THE PROWLER (1981)

 

(a.k.a. ROSEMARY’S KILLER; a.k.a. THE GRADUATION; director/producer: Joseph Zito. Screenwriters: Glenn Leopold and Neal Barbera, with additional dialogue by Eric Lewald.)

 

Review

June 28, 1945. Avalon Bay, California. On lover’s lane, away from the “Class of ’45 Graduation Ball,” Francis Rosemary Chatham (Joy Glaccum) and her amorous new boyfriend are stabbed with a pitchfork by someone in a mask and military gear. A red rose is left in her hand. Their killer disappears─it’s thought that Francis’s war vet ex-boyfriend did the deed.

Thirty-five years to the date pass without a dance in Avalon, but the collegiate class of 1980 is getting theirs. Pam MacDonald, one of the graduates, helps set up the ball along with her friends. The night of the ball, a prowler in a nearby town has been reported, and Pam worries about her boyfriend (Deputy Mark London) who’s acting sheriff while his boss, George Fraser (Farley Granger, STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, 1951) goes on a fishing trip.

Murders begin immediately, committed by someone wearing the military garb and wielding weapons of the 1945 killer. This prowler also leaves roses in the hands of his female victims. Pam (Vicky Dawson) and Mark (Christopher Goutman) quickly realize what’s happening, although the shadowy slayer’s identity is a mystery. Suspects are everywhere, from the kind-of-goofy Otto to the unsettling, possible-puppet-master Major Chatham, father of killed-in-1945 Francis.

If you’re looking for a film with well-developed key characters (with their backstories and motives spoken aloud), this might not be a movie for you. If you’re looking for a film that gives you just enough─if you pay attention─information to suss out who’s likely done/doing what and why, PROWLER might be your slow-kill jam.

PROWLER, shot in Cape May, New Jersey, is solidly written and tightly edited, with a running time of eighty-nine minutes, many of its key terror shots reminiscent of FRIDAY THE 13^th (1980), not necessarily a bad thing, as PROWLER has its own look and feel. (It was director Joseph Zito’s work on PROWLER that got him hired for FRIDAY THE 13^th: THE FINAL CHAPTER, 1984.) Editor Joel Goodman’s choice cuts pace PROWLER’s dreamlike, gritty work in a suspenseful way, its distinctive mood aided by cinematographer João Fernandes’s intense use of light and shadow (Fernandes, billed as Raoul Lomas, was Zito’s cinematographer for FRIDAY THE 13^th: THE FINAL CHAPTER, 1984). Composer Richard Einhorn’s effective, sometimes playful score brings together the best elements of Bernard Hermann’s PSYCHO (1960), Harry Manfredini’s FRIDAY THE 13^th (1980), and other terror flick scores without ripping them off. And Tom Savini’s FX, occasionally over-the-top, complement the overall feel of the film and add to the brutish nature of the spree killer’s (or spree killers’) deeds.

Among its notable players: a frail-looking and barely seen Lawrence Tierney (BORN TO KILL, 1947) as the wheelchair-bound Major Chatham; Cindy Weintraub (HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP, 1980) as Lisa, Pam’s flirtatious friend; and Thom Bray (PRINCE OF DARKNESS, 1987) as Ben, one of the graduate-boyfriends.

This deep-dive into multilayered horror (a ghostly town, PTSD, etc.) is especially dark and distinctive, from its dirty realism, raw, lingering-shot kill scenes, lull-then-sharp score, and overall feel, its closest thematic-companion film perhaps MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1981). Both are worth watching and owning if you’re a fan of grit-and-gore Eighties slashers.