Trailer
Plot summary
In 1945 in the seaside town of Avalon Bay, Rosemary Chatham writes to her soldier boyfriend that she cannot wait for him any longer. That June she attends the graduation dance with her new boyfriend Roy, and the two slip away to a lakeside gazebo, where a prowler in an army combat uniform kills them both with a pitchfork and leaves a red rose. Thirty-five years pass before the town holds another graduation dance. College senior Pam MacDonald helps arrange the ball. Sheriff George Fraser, who is leaving for a fishing trip, puts his deputy Mark London in charge. Word has reached Avalon of a prowler in the nearby town of Columbus, and Pam worries for Mark's safety. Major Chatham, an invalid veteran, has long opposed the celebrations.
Cast
- Bill Nunneryas Hotel Clerk
- Donna Davisas Miss Allison
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Prowler (1981)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Released in Australia and Europe as Rosemary's Killer in a cut that excised much of Tom Savini's gore, the German version, Die Forke des Todes, removed every gore scene, including the killer's unmasking, and replaced Richard Einhorn's score with synthesizer music plus bird sounds by day and crickets by night.
- Tom Savini designed the film's elaborate murder effects, and because the death scenes were so effects-intensive the shooting schedule was built around them, with whole days dedicated to filming a single death sequence.
- Director Joseph Zito first wanted to shoot in Avalon, California, where the film is set, but chose Cape May, New Jersey instead, feeling it had a "ghost town quality".
- Farley Granger was cast through his connection to the wife of an executive producer, with whom he was enrolled in an acting course.
- In 2017 Complex named The Prowler the 24th-best slasher film of all time; Paste later put it on its list of the 50 best slasher movies, and LA Weekly ranked the film's killer the 11th-greatest slasher villain.
