31 Nights of Horror The Prowler

Platform: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Joseph Zito

Release Year: 1981

Watch Date: October 7, 2023

My Rating: 3.8

Um….what did I just watch. There are so many plot holes. The acting was terrible. And the script……(blows raspberries).

In 1945 a girl “Dear John”s her soldier boyfriend and then she and her new boyfriend are killed with a pitchfork while they make-out in a gazebo after a Senior dance at the college. No dances are allowed for the next 30 years because the father of Whateverhernameis, who goes by Rosemary or Rose, won’t allow it. Then he retires and the school is having their first reestablished dance. Only, scantily clad girls (and one boy…..but only because he is with the targeted girl) begin dying. Enter the plot holes. How does he pick who is going to die?

The two main characters are Pam and Sheriff’s Deputy Mike. The Sheriff is out of town fishing and left even though there was a prowler in the next town over. Pam is stalked by the murderer and runs into “The Major” (Whatshername’s dad) who grabs her but doesn’t speak. He is wheelchair bound. She gets away and runs into Mike.

They end up going to the Major’s house but find nothing. Then they end up at the grave yard where they find one of the dead girls in Whatshername’s coffin that has been dug up. I’m not sure what the purpose of that was….seriously, why take the time to do that? Pam and Mike end up back at the Major’s house and you see Mike get nocked down and the pitchfork hovering over his head. It’s obvious he wasn’t killed because there has been no hesitation to show gratuitous gore so far.

It ends up being Pam against the killer. As he is fighting with her over the sawed off shotgun (rolls eyes), he is struggling to breathe in his army uniform and mask and so he takes the mask off. Turns out it is the Sheriff, which I had guessed at the beginning because he was super adamant about going fishing even though there was a prowler in the next town that was headed their way. Hmmmmm……I don’t think fishing is more important than protecting the town.

Pam asks him why he did it and he didn’t answer her. It then looks like he fights to get the gun up under his chin and makes sure the trigger is pulled…..enter hours of impending therapy for Pam as she watches his head blow apart. So we are left to assume that he is the soldier that “Rose” dear Johned. So…..what happened to the Major? How did he get outside in the first place? Why was the Sheriff so triggered by a dance that it led him to murder one man and at least three women? Dumb.

I will not be watching this movie again.

Photo Credit: imdb.com