Director: Alastair Orr
Writer: Max Roberts (Screenplay)
Starring: Zachary Soetenga, Lindsey McKeon, Sofia Pernas, Pierson Fode, Jamie Anderson, Mark Steger
Plot: American Tourists travel to Panama and have a very terrifying experience.
Tagline – There are places you should never visit. This is one of them.
Runtime: 1 Hour 26 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Standard Weak Horror
Story: Prey starts as five tourists Scott (Soetenga), Steph (McKeon), Elena (Pernas), Trevor (Fode) and Charlie (Anderson) are on vacation in Panama for adventures with surfing being one of their main goals, when the friends learn of a perfect waterfall in a forbidden jungle, they go there with the local woman Carmen (Penuela).
Once there and after their fun they start getting hunted down by a mysterious creature, lost in the jungle the legendary Chupacabra is hunting them down as the race to desperately escape.
Thoughts on Prey
Characters – Scott is about to move on with the next chapter of his life, this could be his last holiday with his friends and he wants to make the most of it, part of his work is a new app which can use social media to locate and identify people on video, he picks this location, he records the message for help. Steph is Scott’s girlfriend who also worked on the app, well I think the characters are not drawn out well, she is about to go to veterinary school. Elena is the other female friend, that’s about all we learn about her and Trevor and Charlie are the other guy friends who want drinks and sex.
Performances – The performances, well the group go have chemistry between them and the fun around their adventure seems realistic, the problems come from the horror side of the film which is mostly them running in darkness and screaming, which never gives anyone a chance to perform well.
Story – The story follows the group of tourists that end up going too deep into the Panama jungle and encounter the Chupacabra, here we have the standard characters doing the running through the jungle routine, this is all done before and done a lot better, the most interesting element of the story comes from seeing the social media rescue attempt which I feel we could have seen larger parts to make it more interesting. While I would like to say this is easy to watch, I would be lying because everything in the jungle is shaky cam and difficult to figure out who is who between the character in the dark landscapes. It does however follow the normal trends, you know the order the people will get picked off without needing to think too much about it.
Horror – The horror side of the film comes with the ideas of it being a creature feature, though it does feel like The Descent creatures got ripped off and thrown into a jungle.
Settings – Panama has the beauty which we see early on and the mystery about its jungle, which brings new horrors to the film.
Special Effects – The effects focus more on the wounds which can look graphic while the creature looks frightening enough in the dark.
Scene of the Movie – The media rescue.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The shaky cam.
Final Thoughts – This is a by the books creature feature which never gets out of first gear, relies on shaky cam to often and doesn’t give us enough characters to care about.
Overall: Forgettable horror.
Rating
