Retro Review: The Prowler

The Prowler is an obvious product of the 80's randomize generator of costumed serial killers slasher flicks. And speaking as a longtime fan of said sub-genre of horror, despite my negative feelings towards the more lackluster entries that came out in the wave of its heyday, it actually doesn't take too much to satisfy my entertainment needs for these movies. This is why The Prowler hits so low for me due to the fact that I found absolutely nothing interesting about the killer's origin, design, or overall screen presence. The killer is typically what sells the majority of these titles holding a lot of the audience's engagement throughout, and considering how severely dull our masked monster is being presented here, the overall experience suffers as a result. 

Now, with that being said, I do have to admit that my love for retro horror movie posters immediately kicked into high gear when I first saw the poster for this film. The dark shrouded face of the killer, the glaring full moon nighttime setting with the silhouette of a house sitting off into the background, and the unique all black military-like appearance of our central antagonist grappling onto a helpless and beautiful woman drew me in like a moth to a flame. Unfortunately, the execution of the character absolutely failed to live up to the mysterious element portrayed in the poster. It seriously felt like I was watching some random guy in a suit that he recently purchased from a Halloween store pretending to be creepy and utterly failing at it. 

Never did the killer seem remotely intimidating or scary in the slightest which took me right out of the supposed fear factor of the film. As for the actual shock value which of course plays another pivotal role in slasher flicks, the kill scenes are very forgettable and hardly invokes any sense of intensity or real terror. The guy basically uses a pitchfork (or a blade) to kill each of his victims which for me peaks up the boring ladder compared to other titles in its market. Although, I do have to give credit to the production team for introducing hilarious ways for people to die in this movie despite it not being a horror-comedy (would've worked better if it was). So, if the killer is a major fail overall as well as the majority of the kill scenes themselves, what else is there to possibly enjoy?

In this case, we do get a surprisingly not awful female lead (now I'm just stretching for positives at this point). The deputy character is also pretty decent primarily due to the fact that he at least tries to be useful unlike your typical easily expendable police side character. Overall, there's really nothing worth mentioning in the film's story, direction, style, or performances rendering it to be an easily forgettable watch. I'm also happy to say that I've finally watched it as the poster would've constantly attracted my curiosity and nagged on my mind for years. Now, I can simply just enjoy the poster as a work of art ignoring the atrocity that it's attached to.

Rating: 2/10