 Hello and welcome to another episode of Frightfully Forgotten Horror Movies. Before we get started, what are we drinking? Today we're drinking Crawl Space Colch. Today we're going to bring to you 1981's The Prowler, directed by Joe Zito. He did Missing an Action, he comes out of the river, and he also did Friday the 13th, the final chapter. This movie stars Farley Granger, and he's kind of an accomplished veteran actor at this point in his career, and he was in a couple of Hitchcock movies, Rope and Strangers on a Train. Also alongside with him is Christopher Goutman, he hasn't really done much acting, but he went on to direct like soap operas. This next actor we're going to mention because he's in one of our other favorite horror movies, and that's Tom Bray, and he is also in Prince of Darkness. So the movie starts off, we see like all this old World War II stock footage. The war is over, troops are returning home. Just a picture of a letter, and it's a Dear John letter, or a John Deere letter. The letter reads out that girl Rosemary, she's breaking up with her boyfriend at the time. Who's out at war? He cuts to a graduation dance that's happening. Rosemary is there, and she kind of has a new bow, a new man. Working quick. Yeah. He wants to work quick too, so you know, he's like, let's go to the point. They start kissing. All you hear is just, and it's like two footsteps, and they look up and ding! Pitchfork goes right through the guy. You see his foot go on to the pitchfork, and you hear it as it goes through her too. On top of the scene, he leaves a red rose. The movie fast forwards to 1980, so it's about 35 years later. School dances have been canceled for all those years, and they decide to have one again. It's been introduced to one of the main female leads, and it's Pam. Deputy Mark London pulls Pam to the side. We learned that there was a burglary that happened out of town, and so Mark London came by just to warn the girls. The sheriff in town is leaving for his vacation, for his fishing trip, heading up river. He's leaving Mark London in charge while he's away. It's the night of the dance. It shows the prowler start to gear up. So you know something's going down. When Pam's friend is in her dorm getting ready, and she gets visited by her boyfriend, prowler makes his first appearance, and is a great kill where he takes his bayonet and shoves it right through the top of the guy's head, and it comes out in the bottom. Goes after the girl taking a shower, puts a pitchfork right through her chest. Back at the dance, Pam, she ends up getting some punch spilled on her dress. Punch that has been heavily spiked, mind you. Yeah, with some big 60 of vodka. By this guy who's already pissed drunk before the thing even starts. She goes back to her dorm to change. You think she's going to find a dead body, but she doesn't. And as she's leaving her dorm, you see like this shadow of the prowler kind of coming towards her. It's a really cool chase scene that happens where the prowler is chasing her through the floors of the dorm. She runs outside and actually has to go by Major Chatham's house, and she gets grabbed by Major Chatham, who's for some reason just like outside in the dark in his wheelchair, just hanging out amongst the trees and bushes. She actually gets away and she runs into the deputy, Mark London. So they go on a little investigation to find out who this was that was chasing Pam. They actually go into Major Chatham's house and look through it. And it's a really cool scene because it's long, but it's tense. Nothing really happens, but it's just the way they build it up. In the meantime, more of Pam's friends keep getting killed off. One of the locals comes to deputy and tells the deputy that he had noticed some kids horsing around in the cemetery, and he's pretty pissed off about it. He's really kind of agitated. So Pam and Mark London go check it out. They stumble upon this one grave that has actually been dug up. So Mark jumps in and he opens up the casket, and they see it's one of their own friends. And then they look up to the gravestone and see that it's Rosemary Chatham's grave. Yeah, with a bunch of stuff scratched out. Obviously, this is all connected to Rosemary somehow. So they go back to her father's house, and that's where we're going to end it. So if you want to see what happens with Mark and Pam in Major Chatham and the prowler, keep watching if you haven't seen it. The backstory of this is really cool, right? I like how they use the war and it ties in with the killer. Did the war turn him into this? Yeah, he's got some sort of shell shock PTSD. Is it the same guy that Rosemary wrote the letter to in the beginning? Don't really know, right? The killer was made a killer by the government for war, and then he's coming back and he's doing what he was trained to do. Exactly. It's just kind of neat. And is it the same killer from 1945? Yeah, you don't know. Could be a different person. Exactly. That's another cool thing about the movie is the use of all the misdirection, right? Yes, in the mystery. It really is kind of a who done it in a way, yeah. The setting for this movie is really cool, especially when they have the flashback to 1945. I think they did a really good job of making it seem like it was in the 40s. Transcends into 1980 where this town doesn't really evolve that much, where the town still kind of seems like it's in the 40s in a way. This murder has put this cloud over the town and they have never really progressed. The camera work in this movie, I think, is really cool. And I think it really adds to, especially the chase scenes. Pam is being chased through the dorm. It's really cool how they use the quick cuts and the killer's point of view, the shadows and everything. It really, really helps build the tension. It makes you feel like he's just always on the verge of snatching her, right? And there's that really cool scene where it shows this POV and Pam's kind of trapped and she quickly kind of like almost runs past him this way to get through that doorway. And it's like, oh, it is closed, you know? One of the hallmarks of this movie is the kills, right? Defects are top notch. So the first kill obviously is the one with the pitchfork, right? The second is in the dorm, right? The two kids with the dorm that we mentioned. One of the girls takes a swim in the pool. Coming up out of the pool and she climbs up and then she looks up and sees him standing there as a great shot. Yeah, boots are right in the face. He comes up from behind her in the pool after and slits her throat and really digs the knife in deep. And you see him turning the knife too in her throat. Cuts always from like outside the water and then it cuts to under the water. Yeah, she's struggling. And you see the blood slowly start to kind of work its way through the water, all misty like, it's really neat. Yeah, it's cool. Then there's the poor woman who goes looking for her, right? And she notices all the blood in the pool and he's in the bushes and grabs her and uses bayonet and stabs her through the throat. There's one really cool misdirection scene where a couple goes off to go make out or whatever, get to send someone spying on them, is going to get them and nothing happens to them. They actually, as far as we know, don't get killed, which is neat because you assume that they are. Major Chatham is just spying on them and like, go whacking off or something, whacking in the woods. And there's one other really, really great death scene which we're not going to give away because part of the ending and it's a bit of a spoiler if you haven't seen the movie, but it is one of the favorite effects done by the master, Tom Savini, who did this movie. He did all the effects for this movie. Tom Savini actually played the prowler for the kill scene. So he was actually in the fatigues and everything during a kill scene to kind of like pull off the effect. The use of humor in this movie is very kind of subtle and in the right place where it's not trying to be funny all the time, but you know, there's a subtle things with that drunk guy spiking the punch. Right in the middle of the movie where everything's kind of intense, they break it up a little bit with that stupid hotel clerk. Oh my God. Which is like just kind of neat funny scene that's out of nowhere, but it doesn't take you completely out of the movie. Some asshole guy, fat lard ass guy, chewing this chewing tobacco. Yeah, I can take a message. Why are you giving him attitude? It's your fucking job. This one is really cool. If you're a fan of My Bloody Valentine, this is almost spot on My Bloody Valentine. It's very, very similar. It stands out because it's got a lot of charm and class. Yeah. Atmosphere. Lot of cool kills. Lot of cool, like the story is cool. It uses every cliche in the book, but it does it well and it works. Like we always say, keep drinking. Oh, I'm already done. Ha ha ha.