The Prey Movie Review

Trailer here.

The Prey is a 1983 horror movie directed by Edwin Brown and starring Steve Bond, Debbie Thureson, Jackie Coogan and Carel Struycken.

The films starts in 1948. There are fires in the woods in a place called The Northpoint, Keen Wild in Colorado. The fire wipes out some gypsies who live in the woods. Cut to present day and a couple are camping in the woods in the same place. Someone is watching them. They get killed. A group of people are coming to Keen Wild forest to camp. They meet forest ranger Mark O'Brien(Jackson Bostwick). There are six of them. Nancy(Thureson), Joel(Bond), Gail, Greg, Skip and Bobbie(Lori Lethin). They make camp in the woods. Gail gets left behind. She thinks that something has followed her back to camp. They find out that the gypsies were actually burned by the locals because one of them was accused of raping a local girl. Only one of them survived. He was a giant child at the time.

That night, Gail and Greg hear something. Greg goes to see what it is and Gail gets attacked. Greg is next. They both die. The next morning, the others are baffled by their disappearance. All of their belongings have gone. A man called Lester Tile(Coogan) gets a call from the police saying that a couple have gone missing in the forest. Lester is the head ranger and he takes it seriously. They are the couple who were murdered at the start of the film. The group search for Greg and Gail. When they can't find them, they decide to go on without the couple. They leave a note at the camp for them. Lester talks to Mark and they talk about the missing couple. Lester tells him that he saw the giant child who survived the fire. He tells Mark that he was burned. Mark tells him that he will have a look around and he takes a tranquilliser gun.

Joel and Skip go climbing down the mountain. Mark sees buzzards eating something. It is a body. He recognises Gail. Skip gets killed next and Joel falls off the mountain when his rope is severed. Bobbie and Nancy come running where they hear a scream. They find Skip's body. Nancy finds the cut rope.

The killer approaches them. Bobbie falls into a trap and she is killed. Nancy is left alone with the killer. Mark happens to see them and he shoots at the killer with his tranquilliser gun. He manages to tackle him and knock him out. Unfortunately, the killer is strong. He kills Mark. He takes Nancy to his cave.

The film ends with a baby's cry suggesting that she has been with him and has given birth to his child.

This was a decent slasher movie. It was entertaining and there were some lovely nature scenes. The acting was so so but overall, it was good. The killer was played by the same guy who played the giant in Twin Peaks. I always enjoy films set in the woods or with a camping theme. It makes for a fun horror film. This one is better than some I have seen. I recommend it and I will give it a 5/10.