Death match… The Prowler versus My Bloody Valentine
-
startide77 — 16 years ago(December 26, 2009 05:37 PM)
MBV is good, much better than I thought it was when I first saw it, but The Prowler is superb, easily one of the best early 80s slashers. I don't really understand the need to compare the two of them, they both stand on their own as really good to excellent examples of the genre, and both should be championed by fans, not compared to see who is the better of the two, they're both good!
You can rest your mind at last, you've resolved the horrors past -
-
JessePomeroy — 15 years ago(July 12, 2010 08:33 AM)
MY BLOODY VALENTINE is a superior film on almost all counts, the only exception being THE PROWLER death scenes are better. The flaws with THE PROWLER are more than shallow characters, it's that the characters seem disjointed form each other, where the characters in MY BLOODY VALENTINE interact naturally like people who knew each other intimately. Both are decent stories and both utilize locations in adding color and depth.
I like them both, but MY BLOODY VALENTINE is a favorite I watch frequently whereas THE PROWLER gets a viewing maybe once a year or so. -
!!!deleted!!! (22250229) — 12 years ago(December 07, 2013 10:43 PM)
MBV, while not horrible by any stretch of the imagination, is brought down by some really embarrassing acting and a schmaltzy romance side story. I also found it at times pretty tedious and the bulk of the mine action at the end not nearly as suspenseful as I had previously thought. Pretry disappointing how certain rewatches of old favorites can really let you down over time.
The Prowler on the other hand is the complete opposite. A film I dug but not immensely improved substantially after the 3rd or 4th viewing. In addition to the great Gore it's actually one damn scary film!
Prowler all the way. -
SeanJoyce — 12 years ago(March 09, 2014 09:43 PM)
My Bloody Valentine
and it isn't even closean all-time slasher, with
The Prowler
being merely an average entry.
http://jmoneyyourhoney.filmaf.com/owned -
OpaqueOne — 11 years ago(May 22, 2014 09:29 PM)
My Bloody Valentine wins for me. Why? For several reasons:
Better story, better direction, more fleshed-out characters, and the romantic sub-plot matters to the film's climax.
The story in MBV is a more complete, as we're actually clued in later as to why the killer identifies with Harry Warden in adulthood, after seeing his father killed as a boy. He waited 20 years because he grew from a child into a man. 20 year anniversary = noteworthy. Why did Rosemary's Killer wait 35 years? He's now in his 50's. I don't buy 'the longer the better' because he's now starting to decline physically. Never quite explained.
The direction in MBV is more solid. The characters are not award winning but they have touches of personailty: the jokester who snorts soda, the brooding young man who returns to work in the mines, his rival, the girl torn between two men, etc. In The Prowler the characters had less to do, were cardboard and rather aimless, especially the deputy. The chief in MBV at least was acting somewhat rationally.
Subplot(s) in The Prowler go nowhere, as many have stated. In MBV, the love triangle is essential to the story and how it unfolds. The backstory isn't overdone, yet we know enough. The Prowler has a couple dead ends that dilute the film for no reason.
Finally, pacing is important, but in a slasher that's 89 minutes, suspense building needs to be brisk. In MBV we're either seeing characters move things forward or watching the killer do his thing. In The Prowler, it's stalkstalkstalkfalse scarestalkstalkfalse scare. This isn't a 2 hour psychological thriller (which I love, btw). I am not a short-attention spanned gorehound, (original Psycho my all time-favorite) but the setup WITHOUT the payoff happens too often in TP.