The Prey

The Prey has a lot of "meh" attached to it. Old reviews are down on it. New reviews are down on it too a bit with caveats out the ears. I'm a big collector, so I have to own all old slashers. I was really disappointed in "The Chill Factor" despite the release being spectacular. I feared The Prey would be the same. Slow, boring, and without much of a pay-off. To a small extent, the movie doesn't deliver the heavy heaping doses of gore and nudity. There are kills. They are effective. The pace is slow in parts. There's way too much nature footage going on. Yet somehow, it still works. I was engaged the whole time. The atmosphere saves this one more than anything else, and that odd ending. Very unexpected. I was surprised. I get why reviews are very critical of this thing. But once I watched it and had the experience, I was very happy I made the purchase. I don't feel ripped off. The Prey is underrated, and now, back and better than ever. Lori Lethin is awesome. Now there's a real scream queen. Liked her in Return to Horror High and Blood Birthday as well.

Arrow Video releases another stellar release! I’ve never heard of this film, but when I heard it was announced to be released from them, I did some research and knew I had to check it out! Might not be a slasher film that everyone knows of, but if your in the mood for a slasher flick to watch besides the usually franchise films, I’d recommend checking this one out. The features alone and restoration Arrow Video did for this release is incredible, & will be one I’ll revisit every now and then!

What a great tagline this film has huh? It couldn't be any better if it tried. Anyways I'm not gonna lie, The Prey isn't one of my personal favorites or anything, but I do like it quite a bit, and it would be nice to see it get a dvd release. So many other more unknown film have been rescued from obscurity, so why can't The Prey get a nice little release too? 6 friends decide to go hiking and camping in the woods. Overall they just wanna have a good time! But sadly their good time is cut short when a mysterious killer soon stalks the group. Who is the killer? Is it even human? The plot here reminded me somewhat of Just Before Dawn. Not that it's as good as that film or anything, but some of the ingredients that made that film so good are sprinkled throughout here too. It's got the overall non existent and extremely quiet score that suits the film perfectly and gives it the right atmosphere, and of course it has it's setting. The woods always tend to work in horror movies. And it works here very well. The movie is able to capture a place that is as far away from society as possible. A place that is quiet and peaceful one minute, to dark and frightening the next. It's easy to see why a setting like this was such a popular staple in the early 80's, and the director here does a very good job. Sadly though the film isn't perfect. I really wish it was, but it isn't. One of the main complaints you hear often regarding this film is it's pacing. Now I personally didn't find the film boring, but it was somewhat slow. There seems to be a whole lot of hiking, a whole lot of chit chat, and a whole lot of nature shots going on. I do see where the director was going with it (it's all about the atmosphere!), but a few less animal shots definitly wouldn't have hurt, and I do think we could've got one or two more suspense set pieces. It would've done wonders for the film. The acting here is a real mixed bag, but overall it's not bad. Jackie Coogan (The Addams Family) drops by, and former soap actor Steve Bond (who I read also maybe did Playgirl in the 80's? Which doesn't honestly surprise me. The camera does seem to like him, in particular during the water scenes towards the end) is one of the leads. Don't get me wrong, none of the acting here is great, but even in it's worst moments (cheesy dialogue and all) it adds to the film. Nothing wrong with a little bad acting in our favorite genre. It can add to the charm! The Prey is rated R. There's a couple scenes of gore (the effects look pretty good), and the film also has some mild sexual content and brief nudity. Overall I liked The Prey! Sure it has a few slow moments, and maybe a few too many animal shots, but it's still a good time overall! It's definitly not for people who don't enjoy the genre, but if you like slasher films from the 80's than it's worth a watch. Now where's the dvd?

Whacky lost gem that gets the royal treatment from Arrow. Made for TV originally, but produced and acted well. Great fun slasher in the woods! 👍🏻

Avoid the extended cut like the plague. It adds WAY too much extra footage of the gypsy backstory. Sometimes, less is more! The picture and sound are great. I've been waiting for this movie for a long time. Glad to see Arrow did a top-notch job on the transfer.

the only reason im giving this even 3 stars is because i thought the special effects were decent and thats all i found likeable about this film. Id say maybe 30% or more of the film is legit cutaways of nature,animals and bugs which just seems half assed because when we do actually get to see the main characters in this movie there almost ZERO meaningful dialog between them. Im not sure if the director had much in the script for the casts dialog but my god it just seems incredibly unfinished. This movie is pretty much a bad version of friday the 13th

Loved this early slasher! There are alot of animal shots and great color in this movie.

Bad ass movie!