PROWL-2011 (After Dark Originals)

Featured Creature: VAMPIRE




After Dark Productions releases: they are like firing a handgun blindly on a shooting range. In other words, most of them completely miss their mark…but sometimes they manage to actually hit the target.

Such is the case with PROWL—and the movie not only manages to do the impossible and actually hit its mark, but in this case it deals a lethal headshot. PROWL is a lean, mean, aggressive little flick, and this reviewer was honestly blown away by what it managed to accomplish with what little it had.

Though it was relatively low-budget, PROWL succeeds by thinking smart. Nowadays the thing that kills most horror films is how dumb they treat the audience. While PROWL does occasionally lapse into the trite and clichéd, for the most part it is a movie that actually thinks before it does. It starts off slowly, casually building up characters, giving the viewer a chance to actually connect with them for once. It does a pretty decent job doing so too; writer Tim Tori does an especially notable job making us care for PROWL’s protagonist, Amber. All she wants to do is get out of her hometown, a small place located somewhere between Nowhereland and Dullsville. She recruits her friends to come with her apartment-hunting, and off they go to the big city…the only problem being that they never actually make it there. Car troubles (is there any other kind in a horror movie?) lead them to hitch a ride in the back of a semi truck headed for the city—and why not? The driver seems friendly enough (one of them is riding in front with him just to be safe), and they even go so far as to take pictures with their cell phones of the truck and driver, in case anything happens…What could possibly go wrong?

Well, you know, there is always the teensy-weensy problem of the semi’s cargo being cartons of blood…and from there on the movie is a non-stop and very bloody ride. Communication stops with everybody up in the truck’s cab, and before you know it our characters are dropped off at a desolate slaughterhouse with no way out. That is when the creatures start descending…

(NOTE: They never say or mention the word “vampire” in the movie, but the creatures drink blood and, uh, roar. Resembling the 30 DAYS OF NIGHT vampires, these monsters hunt and stalk their prey…but they also talk like normal human beings. One problem I had with the movie was the way they so easily transition from roaring and screeching to talking perfectly normal; it is never made clear why. To this reviewer it killed the tension: one scene has our heroine being rapidly chased by a “creature” who is seemingly roaring its voice out; a few seconds later it is practically having a normal talk with her. It bugged me, and the audience I was in did not seem to like the switch very much. Changing from bloodthirsty monster to bloodthirsty conversationalist only succeeded in irritating the audience.)



Still, the movie has a lot going for it. Director Patrik Syversen (MANHUNT) keeps the action—especially in the second act--energized, frenetic, and gory, and almost never drops the pace. The movie’s kills come quickly and swiftly, the vamp—excuse me, creatures attacking in frenzied blurs of blood and screams. (When PROWL is released on DVD March 28th, I can only imagine what it will sound like in surround sound; the theatre I watched it in played it loud and proud, the screaming filling the room and effectively managing to keep the audience on edge.)

Props must be given to editor Celia Haining; the movie is literally always moving. I do not think I have ever seen a movie’s cuts move quicker…and although I liked it, I know a ton of people find that kind of editing annoying. But while the hyper hand-held camera movements do occasionally become overdone (most likely done due to the low budget) PROWL’s kill scenes all come loaded with enough guts to satisfy any horror fan.

Lead actress Courtney Hope does much better than expected (for a movie like this, anyway) as Amber, she brings the role to life from the start and never lets the viewer prove otherwise. Ruta Gedmintas also carries her own weight throughout the movie as her and Amber try to outrun the horde; the film is very much Hope’s game though. The rest of the supporting cast are good at doing what is expected of them (namely, being introduced and dying) and genre-regular Bruce Payne is menacing enough as the semi truck driver. Standing out is Saxon Trainor, who plays the creature’s leader—having never heard of her before, it was surprising to see her command the screen in her small role. (She is a better vampire leader than any of those Volturi in Twilight!)



After a strong, character-orientated beginning and a brutally charged and grisly middle section, PROWL reaches its end: and in it makes its biggest mistake. Up until now the movie is for the most part, pretty dang smart, but the finale throws a predictable third-act “twist” into the mix…and there was not a person in the audience who did not see it coming. Heck, one of the people I saw it with turned around half an hour into the movie and told me what she thought it was—and she was right. It does not kill the movie, but after doing so much right it does hurt its final impression.

So should you watch PROWL? Even with its flaws, the answer is still an astounding YES! The movie is not the perfect creature-feature--but even for a low budget film, it is scary, gory, and overall a blast. Everyone I saw it with agreed that even with its ending, it was much better than just about every horror film that was released into theaters last year; it puts all of the recent remakes and sequels dominating theaters to shame. PROWL is a genuine thrills-and-chills kind of movie, perfect for viewing with friends. Somewhat intelligent but always fun, it deserved much more attention than the one-week limited theatrical release it got. Every horror fan should give PROWL a shot!


GRADE: B