*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*
I was there for the start of the wave of slasher flicks in the 1970s, and have seen them all. As one of the original readers of Fangoria, I was interested in seeing The Prowler because of the cool stills published. Unfortunately at that time, even Fangoria did stories and published photos without having actually seen the films ahead of time, and of course I was hyped up to see this film. At that time, if you had not seen too many horror films, The Prowler might have shocked you somewhat because of the violence. That's stretching it a bit though, as it plods along in between the random killings and offers no real surprises.
It takes a while to set up the "way back when" element, then once it gets to the present (or 1980), the way too obvious setup of the sheriff going on vacation is something I would find amazing if anyone was fooled by (after all, he IS played by Farley Granger, and is established as a person of interest too well to just "go away" for the rest of the film). At least in Friday The 13th the mother was not given any genuine screen time to give you any suspicion early on.
Once the killer gets going, we are basically subjected to LONG, drawn out scenes of the cop and his gal wandering through a house (TWICE!), and wandering through a cemetery. Even when the girl goes back to her dormitory and misses seeing the bloodshed early in the story, we are treated to her going through general motions before and during the chase that truly needed the help of editing to beef up suspense. This seemed to be a problem as well with the film Prom Night -- remember the scene of the girl running up and down halls for what seemed an eternity? If you were to cut out all the walking around, the film might clock in at about an hour. The killer seemed to take way too long to smash up a room where she was hiding near the end, you forget about being tense she might be discovered because by that point you're just thinking, "Come on, already!" either smash it up a little faster or have her get out of there (oh come on, you knew she was too important to get killed, right?)! While some people have apparently considered this a classic, I consider it a classic only as a test of patience.
The recent DVD from Blue Underground restores the graphic violence, but that's the main item of interest for this film. I always was bewildered by many Italian shockers in the 1970s and the U.S. slashers like The Prowler that always manage to find a way to have a naked girl getting butchered (like Pieces or Torso)-- for The Prowler, it's the naked girl in the shower, getting pitch-forked right under her breasts. Of course the guys that get a thrill seeing breasts are satisfied, but at the same time she's being stabbed, you're wondering "am I supposed to be watching the stabbing or her breasts?" It's a rather perverse way to get a thrill, I've just never understood that mentality. And trust me, I've seen them all and have quite a few favorites, but that scene was one for the psychology books.
Calling this film truly exciting and intense (like the Creature Features Movie Guide did) is perplexing. I suppose each individual is scared by something differently, but for the life of me I can't find any true suspense in The Prowler. Just lots of scenes of people walking around, and when walking backwards obviously was going to run into someone for a false scare.
Go ahead and praise The Prowler for the gore if you want to, but other than that you're scared way too easily if you consider this one "frightening." Oh, and why would a killer soldier's choice of weapon be a pitchfork?
I was there for the start of the wave of slasher flicks in the 1970s, and have seen them all. As one of the original readers of Fangoria, I was interested in seeing The Prowler because of the cool stills published. Unfortunately at that time, even Fangoria did stories and published photos without having actually seen the films ahead of time, and of course I was hyped up to see this film. At that time, if you had not seen too many horror films, The Prowler might have shocked you somewhat because of the violence. That's stretching it a bit though, as it plods along in between the random killings and offers no real surprises.
It takes a while to set up the "way back when" element, then once it gets to the present (or 1980), the way too obvious setup of the sheriff going on vacation is something I would find amazing if anyone was fooled by (after all, he IS played by Farley Granger, and is established as a person of interest too well to just "go away" for the rest of the film). At least in Friday The 13th the mother was not given any genuine screen time to give you any suspicion early on.
Once the killer gets going, we are basically subjected to LONG, drawn out scenes of the cop and his gal wandering through a house (TWICE!), and wandering through a cemetery. Even when the girl goes back to her dormitory and misses seeing the bloodshed early in the story, we are treated to her going through general motions before and during the chase that truly needed the help of editing to beef up suspense. This seemed to be a problem as well with the film Prom Night -- remember the scene of the girl running up and down halls for what seemed an eternity? If you were to cut out all the walking around, the film might clock in at about an hour. The killer seemed to take way too long to smash up a room where she was hiding near the end, you forget about being tense she might be discovered because by that point you're just thinking, "Come on, already!" either smash it up a little faster or have her get out of there (oh come on, you knew she was too important to get killed, right?)! While some people have apparently considered this a classic, I consider it a classic only as a test of patience.
The recent DVD from Blue Underground restores the graphic violence, but that's the main item of interest for this film. I always was bewildered by many Italian shockers in the 1970s and the U.S. slashers like The Prowler that always manage to find a way to have a naked girl getting butchered (like Pieces or Torso)-- for The Prowler, it's the naked girl in the shower, getting pitch-forked right under her breasts. Of course the guys that get a thrill seeing breasts are satisfied, but at the same time she's being stabbed, you're wondering "am I supposed to be watching the stabbing or her breasts?" It's a rather perverse way to get a thrill, I've just never understood that mentality. And trust me, I've seen them all and have quite a few favorites, but that scene was one for the psychology books.
Calling this film truly exciting and intense (like the Creature Features Movie Guide did) is perplexing. I suppose each individual is scared by something differently, but for the life of me I can't find any true suspense in The Prowler. Just lots of scenes of people walking around, and when walking backwards obviously was going to run into someone for a false scare.
Go ahead and praise The Prowler for the gore if you want to, but other than that you're scared way too easily if you consider this one "frightening." Oh, and why would a killer soldier's choice of weapon be a pitchfork?