Prey

PREY (2016, original title Prooi) is the latest from Dutch director Dick Maas, whom you may remember from the 1980s and such films as THE LIFT and AMSTERDAMNED. Sadly his budgets have dwindled in the years since and inevitably there's been a drop in quality in his films, but his heart is still there and PREY is a story with a simple yet classic premise: a man-eating lion is let loose in the streets of Amsterdam and proceeds to go on a rampage of destruction.

As a fan of nature-runs-amok type films this was an irresistable premise for me, and yet the film itself is only so-so. It doesn't help that the version showing on Prime is saddled with an appalling English dub track which makes the whole thing feel like a quirky comedy. The characters are ridiculous, particularly the greate white hunter with his state-of-the-art wheelchair complete with motorised tracks. However, there is a lot of killing and a good amount of gore, which at least counts in this film's favour. The lion is pure CGI but I've seen worse.

Also how the lion gets inside a moving tram is beyond my understanding. The film has moments of tension, lots of kills, one pretty disturbing scene regarding a small kid n cool effects.

In my opinion i feel the director Dick Maas (i have enjoyed his The Lift) is very underrated.

The secret to fully enjoying this film, is not to take it too seriously. Let's face it, nothing here is believable or realistic and is purely for fun and effect.

And fun it was! This is a very enjoyable horror comedy in a similar style to the 2006 Australian film 'Black Sheep', just not as satirical. 'Prey' was more suspenseful with nail-biting moments and quite a lot of gore. As for the humor, it was actually really funny and worked well. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters and their back stories and Sophie van Winden was a likable lead.

The film has a great climax with a stunning twist ending. As I said, don't take it too seriously and you will have fun with this little film. (If you prefer a serious lion film, rather watch 'The Ghost and the Darkness'.)

Would I watch it again? Yes!

The story isn't that bad and killer lion are rarely uses in horror movies. The opening does a good job setting up the arrival of the lion and there's a couple of suspenseful scenes when the lion appeared. But the story is mostly weak because its pretty predictable and it mostly the characters trying to figured out how to stop it. Most of the plans are done by the side characters and most of the time it doesn't work at all. I also found the twist revealed near the end to be predictable and pretty obvious.

One thing I enjoyed in the movie is chase scenes where the characters are either running away or is hunting after it. I found those scenes to be enjoyable and suspenseful.

I've been waiting for this one to come to the States for a while. Originally released in 2016 and originally entitled ProoI a.k.a Prey. This Dutch creature feature has finally hit us and has been retitled Uncaged. It's a fairly generic title but its promise of satisfactory killer cat thrills is quite successful. The setup is simple as a killer lion attacks Amsterdam with a cast of quirky characters to try and help. The film is fun and gory but not overdone in any way. It's best watched with subtitles because the dubbing is a bit wonky. Although it never strives to be more than what it is, its definitely fun.

3.75/5