Prey

Image credit: Wikipedia

In my last post I talked about the rise of the dumb eco-horror movie that we watch if we want something to joyfully yell at. Having watched a movie last night, anticipating that it would be a similar type of romp, I now have to add a disclaimer to my previous mention of this subgenre. The happy-anger we feel at watching these sorts of movies comes, in part, from the feeling that the filmmakers (hopefully) did not set out to make a serious horror flick thus, through bad writing, predictability, and mediocre characters it feels like the level of joy-ranting is justified, even encouraged.

Then there are films like Prey which were clearly made to be taken seriously, explore serious themes about society and its inevitable breakdown in stressful situations, but are just so bad you even get mad that you streamed it and lost over an hour of your life.

Prey follows a group of Americans in Africa who become stranded in the Ngala Reserve after a plane crash. Tension is already rife amongst the group which is made up a pilot who’s a smuggler, a married couple from a Christian missionary who have been threatened by an extremist military gang, a spoilt rich boy on holiday, and his hired guide whom he treats as a servant. With painful death threatening them from every corner, can they work together to survive or will the true, chaotic nature of man break down civility?

Nothing but bad things to say about this movie I’m afraid. It tried to take itself seriously as an eco-thriller, following the tropes of the classic zombie movie except in this case it’s lions. Unfortunately, the script is terribly written, there is no real chance for audiences to become attached to any of the characters, plus an acute lack of backstory which makes them even more unfathomable, oh and it completely flumps the Bechdel Test as both female characters get killed off before they even have the chance to have a conversation.

Like all films Prey had a budget, which clearly went towards securing a couple of celebrity names in the cast. The leftover change went to the predator effects, which is seriously footage of various nature documentaries spliced together (albeit sort of smoothly). The film could definitely have benefited from some form of consultant on the hunting behaviour of lions or the right way to try keep a man conscious after being bitten by a venomous snake. The seismic lack of any authentic predator interaction with the characters pretty much eradicates any suspense or horror that comes from being stalked and threatened with a violent death. To make matters worse, at one point it is clear that the writers lost the thread of the film and just added in more stuff in the hope that it would get everything back on track. Spoiler alert: it didn’t.

Image credit: Filmaffinity

Even if you’re after a dumb predator film to yell at, I would not recommend Prey.

Director: Mukunda Michael Dewil, 2024

Cast: Ryan Phillippe, Mena Survari, Jeremy Tardy, Dylan Flashner, Tristan Thompson, Michaela Sasner, Godwin Asamoah Obeng, Alpha Miknas, Theo Bongani Ndyalvane & Emile Hirsch