Prey (2022) - Movie Review

What do you get when two relative nobodies decide to take the machismo out of one of the most macho franchises in sci-fi / horror?

The revival this down in the dumps franchise desperately needed, that’s what.

Let’s discuss.

Prey is the latest entry in the long-running and long-suffering Predator series of films. The previous entry was a sequel in 2018’s The Predator, which was an unmitigated disaster of a film. The filmmakers behind Prey really didn’t have a high bar to jump and yet, they aimed high. This film had a fraction of the budget of the previous and yet it looks like it cost twice as much. And as a bonus, Boyd Holbrook is nowhere to be seen.

Brought to us in the year of our lord 2022, Prey is a sci-fi /horror prequel brought to us by writer/director Dan Trachtenberg and writer Patrick Aison. If those names don’t ring a bell, don’t worry. Unless you’re a movie nerd like myself, you shouldn’t know who they are. Trachtenberg is the mind behind 10 Cloverfield Lane and Aison is a producer / writer behind the underrated series Wayward Pines. While both of those projects rely on climactic twists and secretive plots, Prey features neither of those tired devices. Instead, what’s given to us here is a straightforward tale of hunter and hunted, but with just enough historical flare to make history buffs like me nerd out.

The biggest criticisms I see of this film on other sites is that it’s another “woke” film. That it’s a feminist, man-hating feature that lacks any of the thrills of the previous entries.

BULLLLLSHIIIIIT

If you have read any of my reviews, I often speak out against woke culture.

Why?

Because like many of the current cultural movements it lends itself to dividing us as a society instead of bringing together. I was raised by a feminist mother who was forced to carry our family on her shoulders when my father refused to go to work. I watched her fight against the patriarchy as she did twice the work of her male colleagues while getting paid half as much.

I understand the motivation behind true feminism.

This film features none of the feminist-woke-film stereotypes that we’ve seen in recent history. It isn’t woke in any respect. It is a fairly accurate portrayal of Native American culture and an extremely accurate depiction of French fur traders in the New World. If you’re upset that the white people are evil in this film, than you aren’t cognizant of our nation’s history.

Also, fuck off.

There are so few films that feature Native main characters and even fewer that utilize as many native actors in such portrayals. The only film that comes to mind in recent history is Blood Quantum. It’s refreshing to see a film that’s not diverse for diversity sake, but that features the group of underrepresented people in a positive light.

Also, the cinematography is gorgeous. It’s easily on the level of something like Yellowstone. Huge sweeping vistas give way to spooky woods and wide open plains. It’s beautifully lit and has equally good sound design. The landscape is a character unto itself and the native characters work along with the land as they fight the many dangers encroaching on their territory.

That’s not to say this is a perfect film, far from it. The special effects budget was obviously smaller than previous entries and while the Feral Predator is the most impressive design since The City Hunter from Predator 2, the rest of the cgi effects in the film are glaring weak points. There are two sequences that feature predatory animals up close and both are rendered terribly. I can’t blame the filmmakers too much tho. If I had the choice between getting better cgi animals or having an impressive Predator, I’d have made the same decision.

Speaking of the Yuatja of this film is gorgeous. His design is prehistoric. His armor is bone and he lacks the energy weapons of other predators. Which makes sense as this predator seems more like an outcast as he has the appearance of the Berzerker predator from predators, which in the lore of the films, began as outcasts. They didn’t reach superiority in their race until the later films, for better and for worse. It’s the first Yuatja that has actually been scary in a few movies. It’s a nasty, feral beast that operates more like a wild animal that previous iterations as well.

Where 2010’s Predators failed to reach greatness was pretty much copy and pasting the ending from the original film. Step one, coat yourself in mud. Step 2, light a giant bonfire. Step 3, beat the predator senseless with melee weapons. Rinse and repeat.

This film takes a different tactic. It uses a similar idea, but it plays out completely different.

I don’t want to do a spoiler section on this film.

I want you to go watch it.

Please support this movie. It deserves it.

This is a loving salute to the films of the past and actually ties back to the best sequel in the series, Predator 2.

Yeah, I’m not crowning Prey the best sequel in the series like many others are.

Predator 2 is one of the best movie sequels of all time. Fight me.

But Prey is very much the best since Danny Glover and Bill Paxton teamed up on the mean streets of Los Angeles.

Prey is streaming exclusively on HULU.