MovieChat Forums > The Prowler (1981) Discussion > Can Someone Explain The Last Scene

Can Someone Explain The Last Scene

posted 18 years ago by psiscion15-1
21 replies | jump to latest

Can someone explain to me the final scene where the pitchforked victim in the shower reaches out for the heroine? I didn't get it, and I referred to the commentary on the Blue Underground DVD in hopes of an explanation...and I remember Tom Savini making a comment about how he thinks the final victim could have been a zombie...it still doesn't make sense in my opinion. Can someone explain this to me...and by the way, I don't want a lengthy, subtext-filled "artsy" explanation either, just a simple one.

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] twifterboy 18 years ago

hello mate.just about the policeman boyfriend bit the prowler was the sheriff so i dont think he wanted to kill the cop because he was his underdtudy thats why he left him in charge. so he was probably alive

[–] g_monte 18 years ago

I don't think it was real. I think it was a hallucination as opposed to a dream. Whenever they use the it's-only-a-dream routine they always show the person waking up. The movie really doesn't have any supernatural elements so it wouldn't really make sense for the dead guy to be a zombie. I don't think he's still alive because I believe that's the character that got that huge knife shoved all the way through his head.

[–] XtroTerrestial 18 years ago

It was a hallucination. After all the heroine had been through, she had a post traumatic stress syndrome attack.

"You Took Our Jorbs!"

[–] kbtoys100 18 years ago

i still am wondering why the sheriff was killing them. also what happend to rosemarys dad major someone-or-another?

[–] xxlibra76 18 years ago

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing too. The ending left me dumdfounded. And when the girl screams after the dead guy grabs for her, the cop just looks up at the house but never runs inside to see why she screamed which was really weird. I think the ending sucked. They should of made the whole ending a dream, atlease then it would of made some damn sense.

[–] bad_habitt 18 years ago

i think the movie ends on a weak note with this scene and then the music that doesnt fit anything. the music especially does not belong. it should have had a blasting score simliar to the opening of friday13th part2 during the closing credits of the prowler.

one of the few things i didnt like about this masterpiece.

"how about... a royal flush!" *loren avedon kicks a cauldron of boiling water into the bad guys*

[–] frontiersperson 18 years ago

Think the final scene of Carrie--
This is totally an homage to that...one last scare. Its a little ineffective, because its not a soft-focus hallucination, but as a whole this movie is truly disturbing. My question is, with those two bodies clogging up the shower, how did it NOT overflow?

[–] mindybiz 18 years ago

WASN'T THE SHERIFF KILLIN PEOPLE BECAUSE HE WAS THE ORIGINAL KILLER THEY SHOW FROM THE BEGINNING? HE WAS ROSEMARY'S BOYFRIEND THAT SHE BROKE UP WITH IN THE LETTER. HE CAME HOME EARLY (I AM GUESSING??) AND CAUGHT HER AND HER NEW BOYFRIEND TOGETHER AND KILLED THEM?

[–] Cockamamie_Jamie 18 years ago

Tom Savini proposed the thought that it might be a zombie?

That makes no sense.

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[–] eric_7373 18 years ago

I'm pretty sure it wasnt a dream or a anything else of that nature. As the last scare of the movie, it would be just ridiculous to have a dream inserted. Its obvious to me that the guy grabing out for her is only a death rattle. The body will continue to make movements long after death. Especially how the knife wasshoved through the top of his head like that. Dismantiling all the nerve endings like that would have caused the body to freak out. Hopefuly that helps or makes better sense.

[–] foshizzle0107 17 years ago

Um, to mister tom savini...great kill for that character having a knife through his skull and brain and coming out through the mouth...HOWEVER, during his death scene it is HIGHLY unlikely that he would have been alive to wriggle around the way he did while he was "dying" from the wound....this kind of stabbing would have killed him instantaneously.

[–] The_King_of_Cool 17 years ago

Savini said the zombie thing as a joke, he later said maybe it's Jason.

It was a joke what's so hard to understand?

The phone is dead. Do you hear that, Vitus? Even the phone is dead.

[–] WolfgangR5150-1 17 years ago

I saw this movie when I was a kid at a drive-in, I think the ending is simple, the guy in the shower wasn't dead yet. Yes I said not dead, people for years have lived through horrible events, like spike through the head, so hell yeah, his brain was stabbed preventing his motor skill to work right but he could hear and reach out.. Yes I like my reason the best.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] lauriescreams 17 years ago

From a storytelling perspective, the function of the scene is obviously the final scare. Making narrative sense of the scene is another matter.

To me, nothing really suggests that it's a dream sequence. I interpret it as a death rattle. Somehow, Carl survived being stabbed through the head. Such an injury need not be fatal - I once saw a documentary about a guy who had a metal pole driven through his jaw and into his brain. He survived the injury, but interestingly, his personality was changed by the accident, because it had resulted in a chemical alteration within his brain.

[–] TorsoDahlia 17 years ago

Clearly he wasn't completely dead and then just died right after reaching out. was all done for the standard last scare. As for the sheriff being the killer that was fairly obvious that he was the jilted lover from the 40s. Could even tell it was him before the bodycount but still one of the best 80s slasher flicks that actually had a brain.

Nothing is as it seems so I wouldn't judge by what you think you see.

[–] contact-258 17 years ago

No big secret here. The last grab was just one last cheap goose of the audience. It had nothing to do with the plot of the movie (such as it was). After "Carrie" came along, 99% of Hollywood films had to have the cheap scare right at the end of the movie (and again, 99% of those had nothing to do with the plot of the movie). I was totally expecting the cheap scare in this movie; it was so predictable it was pathetic. In my humblest of opinions.

[–] TorsoDahlia 17 years ago

Oh sure it was obvious but sometimes you clearly have to write it off as something in the storyline and death rattles are common.

Nothing is as it seems so I wouldn't judge by what you think you see.

[–] 17 years ago

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