Directed by: Joseph Zito
Written by: Neal Barbera & Glenn Leopold
Starring: Vicky Dawson, Christopher Goutman, Lawrence Tierney, Farley Granger, Cindy Weintraub, Lisa Dunsheath, David Sederholm
Special makeup effects by: Tom Savini
Music by: Richard Einhorn
Taglines: “It will freeze your blood.”
“The human exterminator.”
“if you think you’re safe… you’re DEAD wrong!”
“the film that shocked America!”
STORY
A solider fighting in World War 2 receives a “Dear John” letter from Rosemary, his long-time girlfriend, saying that she cannot wait for him any longer and needs the end the relationship. At a college dance in 1945, Rosemary and her new boyfriend are murdered by a masked killer with a pitchfork.
Since that event, all graduation celebrations have been banned, however the college feels it’s time to move on and resume celebrations. However, a masked killer is still stalking the grounds and resumes murdering students.
OPINION
The Prowler was one of my nice surprise movies of the last decade, not having seen it until a few years ago. In fact, I hadn’t even heard of it until I started reading about it in a few UK horror magazines in the late ’90s, and only then under it’s alternative title Rosemary’s Killer (the title I personally prefer, for what it’s worth). On the face of it, this is just another one of the many imitators that followed in the wake of the original Friday the 13th. There are two things that really set it apart, however. One is the fact that the effects are performed by none other than Tom Savini, who has cited this as his best work – strong words from such a legend! The second is that Joseph Zito knows what he’s doing – so much so that he was invited to direct Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter on the strength of this film alone.
After a short introduction where we see the Dear John letter, we start the movie in an impressively mounted sequence set in 1945, culminating with the double murder of Rosemary and her lover. This sequence is convincingly set up, with the actions and look of the cast keeping in touch with the setting. In fact, this helps make the ultimate death sequence even more shocking.
From there we flash forward to the present day (i.e. the early 80s), where a new prom is taking place. As the female students run back and forth to their dorm room, they start to become victims of a mysterious killer dress in visually striking army fatigues, and largely armed with a pitchfork that looks rather similar to the weapon in the opening sequence.
Under control of a lesser hand, this could actually be a problem. Plot-wise, there’s not much to chew on, but Zito keeps things moving and never lets things get bogged down or boring. Even though the bulk of the movie happens over a single night, we manage to get shower scenes, pool scenes and various different stalk and slash sequences, along with decent levels of gore. While the central conceit is a little thin, it’s great to see some well-realised period detail in the opening sequence, as well as a plot that doesn’t revolve around a group of kids on a camping trip or any of the other over-used tropes of the genre at the time.
It’s no surprise that Zito was picked for what was then supposed to be the finale of the Friday The 13th on the strength of this, but unfortunately he never returned to the genre afterwards. His credits since then consist of a handful of cheesy 80s action movies made for Cannon (including guilty pleasure Chuck Norris vehicle Invasion U.S.A.) and a couple of direct-to-DVD movies made a little more recently. A shame, as he’s a talented guy and should have done more, but I’ll have to check out his previous slasher movie Bloodrage at some point to complete my Zito slasher knowledge.
CENSORSHIP
The Prowler was released in the UK under the alternative title of Rosemary’s Killer and suffered various cuts including “a pitchfork into the stomach, a carving knife plunged through the top of a man’s head and then slowly withdrawn, and a woman’s throat being sawn with a knife in a swimming pool”.
I haven’t been able to find a great deal of information about the exact reason why, but the movie was not available officially on UK VHS and only surfaced in 2007 on DVD. I don’t believe that it was officially banned nor part of the infamous “video nasty” list. However, it’s quite likely that nobody bothered submitting it to the BBFC during that age of moral panic, especially considering that its main selling point was Savini’s gore effects – which would definitely have been cut out in that era. I have seen evidence of a pre-cert tape, but no further info – please let me know in the comments if I’m wrong about anything here!
There are 2 main versions available – the UK DVD under the Rosemary’s Killer title, and the US Blue Underground release. This is a region 0 release, so is preferred as it contains a commentary track from Zito and Savini.
Rating: 
TRAILER