Film Review: Prowl (2010)

SYNOPSIS:

Amber dreams of escaping her small town existence and persuades her friends to accompany her to find an apartment in the big city. When their transportation breaks down, she and her friends gratefully accept a ride in the back of a semi. But when the driver refuses to stop and they discover the cargo is hundreds of cartons of blood, they panic. Their panic turns to terror when the truck disgorges them into a dark, abandoned warehouse where blood-thirsty creatures learn to hunt human prey, which, the friends realize, is what they now are…

REVIEW:

Director – Patrik Syversen
Starring – Ruta Gedmintas, Joshua Bowman, Courtney Hope

Prowl is a solid horror movie that while not overly original per se, still manages to keep the viewer entertained to the very end. Brought to you by After Dark Originals, this low budget horror film tells the tale of a young girl from a small town who will do anything to escape to the big city. If only she knew how much of an adventure it would be.

Courtney Hope plays Amber, the aforementioned small town girl who dreams of life in the big city. She’s your typical small town teen who just so happens to work in a butcher shop. And has visions of running scared through the woods. And being attacked by a creature. Okay, so maybe she’s not that normal.

At any rate, at least her friends are. Their biggest concern on a weekend is drinking and getting high. But not Amber. She’s got a plan and an apartment all lined up in Chicago. The problem is she needs to get there right away or the apartment and all of her dreams will go down the proverbial drain. But without a car, how is she going to get there? All of her friends have cars but for various reasons can’t drive them right now. Except for one. Sure it’s a beat-up van, but wheels are wheels when you have a dream to chase.

So Amber and her friends pile on in and off they go. They just manage to reach the outskirts of town when surprise surprise, the van breaks down. Lucky for them a large semi happens to be passing by and pulls over to help them out. The driver is no mechanic and is unable to help them fix the van, but by golly he’ll give them a lift. He seems like a nice guy but they have some reservations.

One of Amber’s friends is rather smart as he lays down two conditions. First, one of them has to ride up front in the cab. Second, they will take pictures of him and the license plate so they can send their friends and family the info. Pretty darn smart for a horror movie character! Too bad it won’t make a bean of a difference. And it doesn’t take them very long to figure out that maybe they should’ve just called Triple A instead.

Overall I would have to say this is a very good movie. The pacing is quick and you won’t find yourself checking a clock to see when it’ll be over. Credit a solid script and above average acting, not to mention decent amounts of gore. The directing is well done most of the time save for one particular scene. It basically involves one massive attack sequence but for ninety percent of it the camera shakes and you have lots of choppy editing. What that all adds up to is one convoluted mess. Who’s attacking who? Who just bit the dust? And whose organs just splattered on the ground? It’s frustrating to watch as overall it is probably the best scene in the movie as far as tension, blood and scares go.

Courtney Hope stands out as Amber, the girl who wants nothing more than to escape small town life. Her eagerness to get out and the pain of realizing that it won’t be that easy are vividly portrayed on her face. You really feel for her character and that is a real credit to Courtney. The rest of the cast do good jobs as well, even down to the minor roles.

I would definitely recommend seeing this if you get a chance. It rates more of a rental than an actual purchase, but some might find it interesting enough to add it to their collections. As Dorothy from The Wizard Of Oz learned oh so long ago, sometimes there really is no place like home.