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Thursday, April 14, 2011

[4.75/10] Prowl (2011)


Prowl (2011)

Brief review: Released on the same date as "Husk", "Prowl" is yet another mediocre 'Original' brought by After Dark Films. Although it starts out quite promising, and its first half is watchable-to-very good, as soon as the real horror starts, the film quickly turns into a chaotic mess with zero logical coherence, where nothing is ever fully explained. Furthermore, the twist in the end is so ridiculously anti-climatic, it totally destroys the rest of the movie, instead of being shocking and effective. Even though "Prowl" has some heart-pounding moments and a couple of boo scares, it's not neither as frightening, nor as tense as it thinks it is. The deaths are nasty and well-executed and the gore effects are rather impressive, but the attack scenes are so poorly-edited, and the lighting is so awful, you can barely see what's happening on the screen. The largely unknown young cast do very well in realistically portraying their characters in situations, with Ruta Gedmintas being the standout. Shot on limited budget in Bulgaria, "Prowl" is just okay, visually. The abandoned warehouse is grim and kinda creepy, and the washed-out cinematography and the muted color palette suits the dark tone of the film, though at the end, it all feels a bit flat, lackluster and lifeless.

Overall summary: Although this 'After Dark' Original offers plenty of gore, some thrills and a couple of jump-of-your-seat scares, its formulaic plot, poor script and ridiculous conclusion completely ruin the film, and as a result "Prowl" ends up being a jumbled mess of nonsense.

16 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Adding it to my 'skip' list.

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Alex, I wish I would have done the same thing ;)

Unknown said...

Oh come now, where's your sense of macabre fun? This was a hilarious good time because I could not take it seriously. Of course, it just might have been the bottle of Moscato my friend and I were sharing. Wine goggles and everything's all good. :)

I agree with the ridiculous conclusion. WTH? Thorough summation as always. I enjoy when you shred a film.

FilmMattic said...

Looks precisely like a movie I'll avoid like the plague. Thanks for saving me, at least $10!

Solid review, nonetheless!

Andrew said...

I can't resist the intriguing cover art, and the fact that this movie is called "Prowl"....
I love that word. PROWL. It's so guttural.

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Mel, I didn't take it seriously either /I never do/, but didn't enjoy it as much as you did. The second half was so bad, and The Blood Suckers' Mistress was so ridiculous, I couldn't wait it to end. LOL. Loved the first half, though. Mel, sweetheart, you probably enjoyed it, because of the wine. I should have had a glass, too. I could have helped. LOL. :)

It was ridiculous, wasn't it? WTF?! The screwed up everything with this stupid ending.

Thanks, hon, glad you liked it.

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Matty, thanks, buddy.

Avoid this one at all costs. It was a mess.. a big one :)

You're welcome, buddy. Glad I was able to save you some money with this review ;)

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Andrew, loved the poster and the title too, but unfortunately, the film itself doesn't live up to its great title. Prowl sounds quite nasty to me ;)

Ricky said...

Yeah, Husk was pretty poor too so I'll avoid this one.

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Ricky, "Prowl" was a notch better than "Husk", but still poor.

FilmMattic said...

The Marvelous Movie Man, I award you the "Versatile Blogger Award." Come pick it up @ my blog!

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Matty, thanks for the award, buddy. I really appreciate it :)

✗✗ said...

Awe that sucks!! I used to enjoy these After Dark films. I liked the campiness feel they used to give but now it seems like these films are just bad. Thanks for the heads up on this one! : )

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Nicole, yeah, it sucked. It wasn't as terrible as I expected it to be, but still pretty poor. It could have been a pretty decent horror flick, if they hadn't screw everything up with the stupid conclusion.

~ CR@B Howard ~ said...

Literally just finished watching this myself, review to come, think I liked it a smidgen more than you did, but I agree it wasn't as great as it could have been.

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Cr@b Howard, hello, and welcome to my blog.

I didn't think it was terrible, but the climax was so off, it ruined the rest of this otherwise watchable horror flick. Thanks for the comment.