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Prey (Film)
Rating: MA
Running Time: 79
Country: Australia
Director: Oscar D'Roccster
Cast: Natalie Bassingthwaighte , Jesse Johnson, Ben Kermode, Natalie Walker
Distributor: Top Cat Films
Film Worth: $4.50
Release Date: May 05, 2009
"...a unique but unfulfilling horror film."
Australian supernatural horror film, Prey, is one in which even the much-hyped lesbian shower scene is a disappointment. Starring So You Think You Can Dance host Natalie Bassingthwaighte as Kate, an ambitious young E.R. surgeon, the film has gotten a beating at the box office.
American Jesse ‘son of Don' Johnson plays Gus, who convinces Bassingthwaighte to join him on a 4WD trip into the infamously-dangerous outback in a caravan of friends made up of Aussie larrikin Jason (Christian Clark), his alluring girlfriend Ling (Natalie Walker), Kate's cousin, the whimsical Annika (Kristen Sargent) and her gay friend Matt (Ben Kermode). Introductions of these characters are done through the cop-out method of stamping their name across their picture, Snatch style, starting the film out on a bad note.
After the group begins their trip, Kate starts suffering some disturbing dreams and soon discovers that she's pregnant. She then accepts a red stone necklace and recommendation to travel offcourse to an unmapped water-hole from creepy-looking local Bill (Nicolas Bell)... par for the course in this outlandish flick.
Surprise, surprise, after driving for hours, guided by a mysteriously faulty compass, instead of a watering hole, they end up in a mystical sandpit ridden with snakes that turn people into flaming zombies. One by one, the bodies start piling up in the back of one of the 4WDs and every attempt to escape inexplicably leads them back to the same deadly spot. Add in a strangely sensual hand massage, a dust storm, an emergency tracheotomy attempt, and a death-by-healing-crystal-puncture and you've got a unique but unfulfilling horror film.
With bad dialogue, mediocre acting, ridiculous plot and glaring bloopers (for instance, a truck that was left behind when no longer needed was clearly seen following the caravan again in the next shot), the film's only hope is that their DVD release may be more successful than the dismal cinematic nightmare.