Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Organnall Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

mjtsmm2027 Well if you're of an age where you grew up watching horror films from the last 15 years or so, I would imagine that most of the early 80's slashers hold little to no interest. This was a time when after the money making successes of Friday 13th and especially Halloween, it seemed that cash registers could soar by making a low budget film. To be fair the popularity of the slasher at the time probably died out in 1981-ish, with a few exceptions, but most have seen some interest revitalised due to the die hard fans of this era. Now if you're discovering the album of 80's slashsers, you will of course come across this but my guess is you won't return it to many times. You will probably find much more of a seductive pull with much better made examples such as My Bloody Valentine, The Prowler, The Burning etc. Still this does at least follow most of the Slasher rules and so you have the typical factors at work: A prior tragedy/event which sets off the killer's motives, the campfire ghost stories, the bitchy girl who has sex and then of course is punished, tight shorts on early 20 something guys with curly hair, the final girl who has a concerned look throughout, the cameo of a former popular actor who is strengthening his pension fund. Most of these films are of course tripe but there are plenty where at least the interaction between the victims can be quite fun but here it's just not quite camp enough. Still, the very end at least contains a surprise and whilst these films always leave you with more scratching of the head questions, it is short, to the point and if you can fast forward through the far too many animal scenes, reasonably OK after a few beers.

Luisito Joaquin Gonzalez (LuisitoJoaquinGonzalez) If imitation is truly a form of admiration, then Friday the 13th was entitled to carry an ego the size of a Brazilian rain forest during the early eighties. The success of Sean Cunningham's opus led to an invasion of almost identically themed titles, which ranged from the good (Just Before Dawn) to the rancid (Don't go in the Woods). Interestingly enough, The Prey was generally thought of as yet another bandwagon jumper, but recent cast-member reports have suggested that actually it was shot in 1978, two years earlier than Friday, but was shelved for two years whilst finding a distributor. I find this hard to believe as it is CLEARLY borrowing from Halloween, which was released in October of that year. If I had to guess I would say early 1979. But that still pre-dates Sean Cunnigham's opus, so with a little better marketing and a quicker post-production this could have been the one with ten sequels and a remake under its belt. No, seriously! After a muted release it rapidly disappeared under the landslide of negative media coverage that engulfed the genre during its heyday. Despite some impressive gore, Edwin Brown's effort didn't even manage to garner the cult status of an appearance on the UK's notorious video nasty list, which added vitality to many of its undeserving cousins. Still awaiting a second shot at recognition on DVD, it looks as if Brown's slasher has long since been forgotten and scrapped to the video graveyard.The released version of the feature was missing huge chunks of footage that had been filmed from the original script but failed to make it to the final cut. This included a background story for the bogeyman's motives and some gratuitous extensions to the gore scenes. The reason for their exclusion remains unclear and I would be interested to see a director's cut.After a murderous and appealing opening, we meet a van full of platitudes that are heading into the forest for a relaxing vacation. They are welcomed by the Park Sheriff who becomes a key player in the plot and a memorable figure in the film's poor reputation (more on that later). As they head deeper into the woodland, we are aware that they are not alone due to the constant heavy breathed point of view shots from the stalking maniac. After what seems like a lifetime, the killer finally gets to work on the youngsters and it's up to the lethargic sheriff to come to their rescue.The Prey is among the most widely panned of the early eighties slashers, which is arguably the key reason why it hasn't yet been offered a stab at secondary acknowledgement on DVD. The first factor that the film's many critics set-upon is the unnecessary and bizarre use of wildlife stock footage, which digresses somewhat from the 'horror' structure of the plot. Although over emphasised, I actually felt that the footage worked well to build the backwoods surroundings of the storyline and I never found it as irritating as many viewers describe.I said in my description that I would return to the Park Sheriff and rightly so, because he has become something of a cult figure in slasher cinema – unfortunately for all the wrong reasons. His self-confessed 'phoned-in' performance creates bad movie hysterics in a number of scenes, but he is most fondly remembered for three exceptional slices of rancid cinema. One bizarre piece of script writing sees him telling a rubbish joke to a faun in the midst of the forest, whilst another equally peculiar sequence has him playing a four-minute solo on an ukulele, which offers absolutely *nothing* to the storyline! The third and most bizarre of the trio allows him to share the spotlight with an elderly colleague as they discuss the benefits of his miniature sandwiches! I was left wondering whether the script-writer was hoping to get noticed for a career in comedy.The inadvertent humour doesn't end there and the laughable slow-mo chase scene during the climax is pure slapstick that is all the more amusing as it was supposed to look rather creepy. And while we're talking of the climax, I cannot forget to mention final girl Nancy (Debbie Thureson)'s unforgettable contribution. The Prey, just like many of its brethren, boasts performances that would shame a nursery musical, but Thureson's portrayal of a woman awaiting her fate from the maniacal assassin sinks to new depths of banal dramatics.Director Edwin Brown attempts to emulate Joe D'Amato's method of feature pacing, which to be fair is about as beneficial as a playboy using Eddie Murphy's methods of contraception. The film drags along at the speed of an eighty-year old Zimmer framed wing-back and if it weren't for the odd inter-cut shot of the heavy-breathed psycho you could be forgiven for forgetting that this is a horror film. The score is a jumbled mix of ear piercing keyboard jaunts that sounds like a 2 year old child discovering a Casio keyboard for the first time.To be fair when the murders do occur they do provide some decent suspense and John Carl Buechler's gore effects outshine the minuscule budget. But with that aside, I guess that whether you like The Prey or not really depends on what you're looking for from a slasher movie. If you want to be scared, then cross this off your shopping list. However if you're looking for some of that laughable retro nostalgia that only these types of feature can provide, then The Prey could be right up your street. It's not as bad as its reputation would have you believe

Tikkin I think that would have been a more appropriate title for this film, since it is padded to hell and back with stock footage of various bugs and animals. I recently found The Prey in its original VHS 'big box' form and was very excited. I just LOVE finding old slasher films on VHS because the cover artwork is fantastic. Usually though, it turns out that the film itself is less than fantastic. The Prey is one of those films.To be fair, it started off OK, with the killer stalking the cliché teenagers in the woods. The heartbeat sounds used are a great effect that make you tense as you watch. This film is basically a big fat cliché, and when the "campfire stories" section rolls in, the film takes a new direction and spends almost half of the running time on the back-story of the killer. I actually thought this was quite an original idea. However, the back-story ends abruptly and shows us some stock-footage of a burning woodland (the lack of budget really starts to show now). After this, we are returned to the dumb teenagers being picked off in the woods. The killer himself isn't shown until the end, which is a shame because he actually makes an effective looking killer. Sort of like Cropsy from The Burning, but better. As for gore, there isn't too much, although there's an OK face squishing moment at the end. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this film to anyone other than slasher completists - it really is a big mess.

Freya(sableOnBlond) the-real-roobeemoon Alright - I like this because , #1. It was an all-night movie .... #2. It's supposed-to-be 80's horror and #3. It is really quirky. Not like this movie was really good or anything - but it was...different. Kinda boring at times , but even more so when u realize that anything sort-of interesting is really not going to come until the end. No stars , and - on that note - id really like to see a promotional poster of this film - cant find one anywhere! It had to at least played at the drive-in!?? Rare stuff...