Slasher Stop-off - The Prowler (1981)

Yeah, I still have some of the same feelings as I did the numerous times I watched Joseph Zito’s “The Prowler” (1981) in the past: the plot holes (where does Major Chapman go? Why does Zito shoot the couple making out in the basement only to never show them again? How does the killer take a complete shotgun blast directly to the chest, get back up and kill the helpful local caretaker, physically fight with Vicky Dawson’s Pam, and what the fuck is with that ending in the shower of the victim with the white eyes reaching for Pam?) drive me nuts. Why does the victim getting the bayonet to the skull (it goes all the way through his chin) even have white eyes much less survive throughout the night to reach for Pam? Or was his reaching out for Pam nothing but a waking nightmare? About Lawrence Tierney’s Major Chapman…why would Zito introduce this guy in one brief scene looking out his window and one more temporarily in a wheelchair grabbing Pam’s arm, not letting go? And why would Chapman want to hurt Pam? How about we get something explaining what is going in his mind, some words from him explaining his pain at losing his daughter, Rosemary? How about explaining where he goes once Deputy Mark London (Christopher Goutman) goes back to find him after Pam tells him about her harrowing experience with the scary guy in fatigues, mask, and helmet…how does someone who is an invalid get around? Did the killer help him get around? And why would the killer do that if he was responsible for killing Chapman’s daughter. The running time is 85 minutes…surely you could have afforded five more minutes to give to Major Chapman to explain his role beyond being a poorly defined grieving, angry father who never speaks and only is mentioned as some peeper looking out his window. The film spends a lot of time at Chapman’s house, that’s for sure. And the couple going into the basement…I get they wanted to go someplace absent the party upstairs but why should any of us give a shit? It does look like a scene we do often see in slasher films: couple making out gets killed after sex. Was Zito playing against the trope? I just don’t know. Perhaps Zito was.

I’m really not a slasher fuddy-duddy. But I couldn’t help but feel the film is incomplete. Or it was not quite fleshed out during the scripting phase. Some have added a commentary on PTSD and how trauma caused the killer (revealed to be the sheriff, played by Farley Granger, who is in it maybe ten minutes tops) to react with violence. The girl leaving the soldier serving his country for the guy who is around, responding by killing them both with a pitchfork while they are making out away from a graduation dance. For 30 years there was no graduation dance due to the murders, with that changing in 1980. Pam is a big part of the dance returning and soon joining her boyfriend, the deputy left in charge when the sheriff “goes a fishing”, in a search for the killer.

I could say just see this for the Savini effects and that’s it but I do think Dawson is very good (and just lovely) in the lead, ably supported by Goutman, who is an adult. Both are mature characters trying to get to the bottom of the Army Fatigues Psycho. The soft lighting decision by Zito and cinematographer João Fernandes gives this film a visual hook with an effective score from Richard Einhorn that isn’t mimicking Manfredini, instead all of the professionalism heightens a film that could have been just a trashy exploitation flick readymade for 42^nd Street…and that is actually perhaps perfect for many longing for such a flick. I think what the look and score do is make up for the some of the script’s shortcomings.

Savini does deserve his own paragraph. The pickax murder of Dunsheath cannot be understated…her cries of terror and pain as the killer buries those prongs in deep really sell the murder as something quite potent and shocking. The knife to her boyfriend’s head and its immediate ferocious impact is also quite jarring. The eyes are something I’m always rather puzzled about but he does look like Darby Jones from “I Walked With a Zombie” so there is this eek quality to it that unsettles. The blade to the throat of swimming Weintraub (who was stirring up trouble by dancing with Mark, drawing the ire of Pam) Savini perfects as the magician that he is, with the killer moving it as the wound from the neck oozes into the water…you see the slit of the throat even bubbling blood underwater! Then Donna Davis’ Miss Allison, the dance’s adult planner, gets the blade stabbed into her gullet, held in place after trying to make sure no students were outside. The shotgun head explosion of the killer after shotgun blasts are traded with blood spatter on walls for extra effect taps this whole gore enterprise off.

I have seen all my problems with the film defended in the past, and I can see why fans of “The Prowler” do come to its defense because Savini's (and the main two leads) work is so good. He’s no doubt the main hero of the film for slasher purists. But the film has strong qualities going for it. The setup I also quite like and there is a reason that drives the killer to go on the spree. A trigger that pushes the killer over the edge. So I have issues with it but also understand why it is so beloved by slasher fans.