The Prowler (1981 film)
| The Prowler | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Joseph Zito |
| Produced by |
Joseph Zito David Streit |
| Screenplay by |
Neal Barbera Glenn Leopold |
| Starring |
Vicky Dawson Farley Granger Lawrence Tierney Christopher Goutman |
| Music by | Richard Einhorn |
| Cinematography | João Fernandes |
| Edited by | Joel Goodman |
Production company |
Graduation |
| Distributed by | Sandhurst |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,000,000 [1] |
The Prowler (released internationally as Rosemary's Killer) is a 1981 slasher horror film directed by Joseph Zito, written by Neal Barbera and Glenn Leopold, and starring Vicky Dawson, Farley Granger, Lawrence Tierney, and Christopher Goutman. Set in a small New Jersey town, the film concerns a group of college students holding an graduation spring dance, 35 years later after a double-murderer occurred once. Unbeknownst to them, they are targeted by an masked assailant donned in World War II G.I. fatigues (in which the title refers to) and begins a murderous spree as a result of the graduation's continuation.
Plot
During the Second World War a woman named Rosemary Chatham breaks up with her boyfriend who is serving in the army, via letter.
On June 28, 1945, the town of Avalon Bay holds its graduation dance. Rosemary (Joy Glaccum) and her new boyfriend Roy (Timothy Wahrer) leave the party and are murdered by a mysterious prowler in combat uniform who impales them on a pitchfork.
35 years later on June 28, 1980, Pam MacDonald (Vicky Dawson) revives the graduation dance. She visits Sheriff George Fraser (Farley Granger), mentioning Major Chatham (Lawrence Tierney) and his refusal to allow the annual celebrations after the murders. The Sheriff tells Pam that someone robbed a nearby store, murdered someone and stole their car. Despite the possibility of the killer heading to Avalon Bay, the sheriff leaves to go fishing, putting deputy Mark London (Christopher Goutman), Pam's boyfriend, in charge.
That night Pam goes to the dance, leaving her roommate Sherry (Lisa Dunsheath) in the shower. Sherry's boyfriend Carl (David Sederholm) arrives to collect her but the killer unforeseen stabs through his head with a bayonet, then kills Sherry in the shower with a pitchfork. Mark arrives at the dance but Pam is annoyed when Lisa (Cindy Weintraub) pulls him away to dance then causes punch to spill over Pam's dress. Pam goes home and changes, not realizing two murders have occurred in her dorm. On leaving she is pursued by the killer but evades him, catching up with Mark. They search Major Chatham's house, finding pictures and a scrapbook of Rosemary's. They return to the dance and inform chaperon Miss Allison (Donna Davis) of the prowler; she asks all party goers to remain in the hall until he is apprehended. However, Lisa has already left to go for a swim in the pool. The killer attacks her in the pool and slits her throat, then kills Allison who had gone to retrieve Lisa.
Mark and Pam are informed that the cemetery gates are open so investigate and find Rosemary's grave open, with Lisa's body in the coffin. Mark tries unsuccessfully to reach Sheriff Fraser; he and Pam return to Major Chatham's house where Mark is knocked out and Pam pursued by the killer. While corned, a villager, Otto, arrives and shoots the killer. Abruptly, the injured killer revives and shoots back at Otto with a double-barrelled shotgun. Pam stabs the killer with the pitchfork (broken from the pursue) and they struggle, where the killer is revealed to be Sheriff Fraser. Pam gains control and shoots Fraser in the head, killing him.
The next morning Mark returns Pam to the dorm where she discovers the bodies of Sherry and Carl. She is horrified as Carl's corpse grabs her in an hallucinated moment of shock. She backs away as Carl dies.
Cast
- Vicky Dawson as Pam MacDonald
- Christopher Goutman as Deputy Mark London
- Lawrence Tierney as Major Chatham
- Farley Granger as Sheriff George Fraser
- Cindy Weintraub as Lisa
- Lisa Dunsheath as Sherry
- David Sederholm as Carl
- Bill Nunnery as Hotel Clerk
- Thom Bray as Ben
- Diane Rode as Sally
- Bryan Englund as Paul
- Donna Davis as Miss Allison
- Carleton Carpenter as 1945 M.C
- Joy Glaccum as Francis Rosemary Chatham
- Timothy Wahrer as Roy
- John Seitz as Pat Kingsley
- Bill Hugh Collins as Otto
- Dan Lounsbery as Jimmy Turner
- Douglas Stevenson as Young Pat Kingsley
- Susan Monts as Young Pat Kingsley's Date
Production
The film was shot in Cape May, New Jersey.[2] The cemetery scenes of the film were shot in an actual cemetery on the night of Halloween 1980, as well as the open grave that was awaiting a funeral. According to the audio commentary, AVCO Embassy pictures offered $750,000 for distribution rights of the film (the total budget was $1,000,000). Director Joseph Zito stated that the producer declined the offer and decided to self-distribute the film himself which hurt the film's box-office. The film's entire shooting schedule was built around the filming and effects.
Release
The Prowler was released as Rosemary's Killer in Australia and Europe, and is missing almost a minute of Tom Savini's gore effects.
The German version omits all of the gore scenes (including the revelation of the killer's identity) and replaced the soundtrack with bird sounds for daytime scenes, cricket sounds for the night scenes, and Richard Enhorn's score with synthesizer music by an uncredited musician. This version goes by the title Die Forke des Todes (The Pitchfork of Death).
The Encyclopedia of Horror reports that "Savini's particularly graphic special effects resulted in most of the murders being trimmed in the British release print."[3]
DVD release
Blue Underground released an uncut version of The Prowler on DVD in 2002 and on Blu-Ray in 2010. The extras include a trailer, a still and poster gallery, behind the scenes gore footage with Tom Savini, and an audio commentary with Joseph Zito and Tom Savini.
Reception
Currently on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 60% approval rating with an average of 5.1/10 based on 5 reviews.[4]
AllRovi called it a "run-of-the-mill entry in the early '80s slasher film cycle" that "benefits from an unexpected amount of technical gloss, but has little else to offer".[5] Felix Vasquez Jr. of Cinema Crazed gave the film a positive review, calling it "a surprisingly decent and vicious whodunit with a creative and merciless serial killer" that "manages to achieve injecting tension, while also creating a genuinely creepy killer." He also praised Pam, "an admirably smart and clever heroine who evades the killer quite cleverly" and the effects work of Tom Savini, concluding that the film is "definitely is one of the better slasher mysteries of the eighties" and "another of the fine collaborations between Tom Savini and Joseph Zito, both of whom know how to deliver damn fine slasher fare."[6]
James Kendrick of the Q Network Film Desk called the film "better-than-expected" and elevated "what might have been a routine, low-budget exercise in cheap sensationalism and gory special effects into a stylish mystery that also features plenty of cheap sensationalism and gory special effects." However, he argued that the film's effectiveness was less due to Savini's special effects and more due to director Joseph Zito's "attention to direction and style, as well as the film’s unusual evocation of history." He found the ending "truly bizarre", calling it "on one level yet another sigh-inducing retread of the last-minute surprise that was all but requisite following Brian De Palma's Carrie, but on another level is a weirdly surreal bit of art-film-infused ambiguity, leaving us with a strange sense of dislocation that feels imported from another film altogether. Whether that is an attribute or a detriment will be up to the individual viewer."[7]
Leonard Maltin gave the film a negative 1 1/2 out of a possible 4 stars, criticizing the film's plot calling it "illogical".[8] The Encyclopedia of Horror says that like My Bloody Valentine the film moves away from the genre's usual Midwestern setting, but that it does little with the new location, nor with its potentially interesting returning G.I. motif. Like Valentine, the film is judged as being certainly polished, atmospheric, and suspenseful, though hardly original.[3]
References
- ↑ Joseph Zito, DVD Commentary
- ↑ The Star Ledger. October 26, 2014. pg. E7
- 1 2 Milne, Tom. Willemin, Paul. Hardy, Phil. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Horror, Octopus Books, 1986. ISBN 0-7064-2771-8 p 370
- ↑ "The Prower (1981)". Flixster. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 18 February 2016.
- ↑ Guarisco, Donald. "The Prowler (1981)". Allmovie. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
- ↑ Felix Vasquez Jr. "The Prowler (1981)". Cinema Crazed. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
- ↑ James Kendrick. "The Prowler". Q Network Film Desk. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
- ↑ Maltin, Leonard (2013). Leonard Maltin's 2014 Movie Guide. New York, New York: Penguin Group. p. 1129. ISBN 978-0-451-41810-4. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
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