Prey

UK Release Date. 5 August 2022
Certification. 15
Running Time. 1 hour 40 mins
Director. Dan Trachtenberg
Cast. Dakota Beavers, Amber Midthunder, Michelle Thrush.
Rating. 73%

Review.

I'm not sure the world was calling out for another instalment in the Predator filmography. The franchise has never been a particularly complex one and, in many ways, has always suffered from the inescapable comparisons to the Alien franchise [a position not helped by the two crossover films]. After enduring Predator 2, Alien vs Predator, Alien vs Predator 2, Predators and The Predator, the franchise felt like it had very little to offer a cinema-going audience. But Dan Trachtenberg's prequel, Prey, the seventh instalment in the franchise, is very much on a par with John McTiernan's explosive original.

Set in 1719, on the Great Plains of America, Prey is, first and foremost, an emotionally driven story of a Comanche woman, Naru (Amber Midthunder) trying to prove herself as a worthy hunter to members of her tribe. It is a gloriously stripped-back set up that produces an earthy, elemental, primal storyline, far removed from the original Predator and subsequent iterations.

The succinct script, which is delivered in English, French and Comanche, takes a back seat to a series of exhilarating set pieces and perfectly choreographed fight sequences. With tight editing and careful shot composition, Prey is extremely cinematic. It deserves to be seen on the big screen, but distributors Hulu and Disney+ instead opted for the straight-to-streaming model.

At the film's centre is Amber Midthunder’s Naru. A relatively subdued character, Naru communicates more through body language than she does words. Yet, Midthunder manages to instil Nara with a ferocious determination and a natural, undefinable gravitational force that continually draws the audience’s attention back to her. It may just be a career-defining performance for the young actress.

Prey succeeds by not even trying to live up to Predator. It may have taken 35 years, but someone finally would appear to have figured out how to make a Predator film that comes close to the original.