Prey (2022) - A Guest Review by Chad Dixon

Set in the Predator Universe, the film 'Prey' came out in 2022. Set in 1719 North America, it follows Naru, (Amber Midthunder) a young Comanche woman living in a small tribe, trying her best to break the stereotype of just being a gatherer like the other females. Instead, like her brother, she wants to prove herself and the tribe, to be an accomplished hunter.

One day, out in the landscape with her trusty canine tracker, she is following a stag when she hears a crack of thunder and witnesses a light in the sky that comes to the ground in the distance. Then later that night she is out with her brother Tabee, (Dakota Beavers) and a handful of other braves trying to kill a cougar that had come onto their usual hunting ground. However, it's not what is stalking them tonight.

This was an interesting twist on a franchise that had definitely gotten repetitive in it's last couple of outings. Director Dan Trachtenberg did a good job of setting this early 18th century, in a part of North America barely touched by the White Man. With the native people still living their uncomplicated lives in balance with Nature in the stunning landscape. Ms Midthunder is definitely the star, is in virtually every scene and I can't really fault her performance. Mr Beavers was also pretty solid. The remaining Native American actors playing the tribal members looked authentic but the other young braves were more like a bunch of Californian surfer dudes in their interactions with each other. Also, it was a bit jarring that they sometimes spoke an indigenous language and then all of a sudden in English.

Part the way through, the siblings encounter a band of French-speaking traders that were typically as arrogant towards them as I guess any White interlopers treated indigenous people's during those pioneering days. All their dialogue was accompanied by only French subtitles, which I thought was a bit weird. Of course we have to mention The Predator. Played by 6'7" former basketball player, Dane DiLiegro, he seemed to have an almost endless array of deadly tech on his scant armour. Regardless, all the various fight choreography against the virtually stone age weapons was done well.

My main gripe is that I would have only liked the viewer to have been aware the alien's presence only when the first tribal member did instead of virtually at the beginning. It just seems to spoil any anticipation of the inevitable encounter. Anyway, the 1h 39m run time is about right and the 15 certificate is warranted due to the graphic nature of how our favourite alien hunter does his thing! Fairly decent popcorn movie which at the moment is free to stream on the All 4 platform at time of writing.