The Prowler

A slasher elevated entirely by Tom Savini, who considered its effects among his finest. A killer in full World War II combat fatigues murders the attendees of a small-town graduation dance decades after a wartime rejection, and the kills, a pitchfork through a couple, a shotgun to the head, are staged with brutal, convincing craft.

The plot is standard and the mystery is thin, but the setpieces are as good as the genre gets, and Joseph Zito directs them with real patience. For gore fans it is essential; for everyone else it is a competent body-count picture with exceptional effects.