Believe It Or Not, These Two Cape May Dwellings Are Connected--By A Long Forgotten Horror Film!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                 The house above is the Emelin Physick house, and while it is one of the biggest and most vulgar houses, as Rhett might have said to Scarlett, and had a "Meet Me In St. Louis" quality to the interiors, it was not my favorite among the dwellings, though I have to admit it was vastly impressive.

                                   Now one thing I knew about Cape May, which, till this past Saturday, I had not set foot on since sometime back in the Seventies.  I cannot recall the exact time, but my mother was still alive, as I went there with my parents, so this was before 1979.

                                     Back in 1981, a director named Joseph Zito , trying to get onto the "Friday The 13th" band wagon, made a quickie slasher called "The Prowler," and these two buildings were used.  The hotel was used for the opening sequence, which was a Graduation Dance, set in 1945, and the Physick estate was used in some interiors, possibly where the killer lives, who turns out to be Farley Granger, as the Sheriff.

                                       You see, back in 1945, with the war ending, and the boys coming home, and George Fraser carrying a torch for a girl named Rosemary, he receives a "Dear John" letter from her, stating she wants to break it off, for no other reason than she is young, and wants to "get some."  The slut!  George is enraged, and when he gets back home, during the 1945 dance, dons his war garb, mask over his face, and, in the famous gazebo opening scene, which was actually filmed at the Seaville United Methodist Church, in Seaville, New Jersey, he murders his betrayers!!!!!!!  So, that is where you have to go, if you want to see the famous landmark.

                                         "The Prowler" was not even mentioned on any of our tours.  I guess it is so forgotten, only hardcore aficionados, such as myself would know about it.  Let me just say, that that slut, Rosemary, and her cheap friend Roy, deserved to die!  Then there are no dances held for 35 years (shades of "My Bloody Valentine") until a Spring Dance in 1980, when teens start getting knocked off, because in the now aged killer's deranged mind, this is all recreating 1945, and it is like he is repeatedly murdering Rosemary and Roy.  They deserved it, but not the 1980 kids.

                                              I will have to ask around, next time I am there, about this film.  Maybe they would rather not talk about.  When I first saw the movie, it is supposed to be set in Avalon, California, but the director, John Zito, who would later score big with "Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter," in 1984, thought Cape May had a ghostly quality, which it does. I thought he was going for something Midwestern, because, really, the opening looks like a town out of a William Inge  play!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                             Don't even aim that high with this film.  Just enjoy this little bit of horror film history, in Cape May!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                               Though it was released under the title most know as "The Prowler," alternate titles for it have been "Rosemary's Killer," "Watch Who Dies!," and, on a re-release, "Pitchfork Massacre!!!!!!!!!!"  Next to "The Prowler," I like "Rosemary's Killer" best.  But that would have only worked had it been a short, and very different, film!!!!!!!!!!!!!!