Amber Midthunder, Dane DiLiegro, Dakota Beavers, Harlan Blayne Kytwayhat, Stefany Mathias, Julian Black Antelope and Stormee Kipp
Going back 300 years, it's an origin story for the most notorious hunter-killer; the Predator. Set in a new era, this strips away modern excess and revisits the deadly cat-and-mouse hunt...
In the American Great Plains of 1719, a Commanche tribe live a peaceful life. Young warrior Naru (Midthunder) strives to learn the ways of hunting so she can fully be respected by the Elders and her family.
When Naru accompanies her brother Taabe (Beavers) on a hunt to find a lioness, she discovers tracks and clues of another beast out in the forests, one far stronger and deadlier than they can imagine. It soon becomes clear this beast - the Predator (DiLiegro) - is hunting them.
Using the environment around her and all she has learnt to become, Naru vows to stay one step ahead of the Predator and protect her Commanche people from it's deadly threat, putting herself at great peril as she avoids becoming its prey...
John McTiernan's 1987 science-fiction actioner Predator came from nowhere and caused a ripple across the genres it stood within. A fantastical, gruesome alien being mysteriously arrives on Earth to hunt for skeletal trophies. At the same time, an elite macho fighting force is carrying out a hostage rescue. The two collide in the Central American jungle, and all hell breaks loose under the rippling muscle of cigar chomping Arnold Schwarzenegger fighting to survive as his team is picked off one by one. It was full of one-liners, tension, grizzly horror, explosive action and a solid cast. It was another notch on the action roster of Schwarzenegger, with mediocre reviews but a lifelong growing fan and genre favourite. And with the growing success of this original, then came Predator 2 in 1990. The film was a flop, but gained a cult following, yet that was that for the series.
Fast forward a decade, and with two failed attempts at combining two popular sci-fi franchises, it was back to the solo drawing board and along came Predators which was more like the original, but failed to create a spark. Never one to back down, Fox tried again in 2019 with The Predator, but failed again to ignite the success that made the original the best of the now unfortunate franchise.
But with work on a new film bubbling away since 2018, it fell to director Dan Trachtenberg to use his horror/thriller senses to bring the franchise back to its roots as a survival horror. Not a tick box of who will get killed off next with jump scares and one action scene after another, but going back the most primitive of conflicts that underpinned the original. Man (now woman) vs beast; survival of the fittest.
Welcome to Prey.
The theme of this film is about predators and prey, and the will to survive. From seeing the nature of life go from ant, to rat, to snake and then Predator itself, we are always reminded of the nature of survival throughout this story.
Even when it comes to surviving the elder males in the native tribe you call your own, there is always a fight to be had. Amber Midthunder plays Comanche warrior Naru, eager to prove herself to the elders she is worthy of being a hunter, and living up to the expectations of her brother Dakota Beavers. Midthunder is stripped of modern technology; no GPS, no automatic weapons, grenades or flamethrowers, no armour. All she has is the weaponry fashioned from iron, wood and bone. Couple this with the Comanche desire to survive, hunt and stand proud, and you have a warrior as fierce as any US Navy Seal or mercenary.
Midthunder plays Naru with fierce determination and bravery with never a moment felt she's out of place. The introduction to her Commanche life sets her up as a character well, and with Midthunder's heritage of Indigenous American and part of the Fort Peck Sioux Tribe, you can't help see her live and breathe the role as authentically as possible. A true survivor, who can fight against any foe she has to. Naru isn't here to crack wise, or be quirky - she's as capable as any machine gun toting special forces sexual Tyrannosaur. Her support cast are equally effective in creating the Commanche tribe you care about and understand, including Michelle Thrush and Stormee Kipp, rather than just faceless nobodies.
Our best real glimpse to the Predator in question comes from a blood-soaked battle with a grizzly brown bear 45 minutes in. Before that, its presence is peppered throughout with that iconic breathing, the flashes of camouflage stalking through woodland and mud, and the use of heat vision to identify it's next prize. And then into the final act, we are treated to the revelation of our one ugly mother fu...nny how Trachtenberg doesn't abuse the Predator as many have before. And this is a good thing to keep him hidden as a screen villain but always present off screen.
Trachtenberg knows we know about this creature, what it does and how it does it. So we are treated to see this without losing that underlying threat it once encapsulated. And what is even more effective, is that the amount of gruesome kills it carries out never once get overly gratuitous to become a splatterfest of guts and gore. We see a lot, without seeing it. Brilliantly effective edits and cuts are juxtaposed perfectly so we feel and imagine every disembowelment, decapitation, explosion and impalement without seeing the excess. This is never played for tongue-in-cheek amusement, and the horror is always there. Kudos also for the imposing physical performance by Dane DiLiegro.
Of course the action is a lot more grounded, a lot more real and a lot less quieter than we've had it before. But because of this, it's a true cat-and-mouse hunt, stalking through the forests using your senses to be alert and track the hunter, or be the one hunting the hunter itself. It's a welcome new take on the stale franchise, and tries to go back to the simple narrative we are used to and a more effective Predator.
"If it bleeds, we can kill it," notes a Commanche warrior. A message that resonates 268 years later with Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer. That's one hell of an origin story!
Prey has suspense, horror, action and drama with no flab. Trachtenberg feels like he has taken the last effective idea of a Predator story and finally done it well. Now is the time to go out on a high.
'Prey' is a co-production between 20th Century Studios and Davis Entertainment
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