The Prey [Blu-ray]

I owned this on VHS years ago and even then I remember not being very impressed with it. Buying it again, now on blu ray, my opinion has changed somewhat. It's nowhere near as good as The Burning, nor some of the earlier Friday the 13ths, but it really does have its good points. It's beautifully made and doesn't look cheap, which is a bonus, the script is completely by the numbers and the acting isn't dreadful, there are some scenes which do seem to drag on, and the gypsy flashbacks go on for far too long, but ultimately, it's never a complete boring movie to sit through. The gore is quite tame and the ending does seem slightly rushed. But overall, quite a nice addition to my collection. Catch it on a good day and just take it for what it is, an 80s slasher that has kind of earned its place.

Ululations from the mystic void! After owning the VHS-rip for many years it is with tremendous, pre-entering the Gladiatorial ring excitement that I watched the immaculate Blu-ray of this most sanguine slasher. Directed with a rare heartfelt, wide-brained finesse, suggestive of a William Girdler or fellow celluloid centurion Don Dohler. Outside of the outstandingly impecunious visuals, it is in the multifarious confabulations of the envelope thrusting screenplay where 'The Prey' begins to tear away, eyes slavering, lips blethering into the uncharted realms of terrific terror taunting. The winsome denouement is as elusive as Jayne Mansfield's bust in 'The Girl Can't help it' (1958), the ensemble acting is no less refined than Nick Zedd's infamously sedate 'They eat Scum (1979) and the uniquely perpendicular plot hares through all three unprecedentedly singular acts like a deadly martian virus. The sublime originality is boundless, nipple-twistingly exquisite, so exhilarating the premise I am led, quite literally, with madly-staring brain to think that SF grand master Philip Jose Farmer had a filigree hand in the luminous scripting. Hey, dad! Dexterous, limber, agile, 'The Prey' got dramatic locomotion like a peyote-crazed prairie centipede, and this Technicolor triumph got electric excitement like Clark Ashton Smith got imagination. So, outside of the wildly subjective rantings of a forlorn mentalist, is the galdarn film any good? Any Good? Can Merle Haggard write a sweet sad song? Did Philip K Dick dream of electric screams? Did forgotten riff-mongers Muzza Chunka make the very best decision by calling their album 'Fishy Pants'? Arrow did do righteously, Dudley do-right by me with, this, their gore-geously glistering, full-spec release of 'The Prey' (1979) And that's all the plain speaking you need. 'The Burning', 'Friday the 13th' and 'Howard The Duck' all came many years after Edwin Scott Brown's trail-mixing, backwoods classic, 'The Hills Have eyes' and 'Von Ryan's Express' came long before 'The Prey', and, that, amigos, is something I will have to deal with on my own. There are salient moments in a chap's life, the melancholy moment he puts down his Airfix Focke-Wulf Fw 191, turns to regard the Evo Stick and takes his very first life-altering huff, and, in a no less evangelical manner, 'The Prey' may well enrapture your sedentary life for the 97 mins you expose your think matrix to the calamitous circuitous celluloid confection that is 'The Prey', shot in 1979, released theatrically in 1984 and remastered in 2019, I genuinely feel that this extended maturation process can be appreciated in much the same way as a 18 year old single malt, or a three day old Garibaldi biscuit.

Even though my advancing years have altered my brain to think more about mortgages and what I might be having for dinner, I still hold a soft spot for the much maligned slasher subgenre from my youth. Sure, most of them were never any good - but for every 'Madman' or 'Final Exam' you always had a 'Halloween', 'The Burning' or 'Friday the 13th Part 2' - so even in its up and downs, they still managed to keep my (then) teenage brain engaged. Which brings us to this; 'The Prey' - one that had initially got away from my mid '80s VHS renting self but now with the advent of Arrow Video's blu-ray release, was time to give the old fella a spin.When teenage couples Nancy and Joel, Bobbie and Skip, and Greg and Gail arrive at North Point, Keen Wild national forest in the Colorado Rocky Mountains - they think they are going to spend a fun time hiking. However, when they are systematically hunted down by a crazed, deformed maniac whose only intention seems to murderize all and sundry, they soon learn their vacation plans may have to alter in order to stay alive. Cue the usual genre staple of horny teens, untrustworthy authority figures (yup, that really is ‘The Adams Family’s Jackie Coogan as a ranger) and diabolical lunatics (with an axe!) as the rest of the movie plays out pretty much exactly as you think it will…Being an annoying self appointed slasher know-it-all, I wasn’t aware of producer/director team Edwin and Summer Brown, but it seems their previous forays into cinema revolved around titles like ‘A Thousand and One Erotic Nights’ and ‘For the love of Pleasure’ - which, y’know weren’t my usual tipples so going into ‘The Prey’ I didn’t quite know what to expect. To be fair, its well shot with strong cinematography from Joao Fernandes (he of a slew of later Joseph Zito/Chuck Norris flicks) and the locations are certainly memorable. There’s no point in taking apart the lacklustre screenplay - which is typical of the genre but what really hurts the movie is the slow plodding pace that feels like an age to get anywhere, with little urgency or invention. The bread and butter of this genre are the kill scenes and although deployed by the late John Carl Buechler - they too aren’t especially evocative or interesting. Sure, its an okay movie but on the basis of it potentially being some long forgotten ‘gem’, you may need to look elsewhere…Luckily, the fine folks at Arrow have given ‘The Prey’ a right royal treatment with a wonderful 2k restoration which truly looks stunning (it always amazes me how low budget, older movies look great when added to blu-ray whereas new flicks shot on digital cameras always look so fuzzy with ‘strip light’ style colour palettes). Alongside this we get a brand new audio commentary tracks with Summer Brown, fans Amanda Reyes and Ewan Cant followed by all new retrospective interviews with the cast, which are in-depth and fun but I would have preferred them to be cut into one documentary if honest - the piece meal nature of the interviews slows down the flow of information and feels very flat in terms of presentation. You also get a Q&A from the 2019 Texas Frightmare Weekend, a trip back to the shooting locations with fan Ewan Cant and lead Debbie Thureson, VHS trailers and an audio interview with director Edwin Brown. Rounding out the presentation is the International cut featuring the ‘infamous gypsy' sequence and a composite cut of this and the theatrical cut. All in all, its a stellar release and kudos again to Arrow for a fine release all wrapped up in a very nice package. Sadly, its another case of ‘great release, but subpar film’ and strictly one for devout horror fans who absolutely have to every slasher movie in their collection. Others should be sufficed with a one-shot watch. 1 for the movie, but a solid 4 or 5 for Arrow’s attention to detail.

Lots of shots of beeyooteefull nature (and raw old predatory nature too) interspersed with 3 frolicking young couples larking around interspersed with monster-eye view of the two things I just mentioned....The special fx are super lo-fi splatty splurty and good fun. The 'monster' made me think of the Goonies. Not bad.

Great to see these 80s films get a release. I remember seeing lots on the cinema or on vhs. Love them or loath them, they dont make them like this anymore.