Prey (Movie Review)

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

PLOT: After his father is brutally murdered, Toby (Logan Miller) is sent to a remote island off Malaysia as part of a Lost and Found survival program. Little does he know that a demonic entity awaits his arrival!

REVIEW: Franck Khalfoun and fellow French filmmaker Alexandre Aja have long been attached at the hip. Even as they’ve gone their separate directorial ways in 2019 – Aja with the killer-croc outing CRAWL, and Khalfoun with the exotic island thriller PREY – both films could play as a complimentary double-feature reliant on ancient animalistic threats. But if CRAWL is a fun, good old-fashioned creature-feature, then PREY is more of a deftly duplicitous demonic horror yarn that, like most Aja/Khalfoun joints, tucks one last unpredictable twist into a seemingly upbeat ending. I love these dudes for pulling the pranksome rug on audiences with such gleeful delight. And while the underlying intrigue of PREY may be more fascinating than the ultimate explication behind it, the movie is certainly worth a look for the exotic outdoor locales and macabre production design, the strong central performance by Logan Miller, and the gallant willingness by Khalfoun to scrap a felicitous finale in favor of something far more unnerving. Even if the outcome is only partially effective, the attempt is admirable. Never mind its generic title, PREY is a finely photographed, paced, and performed evil islander that hits select theaters Friday, September 27th.

Toby is a typical attitudinal teenager. When his father asks to join him in the garage to work on a cherry Chevelle, Toby rejects the offer and watches TV. Moments later, dad is slaughtered in the driveway by a pair of murderers decked in animal costumes. With no remaining family members left to lean on, Toby is boated out to an island off the coast of Malaysia. He’s to partake in a Lost & Found rehab program that requires patients to survive alone in an uninhabited jungle. It’s an absolute shit-show for Toby at first. He cuts his foot on seashells, eats toxic shellfish, gets sick, etc. Meanwhile, the exotic surrounding wildlife seems to advance threatening, mystical vibrations. Just what the hell is going on?

Toby is afforded a few answers when he meets Madeleine (Kristine Froseth), a 16-year-old girl who is an expert on the lay of the land. She shows Toby how to procure and prepare food, which plants are beneficial, which snakes avoid fire, etc. Toby learns Madeline was brought to the island as a little girl by her parents. But when Toby finds his chaperone’s boat capsized, he witnesses Madeleine’s mother suspiciously swim away from the wreckage. With a dense air of intrigue hanging over the entire picture, Toby ambles his way through a beautifully eldritch jungle in search of answers. The way Khalfoun paces the film and maintains this very sense of mystery is what makes the movie so enthralling. We aren’t quite sure if the violent threats in the jungle are human or inhuman in nature, and the opaque delineation between the two keep us both on-edge and off-kilter for most of the way. For his part, longtime Ti West DP Eric Robbins (THE SACRAMENT, IN A VALLEY OF VIOLENCE) lenses the gorgeous exteriors with a palpable sense of immersion.

Alas, when the plot is finally explained, the details aren’t quite as compelling as the cryptic set-up preceding it. Not to betray the story in full, but a demonic subplot comes to light in a way that adheres to the ancient traditions of nature and deified animal life the earlier part of the film explores. When the demonic entity appears onscreen, the visual representation resembles a ferocious feline with razor claws that we haven’t quite seen before. Credit goes to Khalfoun for trying to depict a new breed of demon that, while a bit visually gauche in spots, comes off as a pretty unsettling foe by the final act. Thankfully, even before such is revealed, we’re aptly carried through the narrative by Logan Miller as Toby.

Miller has stolen scenes in larger ensembles like SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE APOCALYPSE and LOVE, SIMON, but here he seizes the opportunity to lead the film, often without dialogue, in a manner that keeps the action engaging throughout. To this end, while a tad maudlin at times, the emotive flashbacks Toby has to his father and the unbreakable bond they once shared over the prized Chevelle, work to lend Toby the inner-strength to press on, signal for help, and find a way off the island. Miller properly calibrates his performance to make Toby feel real and relatable enough to care about his safety. I wish could the same could be said about Froseth as Madeleine and Jolene Anderson as her Mother, as the former not only appears too clean, pretty and healthy to reside in the jungle for so long, but hasn’t quite the acting chops to keep up with Miller. Perhaps this is by design in order to complete the twist properly, but the movie would likely be even better with higher quality support surrounding Miller. Still, in the end, PREY (formerly titled SOLO) is worth hunting down when it hits the public this Friday.

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