Prey
In the middle of the Australian Outback, two young men are dumped unceremoniously into a pit by a crazed madman sporting a shotgun and scraggly beard. Much to their horror, they find themselves surrounded by giant, foreboding supernatural serpents with the ability to turn men into possessed zombies. I won’t spoil the outcome of their predicament but suffice it to say, there’s more than one way to kill somebody with a shotgun. So begins Prey, the stylish new Australian thriller that held its North American premiere at the Palms Casino in Las Vegasrecently. Mixing humor and horror together with solid performances at the core, Prey is the kind of film that doesn’t inspire a cult following, it demands it.
The tale then picks up steam twenty years later; after losing his position at a prestigious firm due to one bad investment, stockbroker Gus (Jesse Johnson) decides to drown his sorrows with some much-needed surfing with girlfriend Kate (Natalie Bassingthwaite) and friends. What begins as a fun-filled trip into the outback soon becomes treacherous as the three couples find themselves lured to a non-descript rock outcropping, unable to escape while the aforementioned madman begins having them picked off one by one to achieve his own nefarious ends. The only hope lies within Kate herself, plagued by visions of this horror and hiding her own entangled past with this killer.
Zombies, giant snakes, and sorcery follow in this tight, compelling thriller. While the film’s cast hangs well together as a solid ensemble, there are a number of standouts worth mentioning. First and foremost is the film’s heroine, Kate, as played by actress and musician Natalie Bassingthwaite; as a doctor hiding a secret past from the others, she strikes a fine balance between the hyper-aggressive stance of your current female action icons, ala Buffy and Lara Croft, underlined by a nuanced vulnerability that allows the audience to share her fear. Playing her boyfriend Gus, male lead Jesse Johnson plays his character’s cocky charm to the hilt. With a smile that could charm a blind person and a hint of arrogance, at face value Gus is the kind of guy you don’t really want to like.
But Johnson takes what could be a flavorless blond blowhard and transforms him into a well-meaning and ultimately sympathetic person who struggles to take charge and end the danger that he has unwittingly brought upon himself and friends. And finally, Natalie Walker as Ling provides the engine for one of the best lesbian subplots I’ve ever seen in a movie, I won’t give away too many details but you’ll know it when you see it. Seriously though, she also provides a fantastic grit in her performance and is not afraid to wield a chainsaw and hack off a limb or two.
But don’t be fooled into thinking this is just some moody character piece, the film’s special effects work are well-worth the price of admission, whether it be the giant, slithering demon serpents or possessed zombies with reptilian green eyes and various parts of their person either ground up, chopped off, or in one particularly gruesome example exploded. The gleeful depiction of maimed viscera is fun to behold and again underscores the gallows humor that both script and filmmaker play up well. If you find yourself both laughing and screaming then you’re on the right track. Ultimately, Prey is a damn fun film to check out when you just want to relax, have some popcorn and watch some great action mixed with sly humor.