10 Things You Didn't Know About Scooby Doo
9. Joseph Barbera's Son Wrote A Slasher Movie
Scripted by Neal (son of Joseph) Barbera and Glenn Leopold, who between them worked on The New Scooby Doo Mysteries, Scooby’s All-Star Laff-A-Lympics and The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo, The Prowler (1981) is your typical post-Friday The 13th slasher movie, complete with effects by Tom Savini.
This is the one about the jilted WWII soldier who murders his former sweetheart at the Class of ’45 Grand Ball and returns, for no particular reason, to pick up where he left off 35 years later. In true cartoon style, characters split up, search the local cemetery after dark and are chased down corridors by a masked assailant, though there aren’t too many Scooby villains who get vaporized by a shotgun-wielding heroine.
The film has such disdain for adults that its Final Girl ought to wear badges that proclaim “Question Authority” and “Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty”. Not only is the villain the usual outwardly respectable authority figure, but those not of college age possess a chilly demeanour, an intense dislike of “damn fool kids” and a penchant for voyeurism. Teenagers know best….even if they do enjoy a midnight swim outside the dance hall where a prowler has been reported.