Prey is, effectively, two movies. We have a film about an alien coming down from space to wreak havoc on the human race, and then we have the story of a man infiltrating a lesbian relationship. This does give the film more than enough to go on when it comes to keeping things entertaining; but on the other hand, the whole alien plot actually gets in the way of the other plot and while I essentially saw this movie because it's a horror film; it's the horror that spoils it! However, while it certainly does have it's failures; Prey is a movie that was obviously shot on a very low budget and since it is a rather original take on a common movie theme; it does deserve a lot of plaudits. The movie begins with a scene that sees a young couple in a car. After a bright light in the sky, the man gets out and ends up becoming possessed by the alien before killing the girl. This all happens not far from the home of Jessica and Josephine; a pair of lesbians living in a beautiful large house. After meeting the alien and seeing him hurt, they invite him in to stay with them.
The film is directed by Norman J Warren and that will be enough to put some viewers off I'm sure; as the director of such rubbish as Bloody New Year and Satan's Slave is not exactly well known for making good horror films. However, this is a cut above and surely his best work. That's not to say it's anything like high quality however! The acting is extremely poor in places and the plot doesn't exactly move smoothly; and that isn't helped by some extremely trite and stupid dialogue! The lesbian couple is much better portrayed than the alien and both do actually have some character and the dynamics of their relationship has a huge effect on how the story moves. The alien, played unconvincingly by Barry Stokes, is extremely poor and the performance relies too much on the alien not knowing much about Earth, which soon gets tiresome. However, it's only short and the weird goings on (such as a fox hunt and the alien being dressed as a woman) have a sort of surreal quirk to them. It all boils down to a gratuitous ending that works quite well. Overall, this is not great by any means; but it's an interesting cult gem and is at least worth seeing.
The film is directed by Norman J Warren and that will be enough to put some viewers off I'm sure; as the director of such rubbish as Bloody New Year and Satan's Slave is not exactly well known for making good horror films. However, this is a cut above and surely his best work. That's not to say it's anything like high quality however! The acting is extremely poor in places and the plot doesn't exactly move smoothly; and that isn't helped by some extremely trite and stupid dialogue! The lesbian couple is much better portrayed than the alien and both do actually have some character and the dynamics of their relationship has a huge effect on how the story moves. The alien, played unconvincingly by Barry Stokes, is extremely poor and the performance relies too much on the alien not knowing much about Earth, which soon gets tiresome. However, it's only short and the weird goings on (such as a fox hunt and the alien being dressed as a woman) have a sort of surreal quirk to them. It all boils down to a gratuitous ending that works quite well. Overall, this is not great by any means; but it's an interesting cult gem and is at least worth seeing.