The Prowler

The Prowler (1981), directed by Joseph Zito, Blue Underground remaster, encoded in 10 bit HEVC with AAC sound, including 7.1 remaster, original theatrical mono, commentary track, and English, French, and Spanish subtitles.

IMDb : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082951/

Video encoded in two-pass 10.5 Mbps x265 10bit with the veryslow preset for archive quality image.

English subtitles OCRed, proofed and corrected. German, French and Spanish subtitles converted to VobSub and repositioned.

Note : Here's another classic slasher, a nasty, exploitative number by exploitation director Joseph Zito, with special makeup effects by Tom Savini. The film in itself is passable, the story isn't much to write home about, the acting decent, but what stands out are really Savini's SFX, which are some of the best he's done, I think, relentlessly realistic and explicit, gory without being ridiculous. There's graphic pitchfork impalement, throat slitting, stabbing and exploding heads (not quite as epic as the one in Scanners, but still), as well as at least some nudity. Worth watching for slasher fans and gorehounds, definitely.

A small New Jersey town is preparing for its first college graduation dance in 35 years, after a grisly double murder at a dance right after WWII shocked the town out of the habit. The local sheriff is going fishing for the weekend, leaving his deputy in charge, and the deputy's girlfriend is part of a group of students at the graduation dance, not all of whom are as chaste and well-behaved as she is. Of course, the killer from 35 years ago, a man clad in military fatigues and carrying a pitchfork, as well as various other weapons, does not approve of the dance, and red herrings and misdirections abound as to his identity while he slashes his way through the student body.

This is a fine looking remaster, a bit grainy, perhaps, and the cinematography seems to be a bit soft and flary to begin with, but it's not overly distracting. The 7.1 remaster sounds good, the original theatrical mono is punchy and clear if that's more your preference, and the commentary track with director Zito and Tom Savini is very worthwhile, since both of them clearly had a lot of fun with this.

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