensored theatrical release (with an obviously bogus "R" rating).

While there are no real surprises on hand for the horror aficionado, THE PROWLER is so slickly filmed by real craftsmen that it naturally has instant appeal as one of the only competently directed and watchable movies of its kind. If there is such a thing as a "classic" slasher, THE PROWLER is surely one.

The Blue Underground DVD is a highly recommended purchase for fans of this terrific little gorefest. The film is presented in widescreen format (1.85:1) in a nice, colorful transfer, looking much better than it ever has before. Disc extras include trailers, a poster/stills gallery and a fun but brief behind-the-scenes videotaped look at Tom Savini's awesome makeup effects. Best bonus of all is an occasionally raucous audio commentary by Savini and director Joseph Zito, in which the two apparent friends share informative and entertaining tidbits about the film's often chaotic production.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A Formulaic Slasher, constucted better than most
Review: 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)


Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Tom Savini is good at them there special effects
Review: Savini's effects are the highlight of this flick. For once you get to see his stuff without the editors messing it up. Probably what F13 would have been, had it not been so heavily censored.

The movie is SLOOOOOW in the middle, but the effects make it a must have for Horror/Savini fans. When the girls throat continues to bleed and bubble underwater in the pool i was hooked. You just don't see that very much. Shocking! Scandalous!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I CANT BELIEVE IT
Review: THATS ALL I CAN SAY!!! SUCH AN OBSCURE VIDEO. YOU CANT EVEN FND IT FOR RENTAL ANYMORE. WAY TO GO BLUE UNDERGROUND. I REMEMBER ME AND FRIENDS SEEING THIS IN OUR TEENS AND SCREAMING OUR BRAINS OUT. I JUST HOPE SOUND QUALITY IS DECENT. THE VIDEO I WON SOMEWHERE IS PRACTICALLY INAUDIBLE

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Slasher Flick With A Moral
Review: The moral? Don't dump your boyfriend while he's overseas fighting the Germans. Well that's just what Rose does and now we got a bloodbath on our hands. The success of Friday The 13th gave us about 600 other slasher flicks in the early 80s. I'm a big fan of this all but forgotten subgenre. The Prowler stands out(to me anyway) as one of the best of those films. There's nothing new here-nothing you haven't seen in every other slasher flick. You'll figure out who the killer is a half hour into the film, but we're not really watching this movie for twists or suspense. But it does have a creepy looking killer and some of the bloodiest deaths for this kind of movie. Slasher flicks always tried to create gruesome and creative deaths. The Prowler's deaths aren't all that creative(lots of pitchfork and bayonette stabbings is all), but they are bloody. They look Fulci-esque. This also has one of the goofiest looking leading men I've ever seen. Directed by Joeseph Zito who brought us the timeless classics, Friday The 13th-The Final Chapter, Invasion USA and Missing In Action. With that said, you no longer have a reason not to own this. Get to the store. Chop chop.


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