31 Years, 31 Screams: #29 - The Prowler
Posted by J.D. Dunn on 10.03.2004
The film that shocked America!
The Prowler (1982)
D:Joseph Zito W:Neal F. Barbera, Glenn Leopold Starring:Vicky Dawson, Christopher Goutman, Lawrence Tierney and Farley Granger. MPAA: [NR] Runtime: 89m.
The Film:
Seems like I've been doing a lot of films from 1981. Well, considering the glut of slashers in the wake of Friday the 13th's success, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
The Prowler seems like just another routine "Friday" clone, and it is. But as I quoted when I started this, it's the style of the film that makes them good or bad. With Joseph Zito (Friday the 13th, Part 4: The Final Chapter) at the helm, and Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead) doing special effects, this one has style to burn.
We open with a newsreel showing the veterans returning from WWII. The narrator tells us that shellshocked veterans will have to learn again how to fit into U.S. society, and for those who received "Dear John" letters, they will have to do it alone.
A girl named "Rosemary" has written one such letter to her boyfriend. She tells him that they can still be friends. Rosemary (Joy Glaccum) goes to the graduation dance with another man, Roy (Timothy Wahrer). The two go off to the gazebo to make out, but someone sneaks up and impales both of them with a pitchfork. He lays a single rose in her dead hand. So begins the mystery of Avalon Bay.
It's 35 years later, Avalon Bay is preparing for the first dance since that fateful night. Pam Macdonald (Vicky Dawson) stops by the sheriff's office to discuss the dance with Deputy Mark London (Christopher Goutman) and Sheriff George Fraser (Hitchcock fave Farley Granger). She says she's worried about Major Chatham (Lawrence Tierney) who has objected to holding a graduation dance because Rosemary was his daughter.
Fraser says that he's confident Mark can take care of things. So confident, in fact, that he's still going on his annual fishing trip and leaving Mark in charge. He also tells them that someone robbed a store in a nearby town, cut up the clerk, and stole his car. Fraser says the police there think the bandit is headed for Avalon Bay.
Before leaving, Sheriff Fraser stops at a convenience store. He runs into Otto (Bill Hugh Collins), a local semi-retarded man who works at the store. The store owner is barking for him to take Major Chatham his order. The sheriff gives Otto a long distrustful look.
Pam confides in her friend Sherry (Lisa Dunsheath) that she's worried about Mark because that robber is on his way to town. Sherry says that she should just go to the dance to get her mind off things. The other roommate Lisa (Cindy Weintraub) catches Major Chatham looking at them from his window and flashes him.
As Pam gets ready for the dance, we see someone else getting ready as well by putting on full military garb. We'll call him "The Prowler" for simplicity's sake.
Sherry is still in the shower. She says she's going to wait for her boyfriend to pick her up and that they should go on without her. Someone walk into the room while she's in the shower and PULLS BACK THE SHOWER DOOR---It's just her boyfriend Carl (David Sederholm). He says he wants to get in the shower with her and goes out to undress.
Suddenly, the killer jumps out from behind him and plunges a bayonet deep into his head. It's so deep that it comes through Carl's throat. (This is a particularly gruesome death, courtesy Savini.)
Sherry sees someone through the frosted glass of the shower door. She assumes it's Carl and tells him to hurry up. The door slides open, and she sees The Prowler standing there with a pitchfork. He plunges it into her stomach and lifts her up, pinning her against the wall.
At the dance, Lisa pulls Mark away to dance while Lisa is forced to serve punch. Pam gets upset that Mark was having so much fun with Lisa. Lisa thinks it's funny and bumps into Mark, accidentally spilling his punch all over Pam's dress. Pam leaves change into a new dress.
Pam comes home to find the shower still going. She assumes Sherry and Carl are still having fun in there, so she closes the door. However, the killer is actually still in the shower, placing a rose on Sherry's face. Pam is in such a hurry to get out that she doesn't notice Carl's blood stains running down the sheets.
Pam walks down the stairs but realizes she's being followed. She looks up and sees The Prowler at the top of the stairs. She runs down the hall to a locked door. She desperately tries to get the hook lock undone as The Prowler calmly walks down the hall toward her (shades of Halloween!) Pam makes it out alive, but a hand comes out of the bushes and grabs her -- it's Major Chatham in his wheelchair. She pulls away from him and runs around the corner right into Mark.
Mark offers to have a look around. He scans the bushes with his flashlight. The Prowler steps into the shadows to observe Mark. Mark bends down and picks up Pam's purse. The Prowler seems to be creeping up on him. Pam, meanwhile, sits alone in Mark's jeep. He surprises her by yanking open the door to give her the purse. She asks him to go check on Sherry and Carl. Mark goes back, but assumes everything is okay when he finds the door locked and the shower is still running.
Mark says they should go to Major Chatham's to ask him what he was doing out there. It's dark and there is no answer, so Mark decides to go in and make sure Chatham is okay. What Mark and Pam don't know is that The Prowler is inside, hiding in the shadows. Pam finds a picture of Chatham's daughter, Francis. Mark goes upstairs to look around. Pam takes the opportunity to go through Chatham's stuff and discovers a scrapbook with a pressed rose and a picture of Rosemary. Mark finds that everything upstairs has been covered with sheets.
He comes downstairs, and Pam tells him that the killer must have been someone from town who knew that she was called "Rose" and not Frances. She also says that she thinks it's the same person who chased her. Mark thinks she's nuts, but knows something is wrong so they go to the dance to make sure everyone's okay.
At the dance, Lisa gets mad at her sick boyfriend and leaves for a dip in the pool. Mark and Pam tell the chaperone Miss Allison (Donna Davis) to have everyone stay there. Lisa is already in the pool, though, so she doesn't hear Miss Allison's announcement about The Prowler. As Lisa tries to get out of the pool, The Prowler grabs her and slices her throat in a long, slow stroke. Blood spills into the pool.
Miss Allison finds out about Lisa and goes out to find her. She sees some blood at the side of the pool, but before she can tell anyone, the killer grabs her and shoves the bayonet through her throat.
Lisa's boyfriend Paul makes a scene with the chaperones. Mark has to arrest him and take him to the jailhouse. Concerned citizen Kingsley stops at the station to tell Mark that some kids are screwing around in the cemetery and the gate is wide open. Mark and Pam decide to check it out.
Mark leaves Pam in the jeep and goes into the cemetery to check things out. He finds that someone has dug up one of the graves and left the coffin askew. Pam, meanwhile, is getting nervous just sitting out in the jeep. She looks out the window and is horrified by Otto leaning in at her. Mark runs to her rescue, but Otto is gone. Mark tells her about the excavated grave.
They return to the gravesite and realize that someone is still in the coffin. Mark climbs into the grave and yanks the coffin open to find…Lisa's body. It turns out that it's Rosemary's grave. Mark and Pam rush back to the station and call Sheriff Fraser at his motel. The desk clerk can't be bothered to go look for Fraser, though. He's too busy playing Solitaire.
Mark calls the State Police and finds out that they caught the man who robbed the store three hours earlier. Pam says that whoever killed Rosemary all those years ago is the same one who killed Lisa. Mark tries to drop Pam off on the way to Chatham's, but she won't have it.
They break into Chatham's house for the second time. Mark goes upstairs. Pam stays downstairs to look around and the lights suddenly go out. Mark is about to check the fuse when he gets knocked out by the Prowler.
The lights come back up, so Pam assumes Mark fixed the fuse. She sees a necklace dangling from the fireplace and tries to pull it out to look at it. As she does, the skeleton of Rosemary Chatham comes falling down out of the chimney.
Pam runs to the nearest door, but when she opens it, she finds The Prowler standing there with a rose. He tells her that he's ready for their date. Pam runs upstairs and hides in the room where everything is covered with sheets. The Prowler comes upstairs, so Pam hides under a bed with a sheet draped over it. The Prowler starts turning things over with his pitchfork. Pam tries to maintain her silence, even though a rat has scurried past her head (A scene almost identical to "Friday the 13th, Part 2, minus the urination.)
Pam senses him getting closer to her, and she darts out into another room. The Prowler breaks into the room with her and is about to cut her with a knife when Otto bursts in and shoots him in the leg. It turns out that Otto is a gentle giant after all. Unfortunately, The Prowler isn't dead and he has a gun. He blows Otto's guts all over the wall. Pam quickly shoves the pitchfork into his back, but even that isn't enough to stop The Prowler.
He forces Pam to the ground and pulls off his mask…IT'S SHERIFF FRASER. As they struggle over his shotgun, Pam manages to point it under him and pull the trigger. Fraser's head is blown to pieces (thanks, again, to Savini).
The next day, Mark takes Pam back to her dorm. She realizes that the shower is still running. She enters the bathroom and finds Carl hanging there where Fraser left him. Suddenly, Carl's hand reaches out and grabs at Pam. It was just her imagination, though. Pam looks again and sees that Carl is dead.
ROLL CREDITS.
The 411: "The Prowler" is a criminally underrated slasher film. It could almost be considered a companion piece to the "Friday the 13th" films if it weren't so superior to those sequels. With all the similarities between this film and F13th, Part 2, one wonders if there was a double agent somewhere at Paramount. This film manages to far exceed the Paramount version, though, because of the direction of Zito, a plausible script, and a game cast. The real star of the show, of course, is Tom Savini's effects, guaranteed to disturb even the most ardent gorehound. "The Prowler" has finally been released on DVD in 2002 and even includes a hilarious commentary track by Zito and Savini. If you're a slasher fan, it's definitely worth a rental and probably worth purchasing. B
