{"id":16960,"date":"2014-06-09T18:30:29","date_gmt":"2014-06-09T22:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=16960"},"modified":"2015-10-09T18:34:12","modified_gmt":"2015-10-09T22:34:12","slug":"the-prowler-1981","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/09\/the-prowler-1981\/","title":{"rendered":"The Prowler (1981)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"the-prowler-5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You can really see Tom Savini\u2019s fingerprints all over \u201cThe Prowler,\u201d as it elicits a lot of gruesome deaths for such a downbeat slasher movie. Much of the effects also echo a lot of the gore we saw in \u201cDawn of the Dead\u201d including the exploding head moments. That said, \u201cThe Prowler\u201d is a surprisingly strong slasher effort that doesn\u2019t hold a lot of doors open for sequels, but manages to be a surprisingly decent and vicious whodunit with a creative and merciless serial killer unleashed on a vacation resort.<\/p>\n

Opening with a prologue set in the forties after World War II, \u201cThe Prowler\u201d establishes its killer as a creative and very monstrous villain with an axe to grind. Thankfully much of \u201cThe Prowler,\u201d which is then set in the eighties, gives us time to slowly unravel who the killer is behind the military fatigues and how they snare their victims left and right. Much of \u201cThe Prowler\u201d revolves around setting up red herrings and clues, while also centering on rather interesting characters. While they are mostly just cannon fodder, they\u2019re less obnoxious than the victims we see in most eighties slasher films.<\/p>\n

And you really can’t hate them too much for their stupidity, since they’re stuck in a resort where the killer is a trained commando who knows about stealth and quick silent kills. It’s like going up against Rambo. Vicky Dawson plays the empathetic protagonist Pam, who attends a graduation party at Avalon Bay where the infamous murder in the prologue ensued. Deciding to forget the tragedy and move on to happier celebrations, the sheriff of the local town is made cautious of a killer that\u2019s on the loose and headed for the resort. Just then the bayonet wielding, camouflaged killer begins offing local residents preparing for the festivities and takes great zeal in murdering them as horribly as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Prowler\u201d manages to achieve injecting tension, while also creating a genuinely creepy killer. The character Pam is an admirably smart and clever heroine who evades the killer quite cleverly, and even battles him in many instances. I particularly loved the final confrontation, since it’s not often eighties slashers feature gutsy final girls. Savini is able to open up scenes of brutality, including a knife through a head, and many a slit throats that revel in the blood splatter. \u201cThe Prowler\u201d definitely is one of the better slasher mysteries of the eighties, and it\u2019s another of the fine collaborations between Tom Savini and Joseph Zito, both of whom know how to deliver damn fine slasher fare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can really see Tom Savini\u2019s fingerprints all over \u201cThe Prowler,\u201d as it elicits a lot of gruesome deaths for such a downbeat slasher movie. Much of the effects also echo a lot of the gore we saw in \u201cDawn of the Dead\u201d including the exploding head moments. That said, \u201cThe Prowler\u201d is a surprisingly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,12],"tags":[477,703,752,840,950,1012,1087,1111,1186],"class_list":["post-16960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grindhouse-review-fest","category-movie-reviews","tag-horror","tag-mystery","tag-p","tag-revenge","tag-slasher","tag-survival","tag-thriller","tag-tom-savini","tag-whodunit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16962,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16960\/revisions\/16962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}