Prey refreshes the Predator franchise in ways that are predictable, unpredictable and surprising. All in all, it’s the best non-Schwarzenegger outing of the lot (which makes it number two of five overall, or seven if we’re including the Alien vs Predator spin-offs).
An alien spaceship lands on the Great North Plains in 1719. On board is the mostly heat-seeking, mostly invisible, mostly lethal warrior/creature we’ve met before and outside are a band of Comanches going about their daily lives. One of their number, Naru (Amber Midthunder), almost instantly is on to the fact that the evil has landed, and over the swift, pacey 100 minutes that follow it’s Naru and her dog who take on the creature, but not before it’s laid waste to man and beast in a majorly gorey way.
There’s predictable stuff here – it’s a female protagonist this time out, who has to fight the patriarchy as well as the predator (a metaphor for the patriarchy if you like). This is the Disney-princess-as-warrior plot, pretty much a go-to since 2012’s Brave.
And there’s unpredictable stuff – Amber Midthunder is great casting, athletic, likeable, feisty and not improbably tough (she may be a warrior wannabe but she’s not put the hours in). What’s also unpredictable is that writer Patrick Aison and co-writer/director Dan Trachtenberg rigorously stick to the rules laid down by the franchise. With the odd design tweak this is the creature we know, behaving the way we expect – mercilessly.
Surprising, apart from the fact that Prey is good, is the Aison/Trachtenberg approach, which is nature documentary meets The Revenant. Long before the predator goes to work on humans, we see the local and alien fauna interacting. A rat catches an insect, which is itself caught by a rattlesnake, itself then speared and dispatched by the invisible foe. Later, a rabbit meets a wolf and it doesn’t end well for the bunny. Then the wolf meets the Predator – same/same – all shot in sharp, refreshingly clear nature-documentary style. All that’s missing is a hushed voiceover.
Naru, in the best scenes of the film, gets the The Revenant end of that deal – fighting natural calamity (quicksand, a bear) as a warm-up before the big-ticket fight, Girl (plus tomahawk) versus Predator (plus tech).
Part of the fun watching something like Prey comes from shouting at the screen. What warrior goes into battle with her long hair flapping about? Doesn’t all that swishy leather fringing make Naru detectable from several hundred metres? And, while we’re cavilling, how does a heat-seeking predator detect a cold-blooded creature anyway? Answer, from your inner smartass – it’s the rat, not the snake, that it was after.
Considering that the likes of Erich von Däniken had long careers writing books about aliens engaging with prehistoric humanity, it’s interesting that the movies rarely set any sci-fi story in the past. Add this to the tally of the unexpected – it’s also Prey’s plot masterstroke.
Trachtenberg has done this before, somehow squeezing unexpected extra mileage out of Cloverfield in its sequel, 10 Cloverfield Lane, by coming at the original sideways and turning a found-footage disaster movie into an abduction/hostage thriller follow-up, again with a resourcesful female as its focus.
For added male chauvinism and some subplotting with ethical/green heft, Trachtenberg and Aison bolt on a band of rapacious trappers, recent arrivals on the continent whose MO is to kill bison, skin them and leave vast numbers of flensed unwanted carcases to rot on the plains. There to demonstrate that, you know, humans can be predators too. The hunters speak French, so those alert to America-bashing by the wokes can hang on to that if they’re feeling threatened.
In among that lobby will be survivors of the audience that saw the original film, which came out 35 years ago in 1987. Trachtenberg and Aison lob them a few chunks of raw meat in the form of verbal callbacks. Not so much that it’s intrusive but enough for the veterans to feel the warm glow of inclusion.
There’s a bit of something for everyone, in fact. But it is a refresh and not a reboot. Amber Midthunder won’t be back as Naru in a follow-up. But the Predator might, in any historical period. Could be interesting.
Prey – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2024
