Movieline Online

Other than a few class acts, ‘80s slasher movies relied almost exclusively on their creative “kills” to attract attention. And after beheading, puncturing, smashing and exploding a literal army of zombies in the original Dawn of the Dead , make-up legend Tom Savini was up to just about any challenge. The Prowler actually has a leg up on Savini’s work in Friday the 13 th (shot a year earlier) at least in terms of its gruesome effectiveness. There’s a convincing pitchfork to the midsection, butcher knife through the brain, throat slitting and a pre- Scanners head explosion that splatters the screen like the 4th of July! Helmed by Joseph Zito (who went on to direct a Friday the 13 th chapter as well), the film bears a striking structural resemblance to My Bloody Valentine , with a 1945 preamble massacre that bans a local college graduation dance for 35 years. Of course, when the party is resurrected so is the titular killer, complete with army fatigues and assorted weaponry. As...

Other than the famous maestros Fellini, Antonioni and Leone, Italian directors really never get much respect. But watching Sandok for the first time in its original scope photography, you get the sense that there wasn’t anything Hollywood could put on screen that “spaghetti “directors could do just as well. Case in point, this rousing old-school adventure based on the popular novels by Emilio Salgari which features just the sort of Saturday matinee ingredients (snakes, rats, tigers, crocodiles, rare diamonds and dangerous thugs) that were later co-opted by Spielberg and Lucas to create Raiders of the Lost Ark . Director Umberto Lenzi is working in the classic Hollywood style, with opulent sets and exotic locations, but he keeps the tone light and loose with his two main characters – Alan Foster (Richard Harrison), an American thief on the run in India and Sitama Wilbert Bradly), a native fakir whose sacred vows are flexible depending on the situation. Their adventures in pursuit o...