Review of Prowl (2010) by Robert B — 23 Dec 2011

Prowl (Patrik Syversen, 2010).

Surprisingly less-than-awful (though still not good) After Dark original that treads some very, very worn ground and still manages to find a few new things to keep the audience's interest. There's nothing in here you haven't seen before, but at least you haven't seen some of it presented in quite this way.

Plot: Amber (Salt's Courtney Hope) is sick of small-town life and is desperate to get out. So when she has a chance to rent an apartment in Chicago, she takes it, and convinces five of her friends to come along to help her unload the van: Suzy (Miss Conception's Ruta Gedmintas), Peter (Revenge's Joshua Bowman), Fiona (Hamlet's Perdita Weeks), Ray (London Boulevard's Jamie Blackley), and Veronica (Conspiracy Theory's Saxon Trainor). Needless to say, since this is a horror film, the van breaks down in the middle of nowhere, and the six of them are stranded until a helpful truck driver (Passenger 57's Bruce Payne) comes along to offer them a ride. Only problem is, it's not a ride to where they want to go...

The best thing about this flick, to me, is the fact that our main characters are actually sort of intelligent, at least compared to the drooling morons who normally end up as monster food in horror movies. The scene where the six of them are negotiating the details of their ride with the truck driver is the kind of thing you never see in a horror film. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like it in any other film, for that matter. The kids are smart, they're circumspect, they know how to get along in today's society. Not that that helps them, but let's face it, stranger danger takes on a whole new meaning when you're dealing with monsters. It also helps that the main characters are all at least well-acted, with a couple of them really standing out (Hope and Gedmintas, and I don't say this just because of the truth-or-dare scene... though I'll admit it sure helped.).

Balancing that out is the fact that, as I mentioned previously, this territory has been sniffed over by a whole lotta dogs before, and many of them have left their mark; this is even true of the Big Twist Ending(TM), so when you're watching this and you think you know what's coming next, well, you're probably right. Still, it's an enjoyable way to turn your brain off for an hour and a half, and a great excuse for popcorn consumption. **.