The Night The Prowler

Obscure 1978 Australian flick The Night The Prowler tries to do and say too much in a movie that doesn't seem to have much of an identity, particular genre or likeable characters.

What’s the deal?

The Night, The Prowler is a weird, campy tale of sexual identity and liberation in the sixties, shot by The Rocky Horror Picture Show director Jim Sharman. Felicity (Kerry Walker), the daughter of repressed, middle-class parents Doris (Ruth Cracknell) and Humphrey (John Frawley) is assaulted in her bed by a prowler (Terry Camilleri, better known as Napoleon from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure). She breaks off her engagement to young stud John (John Derum) and lashes out at her suburbanite prison, ‘consorting’ with hippies and roaming the night in black leather.

It’s good!

Walker (considering what she had to work with) does a really good job. She has a frumpy, unconventional and almost mannish sensuality that works very well for the character. Although she does seem to be channelling a hell of a lot of Rocky Horror’s Magenta in her look (chicken or egg, hey guys?).

What’s wrong with you?

Rocky Horror is one of my all-time fave cult classics so I had high hopes for this; however, Sharman also directed the woeful Shock Treatment so I should’ve known what I was getting into. The acting (particularly from Cracknell) is camp; the cinematography is nothing spectacular. There are some nice sequences but on the whole the direction is pretty stagey. Sometimes I felt I was watching a low-budget 70s glam rock film clip. One uncomfortable subplot is the weirdly incestuous vibe between Felicity and father Humphrey. Her obsession with her father gets a little bit too freaky and their interactions, quite unnerving. I think it’s supposed to represent the interference of Doris in stopping any kind of affection between the pair…but then, you could also interpret it as some indication of sexual abuse...or childhood evidence of her sexually aggressive nature. Either way, the cinematic interpretation was shallow and confusing at best.

Neo-Maxi Zoom Dweeb-ery

From a script perspective, Felicity has some interesting sociopathic tendencies which are only mildly touched upon in the film. Sharman uses these more as a social theme familiar to 70’s era – a feminist cry to arms – rather than the development of an anti-socialite. Personally I would’ve been more interested in the deconstruction of a personality disorder, with sexuality as a side effect. The character of Felicity is a bit muted as a result.

Truth?

Don't even get me started on the ending.

Bender Fist Pumps

1/5

#Australiana #Thriller #SocialIssues