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Prey
One night, several deer hurl themselves unexpectedly against the electric fence of a farm. Seeing deep signs of biting on the animals’ bodies, the farm owners realise that a predator is roaming about the neighbouring woods. Having determined to hunt it down, the farmer and his family penetrate deep into the surrounding forest. They look with bewilderment at the dying environment ravaged by a mysterious evil force. As the sun slowly sinks away, howling resounds through the forest. The hunters have become prey...
Release : | 2011 |
Rating : | 5.2 |
Studio : | Quasar Pictures, |
Crew : | Art Direction, Art Direction, |
Cast : | Bérénice Bejo Grégoire Colin Isabelle Renauld François Levantal Joseph Malerba |
Genre : | Adventure Drama Horror Thriller Mystery |
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Reviews
A Masterpiece!
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
Since the Italian film industry's "genre" film makers have sadly pretty much disappeared from view since the early 1990's (with Dario Argento perhaps being the only exception to it),I started to become very intrigued,when recently reading that since the mid 2000's a gradually building New Wave of Horror films has been taking place in France.As I started to do more research into this new movement,I began to get very excited in taking a look at this new exciting era of Euro Horror movies.Checking on Amazon,I was thrilled to find a pretty recent French Horror film being sold at a very good price,which led me to deciding that I would at last take a look at the brand new Grand Guignol.The plot:Being dragged along by his pregnant girlfriend to finally pay a visit to her wealthy family,Nathan instantly starts to feel a strong sense of being viewed as "not worthy" when his girlfriends family try to act as if he does not exist whilst they discuss about a disturbing number of strange dead animals that have been turning up near the family-owned pesticides plant.Desperate to find out what is causing the deaths of the animals,the family start to gather up all of their guns so that they can investigate the near by woods.Just as the family are about to set off,Nathan's girlfriend tells them all that they should take Nathan along so that he can begin to "bond" with her family.Grudingly accepting her idea,the girls family and Nathan begin to head for the woods,where they will make a shocking discovery about what their pesticide plant has done to the now covered in darkness woods.View on the film:Looking at the simplistic,but well executed screenplay by Antoine Blossier (who also directed) and Erich Vogel one of the main things that I noticed about the films tense plot was that it seemed to be a wonderful Horror-spin take on SCi-Fi films such as Pitch Black and Predator,as the team of intelligent,highly trained hunters enter an unknown looking wilderness fully armed,only to discover that the things they are facing are far more cunning and worthless than they ever could have began to imagined.With the Sci-Fi riffs Blossier and Vogel also include tremendous small character moments that really help to make each one very individual,such as Nathan (played by a great intense and charming Gregoire Colin) always being shown as someone,who even when trying to survive an attack from a psychotic pig (!) is still determined to get out of this nightmare that he has found himself in and go back home, to show his girlfriend that he will be able to handle the new pressures that are about to arrive.Along with the screenplay,Antoine's blood-drenched brilliant directing also gives a thrilling balance between the Sci-Fi riffs, (a nice,horrific scene of the mutated pigs attacking the hunters in an overgrown fields being like a group of over fed Velociraptor's from Jurassic Park)and a strong claustrophobic feel,with the oddly elegant scenes of Nathan hiding under some freshly dead animal corpses in an attempt not to be "smelled out" being shot with only minimal lighting which really helps to give the terrific, strong feeling that Nathan is about to find himself in a coffin made of dead,mutated pigs.Final View on the film:A great Horror with Sci-Fi riffs that is also a tremendous intro to The New Wave of French Horror.
You made your bed, now lie in it. We mess with Nature at our own risk. Genetically modified fertilizers can cause some nasty problems, as we see in this first feature by French director Antoine Blossier.While the family heads to the woods to find what is out there, we are treated to tensions caused by one not born into the group. The rest act as if he is also prey and they try to tear him apart.While in the woods in the darkness, we see snouts and teeth and hear terrifying noises. Will any survive? Do you really care for any of them?Is there anything new here? Haven't we seen it all before (Prophecy, Razorback, Pig Hunt)? The actors were good, and kept our interest, but I wonder if it would have been worth it to wait for Eric Valette's The Prey. Serial killers are more exciting than razorbacks.
I always liked natural horror/eco terror genre and who doesn't? With entertaining flicks such as The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), Them! (1954,)Jaws (1975), Prophecy (1979) and more recently Gwoemul (2006), Rogue (2007)etc.This film also contains a family feud, between generations with a lot of dark undercurrents that is not that common but fuels this thriller and makes it a little less predictable. There are twists and turns that will surprise future viewers and feels more like a play from Eugene O'Neill, Tennesse Williams etc.When it comes to the genre of pigkiller films, the FX is not bad but could been a little more audience friendly. Even Razorback (1984) gave us better and that movies FX has aged. Compared to Chawu (2009)however, it does not solely rely on CGP(computer generated pork).The message is common tired old cliché but nevertheless important, profit at any cost even if the environment has to pay a high price. The acting is pretty solid with lots of nice performances from Grégoire Colin, François Levantal, Fred Ulysse, Joseph Malerba etc.Sometimes it feels like you are watching the disintegration of a family. Add natural horror/eco terror you get a pretty nice mix. But this being a darker, European, genre film don't expect a upbeat, positive tone, this film contains no lighter moments.While not the greatest effort, it is solid, has some scary moments and is more entertaining then Pig Hunt (2008)and should give any future viewer a good popcorn cinema fest.
I know this film has received quite a bit of press and discussion on the Wildside forums but for some reason I was at a loss for what this film was about when I first rented it. As it progressed, I got the picture rather quick as Prey doesn't take long at all to jump into the thick of things. It's no surprise (or spoiler) that Prey's killer pigs aren't normal but I probably should warn creature feature fans that these particular piggies aren't of the deformed variety. They do, however, appear to be real deal FX creations (which they reveal sparingly) instead of CG though and that really helped me remain within the film.The actors all performed admirably but their characters were, in my opinion, rather bland and lacked personality. Not only did they come off flat but their motivations will be disappointingly apparent to astute viewers, leading to a predictability that siphons away some of the impact of the finale. I found myself losing interest in the fates of the characters, even the remotely likable ones, of which there weren't many. There's certainly more than enough tension to hold your attention though and it never lets up, not even for a minute.Prey is a decent thriller with some gruesome sequences of woodland carnage but it's nothing I could see myself watching again or even purchasing for my personal collection. When it comes to killer pig flicks, it is infinitely superior exercise in suspense than a film like Pig Hunt, which was completely gonzo, but the ecological disaster concept is stale and the entire film lacks replay value for me. Still not a bad film so give it a shot, you may enjoy it.