ELIZABETH JACKSON
this is a really different style of film making. It has a really cool, edgy feel, and once they get out of the city and into the desert, the environment takes on like a storybook feel... really eerie and cool. The evil presence that is causing all the damage, is incredible. What happens is that the zombies are lit from within, and they have these burning cinders coming off them. This underlying theme of fire follows through the story, up until you get to the ending where the weird guy at the campfire is chanting and doing aboriginal drawings on Kate's stomach. He's the guardian of this insatiable monster that's been awakened (by the revenge killing the opening scene) and he's serving the monster by luring victims to the site. You learn from the voice-over of the wise old woman at the end that the revenge killing has awakened the dark side of a creature that was previously a source of protection for the land and the people and has been slumbering for centuries, deep under the ground. But the revenge killing has awakened its dark side and it now needs a constant diet of tourists to satisfy its hunger. At the end when Kate kills the monster's keeper (weird guy), the monster reverts to the previous benign being and all is well with the world again .... or is it???????? Sensational soundtrack too
jvarney81
Australian cinema sinks to an all time low with the release of Prey. A pitiful "horror" film which runs for little over an hour (which in my opinion is a little over an hour too long...) Natalie Bassingthwaighte makes a very poor attempt at an American accent and the inconsistencies throughout the film are unbelievable.I've read that the producers have tried to flog the movie (post-production of course) as a tongue-in-cheek horror film which spells a very convenient means of covering up what has essentially turned out to be a flop.I saw the movie at a Video Ezy last week and when I asked the guy behind the counter whether it had proved popular I was informed that I would be the first to rent it in the 3 months they'd had it. That should have spelled a warning.This movie is destined for the $2.95 bargain bin at a Big W near you!Stay well away from this stinker.
lost-in-limbo
Not good. Not good at all. "Prey" is a very low-budget independent Australian supernatural horror feature set in the devastatingly ominous outback involving a group of young adults on a 4WD road-trip to a secluded beach, but get side-track when they take a detour to find a water-hole and end up encountering a centuries old Aboriginal curse known as Kadaicha. The bizarre concept had something there to work upon and there are some odd developments (like its hip opening introducing its characters and a sensual lesbian undercurrent), but in the end it's poorly conceived, embarrassing and lousily executed to simply make it banally camped-up, jumbled b-grade hokum. Outside of the expressively edgy location photography and "What the
ending involving the survivors smacking lips", not much works or remains interesting. Aside from some neatly realised imagery, when it came to the shoddy special effects is risibly done (sometimes the deaths happening off-screen or out of shot) and the cheapness of that made the atmospherics weakly orchestrated. The pumped-up direction went hand-to-hand with its brisk editing like something from a music video clip in probably trying to cover its low-scale image. There's nothing horrific about it, as the daftly plotted story seems to get worse as it mopes along with its laughably inconsistent developments and misguided timing. When the terrible script comes to the conclusion to why all of this weird stuff is happening to these people, it's mindlessly goofy and unfulfilled with a trashy ending. Not to mention quite dull, as it heads really nowhere when they go four-wheel driving. Not helping was the clunky rock / metal soundtrack inclusions that felt out of place in certain scenes and destroys any ability of cementing a suspenseful mood. The performances don't fair any better, either being leaden or overdone with their stereotypical characters. Jesse Johnson (that's Don's son) and actresses turned singer now actress again Natalie Bassingthwaighte take the lead and would be the only recognizable names to sweat it out. Well more for being Don's son for Jesse (as what else has he done) and Bassingthwaighte would have an Australian following. Again the story is supposedly inspired by certain true events, which I never even heard about. The film might get it fans, but I'm not one.
alan rondal
Yep, my title says it all and its what i said to a mate when i was watching it. You don't understand how bad this movie is until you watch it. its like a monkey found a football and said i can banging that. He's trying, he's getting the idea but as he goes he keeps falling off and jumping right back on not releasing that everyone watching is in tears of laughter. ah...poor monkey. This movie is the monkey. There are blatant attempts to make this international product by making 2 of the leads American. but their accents are so bad that the dog down the street started to howl in pain, i'm serious. but how's this for editing: 2 cars, 2 cars, 2 cars, 3 CARS, 2 cars, 2 cars. Yep the editor is numerically dyslexic(if thats not spelled right i don't care because the film maker sure as hell didn't) I didn't want my money back though, i never do, because i think of these movies as a cathartic experience. I do want people to know that we do make good movies in Australia, its just that our genre stuff isn't quite hitting the mark right now.