Prowl (2011)

Released in 2010, "Prowl" is about a young woman, Amber, who desperately wants to leave her small town. She talks a group of friends into helping her get to Chicago, but they have serious set-backs on the road and worse when they make it to the big city. Horror ensues.The plot's thin and the second half marks time a bit, but I felt "Prowl" was well-done for a TV movie. Each of the three female protagonists are good-looking in their own unique way, especially Ruta Gedmintas as Suzy. There's some decent suspense and frights and the ending features a twist that I didn't see coming, even though the clues were there from the beginning.The film was shot in Bulgaria and runs 81 minutes.GRADE: B-

-Spoilers Included-First of all, I would like to say that I'm a huge fan of 'After Dark Films' been a follower for quite some time now, but this film was just above average. The pace wasn't just fast enough for me to click on: it went from (fast -when around 20 minutes through the whole cast is dead- to extremely slow: when she finds out she's one of them) I have to admit the acting featured in the film is quite good, the script, the effects and the filming techniques, but it just missed some spark. It may be a cheaper rip-off from 30 Days At Night, but if you're interested in gory vampire films, I would recommend you to watch this, if you can survive being awake!

Surprisingly awesome vampire movie. I've been burned by the After Dark series before, but this had everything. It keeps its story simple. Teenagers journey far from home and are soon hunted down. It's nice to see a group of smart and funny young adults that don't deserve a punching. They even take precautions when accepting a ride from a truck-driver. Huzzah! The photography is very impressive. It all feels diluted, but in a dark and stylized way. It's almost comforting at first. The jumps and the gore that follow are fairly standard, but still effective. Some fine performances really capture the fear, frustration, and chaos, and it was nice to see one of the vampires scared at one point. It's short but sweet.

En route to Chicago, a bunch of young friends experience engine trouble and stupidly accept a ride from a passing trucker. He traps them in his trailer. Stuff happens. There's some vampire/monster/creature thingies that attack them. Some of the teenagers die. Yadda, yadda, yadda...I almost rated Prowl 1/10, not because it's particularly awful, but because I've had a gut-full of mediocre modern horror as of late, and this was very nearly the final straw that broke the camel's back—just another forgettable, bland, derivative scary flick with a pretty female protagonist, an unimaginative threat, lots of dreary and often shaky cinematography, predictable loud noises to make you jump, and a 'surprise' ending that's not all that surprising. It's been less than a day since I finished the film, and I cannot recall a single image that impressed me enough to bother retaining it in my mind.To be fair, Prowl is probably worth a 4 or 5 out of 10 (although I'll err on the less generous side): it starts out promisingly, is technically proficient, the cast do a good job of looking terrified even if I sported an expression of abject boredom throughout, and there's also some pretty effective gore. But in this day and age where horrors proliferate, a film needs to be so much more in order to make a lasting impression.