Own the rights?
8 out of 9 people found the following review useful: What a concept!, 17 August 2003 Author: lawfella from New Jersey, USA
A cannibal alien from outer space on a reconnaissance mission to Earth drops in on the estate of a monied, eccentric British lesbian and her neurotic woman-child live-in girlfriend. Now how can anyone possibly go wrong starting with a premise like that? It has the feel of a Merchant-Ivory film adapted by Roger Corman (or maybe a Roger Corman film adapted by Merchant-Ivory?) As added attractions, the women are erotic and beautiful and the music, for some reason, is awfully nice in parts. A great B-movie.
7 out of 8 people found the following review useful: As (satisfyingly) strange as it gets, 12 October 2001 Author: DavidCristol (basseo@yahoo.com) from Toulouse, France
A zombie from beyond space is found in an English backyard and is invited to stay in with a lesbian couple. The girls dress him up as a woman, which does not seem to affect him in the least, but provides us with a truly strange yet successful film. The story, which borrows from such various sources as THE MAN WHO FELL ON EARTH (Roeg), CUL-DE-SAC (Polanski) and STRAW DOGS (Peckinpah), is clever enough to take on board such themes as racism, sexism, love, jealousy and betrayal. With just three characters, an unusual setting and a fittingly realistic treatment, it makes for a very intriguing experience. Norman J. Warren's best ?
10 out of 14 people found the following review useful: very entertaining, 22 December 2004 Author: ethylester from Michigan
I laughed a lot near the end of this movie. I thought the character of Jo just got funnier and funnier the more jealous she became.This movie has some really great moments. In particular, the drowning scene, the hunting scene, the fighting scene where Jessica gets knocked out, the drag costume, etc etc! All are pretty original and pretty hilarious when you think about it.Why they needed the drowning scene to be in slow motion, I'll never know. And the idea of dressing an alien man up in drag, getting him drunk and playing hide and seek with him cracks me up.Jo was such a drama queen, like when the chickens got killed, when she missed the shot at the fox, when she is yelling at Jessica or running out of the house, she is always freaking out so majorly, it's great! Such an unassuming body/face, and such a huge character.I liked this movie a lot, it's worth checking out.
6 out of 7 people found the following review useful: Alien in dresses, battle-ax lesbians and celebrating dead foxes., 27 August 2007 Author: Coventry from the Draconian Swamp of Unholy Souls
A quick peek at the IMDb trivia section teaches us that "Prey" was shot in only ten days and that most of the script actually had to be improvised during shooting. These usually aren't very good signs, especially not when the director already holds the reputation of delivering movies with a low level of quality. Norman J. Warren's other films (like "Inseminoid" and "Satan's Slave") are fun but extremely unoriginal, mainly revolving on graphic bloodshed and copious amounts gratuitous sleaze. "Prey" is exactly like that, but now he totally didn't even bother to come up with a script. The result is a bizarre and often laughable film that makes no sense whatsoever, but the whole ineptness is irresistibly charming nevertheless. The story goes like this: An alien, who goes by the name of Keator, arrives in rural England with a mission to research possible new food sources to save his whole species, but the poor sucker never makes it further than the isolated mansion of two crazed lesbians. He ends up living with them; they dress him up in women's clothing like he's their third lesbian toy-girl and together they hunt down a fox. When the poor animal is eventually dead, they celebrate it with a giant party, which is just a little over-the-top if you ask me. In the meantime, Keator – whose human name is Anders Anderson (!) – develops a more or less intimate relationship with the youngest lesbian and she slowly falls for him. For you see, she's not a real lesbian but just an insecure girl and the other is a scary dominatrix that literally forces the young girl to be her lover. It's a mad world, indeed. The whole middle-section of "Prey" is rather tedious and uneventful, and only hilariously cheesy & inept dialogs keep it tolerable to sit through. Then the climax is extremely gross and bloody with a sudden massacre. Surely the sick puppies and avid admirers of 70's exploitation will appreciate the graphic bloodshed of the finale, but it comes ridiculously abrupt, like Warren suddenly got tired of his film and wanted to end it, and it totally misfits the rest of the film's tone. "Prey" is a pretty bad but curiously intriguing 70's trash-film, inclusively intended for fans of this type of cinema.
6 out of 7 people found the following review useful: Unassuming thriller works like a charm, 28 February 2005 Author: Libretio
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
PREY Aspect ratio: 1.37:1Sound format: MonoA lesbian couple (Sally Faulkner and Glory Annan) living in a remote country house are driven apart by the arrival of a young man (Barry Stokes) who turns out to be a flesh-eating alien, the vanguard of a massive invasion...Despite its shoestring budget and leaden pacing, Norman J. Warren's follow-up to SATAN'S SLAVE (1976) amounts to a great deal more than the sum of its meager parts, thanks to a surprisingly complex script by Max Cuff (apparently, his only writing credit): Faulkner and Annan indulge an obsessive relationship whilst living in isolated splendor within the English countryside (rendered alternately beautiful and ominous by Derek V. Browne's eye-catching cinematography), though Annan's discovery of bloodstained clothing in an upstairs room marks one (or both) of these doe-eyed lovelies as psychologically disturbed, which may explain the absence of their respective families, some of whom appear to have lived in the house at one time or another and 'left' under mysterious circumstances. Stokes' unexpected arrival throws the relationship into disarray, partly because Faulkner has a pathological hatred of men and partly because Annan is attracted to him, creating tensions which result in a climactic whirlwind of violence. There's an extraordinary, multi-layered sequence in which Faulkner attempts to 'emasculate' their clueless visitor by dressing him in women's clothing, though Stokes' alien mentality allows him to rise above the intended mockery.In the early scenes, at least, the relationship between Faulkner and Annan is depicted with uncommon grace and dignity, but this heartfelt sapphic liaison quickly devolves into crowd-pleasing episodes of sex and pulchritude, culminating in an explosion of horror when Annan allows herself to be ravished by Stokes following a violent argument with Faulkner. The closing sequences are (quite literally) gut-wrenching, especially Annan's final scene, which appears to have been clipped for censorship reasons in 1977 and never fully restored (what remains is still pretty vivid, so brace yourselves!). Excellent performances by the three leads, bolstered by Warren's unobtrusive direction, which takes full advantage of the stunning woodland locations, thereby compensating for the film's budgetary shortcomings. Originally released in the US as ALIEN PREY.
7 out of 9 people found the following review useful: Joyously sleazy "carnivorous alien in lezzyland" schlock., 22 August 2005 Author: bukakkefriedchicken from fabulous Las Vega$!
Instantly watchable and delightfully cheap British sci-fi finds a male alien missionary on Earth being taken in as a house-guest by an unsuspecting separatist lesbian couple. The true fanged creature is concealed beneath a stolen body, but occasionally emerges during conflicts and feeding frenzies(and looks a bit like the titular terrors of THE BAT PEOPLE). The decidedly non-vegetarian visitor becomes caught in the middle of the womyns' peculiar psychodramas and recurring hostilities, and at one point is cross-dressed by them and finds new pleasures in the consumption of champagne....allthewhile drooling over a pet bird they have kept in a hanging cage.This film, for all its misgivings, remains one of the more "out there" entries in the sci-fi/horror genre...a bad film, to be sure, but one recommendable for its sheer uncommonness. At least they were clearly trying for something altogether different...and they sure did succeed in that task.5.5 out of 10 -- for decent performances and overall...erm...queerness.
9 out of 13 people found the following review useful: Keator; to commandership, 11 November 2003 Author: fam onneweer from schagen, the netherlands
Found on a flee market, not knowing what surprise was awaiting me I put this movie into the video and loved it ever since. How could this masterpiece of Warren ever be found on such a rubbish fair??? the dialogues are perfect. The movie is funny and exciting at the same time! I have never seen a movie so good, especially the drowning-scene is great! I recommend it to everyone!
5 out of 6 people found the following review useful: I Like it, 15 October 2001 Author: LewisJForce (gunghomonro@yahoo.com) from Wolverhampton, England
I like this film. I like it a lot. I like it because it makes me incredibly nostalgic for a period in British cinema that has long since passed. The 1970's. A time when irreverent and irrelevant schlock like this could get made. I like it because it is monumentally silly yet eerily compulsive, possesses a truly odd atmosphere, and at one point it actually frightened me.It was made in 10 days with whatever change the crew had in their back pockets. It's very entertaining.How I wish up-and-comers would make stuff like this rather than the Tarantino and 'Trainspotting' tributes that they STILL are.Norman 'J.' Warren, I salute you.
3 out of 4 people found the following review useful: A little kinky, 26 June 2007 Author: dgci-net from United States
I'm glad I didn't go out and buy, or even rent this movie, but watching the low-resolution version on MovieFlix.com was enjoyable enough.Glory Annen played the best character, the somewhat vapid lover of the older lesbian. Trapped in a relationship that doesn't really excite her that much, and wanting to learn more, she plays a key role in bringing the "newcomer" into their lives.This movie was nothing special, fairly typical, if a bit kinkier than usual, Brit fare. But it was entertaining enough to watch it all the way through, which is more than I can say for a lot of films I've watched lately. A mildly interesting plot, a totally hokey alien, enough skin for the prurient, something to make a bowl of popcorn and watch when you have naught else to do.
4 out of 6 people found the following review useful: Nice little horror tale from Warren, 25 August 2002 Author: Bogey Man from Finland
***SLIGHT SPOILERS*** British horror film maker Norman J. Warren's Alien Prey (aka Prey, 1978) is a story about two lesbian lovers, Jo (Sally Faulkner) and Jessica (gorgeously beautiful Glory Annan), who live together in their big house in the countryside and don't see too much other people. Jo is very dominating and jealous of Jessica and she wants to own Jessica completely. Their relationship gets disturbed when they find a strange man (Barry Stokes) on their private property and Jessica wants to help him and take him to their house while Jo, of course, opposes. The man turns out to be an alien visitor from some other planet and he is in the Earth in order to find protein and food for himself and for others of its kind. The girls soon get clue about this as he acts very strangely and seems not to know any manners and human habits. Things go even further when Jessica starts to fall in love with the man as she is tired of being with the selfish and dominating Jo.This film deals with the themes of jealousy and what it requires to really live in love affair with another human being. Jo is very selfish as she wants to have the total power over Jessica while Jessica just wants to live happily with the person she loves, and during the film it turns out that Jo is not the one for more sensitive and sensual Jessica. Jessica finds her love from this strange visitor, but that visitor has its own jealous aims and, in this world, it seems like Jessica is way too pure and good (as good as human nature can be) to live happily in.The actress Glory Annan/Annen is very beautiful and erotic here, and she is really the kind of girl that deserved better as she's very positive character unlike Jo and the visitor. There's only these three and perhaps 2-3 other characters in this film, but there's no need for more when the film and story is like this. This is a little low budget horror film and pretty great in its own genre, but only if you love these films and can appreciate them when they deserve it.Technically this film is pretty dull at times with some bad editing and very unfinished looking scenes, and I think they are like that because of rush in production or something like that. I think Warren could've been able to make this film look better if he just had wanted/been allowed to. After all, there's much more amateurish and in all ways bad films in existence, without any positive elements so it is easy to forgive the few mistakes in Prey.There's plenty of nudity in this film and all these three main characters get naked and make love, but not all three together, of course. There's also some gore, but the strongest scene involving throat biting and cannibalism comes at the very end, but it is very restrained, yet shocking and this film works fine without huge amounts of gore every 5 minutes. I think this is a horror story, but also a depiction of rotten love affair involving one selfish and dirty character, who doesn't know what love's all about. From the films by Norman J. Warren that I've seen, I think this is his most mature film and thus among his most noteworthy achievements.7/10
Add another review
