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20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Prey Will Having You Praying . . . Riveting Entertainment!, February 5, 2007
I found this little low-budget film to be very disturbing and intense. Make no mistake that is a survival film and you've seen this kind of thing before; however, that doesn't make this nifty little film any less powerful and at a brisk 90 minutes, you'll feel exhausted when this film ends.
The acting is generally good. Moynaham of I, Robot fame, as the stepmom saddled with 2 bratty kids is very believable and will often remind you in looks and speech of Sandra Bullock. The oldest child is very effective in her role, but her character will, forgive the pun, eat away at your nerves to the point where you want Moynaham to simply kick the broken down jeep's door open and feed her to the damn lions. The youngest child is so awful in his role that you would swear on a stack of Bibles that he's reading his lines off of posterboards. Peter Weller, the Robocop Trilogy and recent villain on TV's 24 - Season Five, as the dad is reliable as always and he's always been a very underrated actor. I enjoy seeing him on the History Channel where he hosts ancient worlds specials (wherein he holds a Master's degree from Syracuse University and, I believe, is an adjunct professor).
The death scenes are absolutely chilling and intense and not unlike the death scenes in Jaws. They are that riveting and horrific. I promise you that you will not forget them. There are enough "rest" scenes in the film between the lion attacks and they are used well. The character interactions between the stepmom and the oldest resentful stepdaughter are believable no matter how ill-timed they are. Imagined being trapped with someone that you hate. It happens and it is played out believably here. The majority of this film takes place in the broken down tourist Jeep the ranger takes off-roading at the family's expense for some extra "fun."
This "trapped in a car" scenario is rather remincent of Stephen King's Cujo, an excellent film, wherein Dee Wallace Stone is trapped in her car with her sick son by their rapid family dog, Cujo, on a blistering hot day. They spend a good 2/3rds of that film trying to get from the car in the driveway to the inside of the house and away from the dog before they die in the car from the heat and lack of water just as they do in the film "Prey." "Prey" focuses on that same claustrophobic panic and we feel it as an audience. It is very effectively communicated thanks to good direction and acting.
The plot of "Prey" has some significant holes and they can be very annoying, but panic and stupidity drives most of these people to do what they do. It is, however, VERY hard to believe that an experienced ranger would take a family off-roading in a very dangerous area to stop and have a kid do #2 in a lion-infested area. If you are willing to suspend your disbelief for that scene which sets up the story, then the rest is going to go down fairly easily.
I highly recommend this film, flaws and all, for the intense action sequences, skilled direction, and the overall good acting by the major players. This film rarely lets up on the suspense and you will remember it long after seeing it.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not bad. Not great. Just decent., August 3, 2009
"Prey" is a horror film that runs straight down the middle. It borrows elements from other films, doesn't take any chances, but delivers some solid suspense, violence, and scares. Horror veterans won't see anything they haven't seen before done better, but I think casual fans looking for a thrill will find it here. This may not be saying much, but it's the second best killer lion flick I've ever seen.
The story is this: two kids go on a safari with their new stepmom, guide goes offroad, kid has to go to the bathroom, lions eat the incompetent guide, guide had the keys to the landrover, now they're screwed. But isn't that similar to an episode of "The Simpsons"? Yes. Yes it is. Thanks for noticing. And isn't being trapped in a vehicle with kids in an isolated area with no supplies and a murderous beast stalking you the plot to Cujo? Mmm-hmmm. And afterThe Ghost and the Darkness don't you think they've pretty much done what they can do with a movie about killer lions? I'd say so. But then again, originality has never really been the hallmark of the horror genre. In fact the lack of new material is the only really large complaint I can level against "Prey". Then again, it is tagged with the annoying "based on true events" tag so I guess you can overlook the similarities to other films if you want to. It's very competently directed and only real lions were used and they were used effectively. No CG to draw attention to itself or phony puppets to laugh at. Well done.
Now I have a few minor complaints to log in as well. First, haven't we seen enough stories about stepmothers bonding with the teenage stepdaughters who hate them? Also, if I see one more survival horror film where they get the vehicle working and then immediately crash it after they are scot-free I'm going to freak. Eden Lake got away with it, but it still bugs the hell out of me and I'm drawing the line now: NO MORE! Stupidity is a tenet of horror protagonists for some reason, but I think that particular element has run it's course. This one pushes it pretty far. Other then that, I think this flick was pretty realistically done. I'd also like to thank the director for not having a subplot about not being able to get the cellphones to work. Seems like every modern survival horror film has to make a huge show of how the cell-phones aren't charged or have them checking for a signal and giving constant reports about having "no bars". It's a movie, I will happily accept that this is a cell-phone free alternate universe if it will save 15 minutes of screen time spent playing with cell phones. Again, thanks.
Violence, suspense, harrowing horror, stupid protagonists; yup, this is a by-the-numbers fright flick. But it's worth a look if you have a fear of lions -which admittedly are one of the most intimidating creatures on God's green Earth- or are just looking for something to kill an hour and a half of your time. If you haven't seen it all, this will likely be a very effective thriller. It's definitely no "Ghost and the Darkness", but it's not half bad for such a low-profile film. Give it a try.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Far more disturbing than JAWS and JURASSIC PARK put together!!! And kick CUJO to the curb!!!, October 2, 2007
Based on 'actual events' in the 'wild of Africa,' PREY stays true, fast, fun and scary (movies like this are simply made for these reasons alone, and that's O.K. because no one 'preyed upon' was seeking an Academy Award nomination for their performance)...
Though this low-budget thriller lacks a much-needed/memorable score to chase, pace and grace all its action, the film's sweeping and sometimes stunning cinematography compensates and delivers in major ways...
Far more disturbing than JAWS and JURASSIC PARK put together!!! Why??? Because the children are too young to cope with such graphic horror. The family is basically terrorized by the 'Kings of the Jungle' for an hour-and-a-half, with no end in sight - a vaguely similar scenario that played out well for mutants in THE HILLS HAVE EYES...
THE 3 PROS:
1) DRAMA -- Cutie key actress Bridget Moynahan (I, Robot) brings much-needed cohesion to a family of two, fairly well-acted, snot-nosed kids enduring coming-of-age-woes with their father's divorce (a familiar undercurrent, considering how "close to home" the real notion hits)...
2) INTENSITY -- 'Slasheresque,' bloody and out-of-no-where lion feasts. I've become bored with the 'old-fashioned' man vs. nature flick plots - Why not have starving lions eating people??? If I was a lion, I'd be mad as hell about poachers and the persistent decimation of my native African land...
3) THRILLS -- From start to finish the plot's truly disturbing. Even though the kids are bratty, watching them witness gruesome violence, at such a blistering pace, hurts and is darn harsh!!! Frankly though, the biggest draw is that the incident happened (I'm not exactly sure when or where, so I'm now forced to conduct research on my own). But this idea immediately gets in your gut, or under your skin, and stays there... In other words, you can walk away from JAWS, JURASSIC PARK, or worse, CUJO, and say, "Oh, that's a decent piece of fiction." But you leave stumbling from PREY and you ask yourself, "My goodness, that happened??? They should have had a Hummer..." or "I know I'll think twice before I head out on a Lion Country Safari after absorbing PREY. I don't want to be prey for anything or anybody..."
THE 1 CON:
1) SCORING -- PREY desperately needs a more supportive and suspenseful score overall to carry the tiny moments that may lag and the fragile/tender moments that may drag...
Regardless, see PREY and while you're at it, throw away your CUJO DVD, because PREY is pretty grrrrrrrreat!!!
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