Prey

Six obnoxious friends take a trip across the outback where they stumble across an ancient curse.

The utter confusion of Outback's opening scene, which features bad CGI serpents and a naff green-eyed zombie, had me concerned, but I knew that I had picked a total stinker as soon as the film began to introduce its unlikeable central characters using that tired technique of freezing the frame on each person as they are doing something that typifies their personality, applying a distressed filter to the still, and then stamping their name next to them in a grungy typeface. The use of that particular uninspired editing gimmick always sets the alarm bells ringing…

But that's just the start of what proves to be one of the most irritating, ill-conceived, poorly directed and generally unfathomable movies that it has ever been my misfortune to see. The novelty editing and directorial affectations continue unabated (split screen, grainy B&W filters etc.), director Oscar D'Roccster clearly under the impression that he's Tarantino, Guy Ritchie, or Robert Rodriguez, and the film only gets more bewildering as time passes, the true nature of the curse never being adequately explained.

One-by-one, the horrible characters are bumped off by unknown forces, the lead girl (Natalie Bassingthwaighte) gets sweaty, bloody, takes a shower fully clothed and changes her sexual orientation (!?!?), and the optional extra of a chainsaw on one of the 4x4s comes in extremely handy.

Australian cinema sinks to an all time low with the release of Prey. A pitiful "horror" film which runs for little over an hour (which in my opinion is a little over an hour too long...) Natalie Bassingthwaighte makes a very poor attempt at an American accent and the inconsistencies throughout the film are unbelievable.

I've read that the producers have tried to flog the movie (post-production of course) as a tongue-in-cheek horror film which spells a very convenient means of covering up what has essentially turned out to be a flop.

I saw the movie at a Video Ezy last week and when I asked the guy behind the counter whether it had proved popular I was informed that I would be the first to rent it in the 3 months they'd had it. That should have spelled a warning.

This movie is destined for the $2.95 bargain bin at a Big W near you!

Stay well away from this stinker.

Not good. Not good at all. "Prey" is a very low-budget independent Australian supernatural horror feature set in the devastatingly ominous outback involving a group of young adults on a 4WD road-trip to a secluded beach, but get side-track when they take a detour to find a water-hole and end up encountering a centuries old Aboriginal curse known as Kadaicha. The bizarre concept had something there to work upon and there are some odd developments (like its hip opening introducing its characters and a sensual lesbian undercurrent), but in the end it's poorly conceived, embarrassing and lousily executed to simply make it banally camped-up, jumbled b-grade hokum. Outside of the expressively edgy location photography and "What the… ending involving the survivors smacking lips", not much works or remains interesting. Aside from some neatly realised imagery, when it came to the shoddy special effects is risibly done (sometimes the deaths happening off-screen or out of shot) and the cheapness of that made the atmospherics weakly orchestrated. The pumped-up direction went hand-to-hand with its brisk editing like something from a music video clip in probably trying to cover its low-scale image. There's nothing horrific about it, as the daftly plotted story seems to get worse as it mopes along with its laughably inconsistent developments and misguided timing. When the terrible script comes to the conclusion to why all of this weird stuff is happening to these people, it's mindlessly goofy and unfulfilled with a trashy ending. Not to mention quite dull, as it heads really nowhere when they go four-wheel driving. Not helping was the clunky rock / metal soundtrack inclusions that felt out of place in certain scenes and destroys any ability of cementing a suspenseful mood. The performances don't fair any better, either being leaden or overdone with their stereotypical characters. Jesse Johnson (that's Don's son) and actresses turned singer now actress again Natalie Bassingthwaighte take the lead and would be the only recognizable names to sweat it out. Well more for being Don's son for Jesse (as what else has he done) and Bassingthwaighte would have an Australian following. Again the story is supposedly inspired by certain true events, which I never even heard about. The film might get it fans, but I'm not one.

I am reading the reviews and totally agree with all of the negative comments regarding this film. Then out of nowhere ,three perfect tens. What a joke. This is without a doubt the worst film made ANYWHERE. The script is nonsensical. I only grabbed it off the shelf at the DVD shop because Natalie Bassingthwaighte was in the cast. Why the hell did they have to make her American. That totally screwed the movie experience right from the start. We have been bombarded with American films, TV and music for the last 50 years. Why the hell do we also have to include American characters in our home grown films. We seem to be trying so hard to please Americans. As mentioned in other reviews, the lack of any sort of normal human reaction when someone meets a gruesome death is amazing.

For those who've questioned why or how this (likely the worst Aussie Horror film ever made) came into being - I would encourage you to find an in depth article on the ScaryMinds website. I'll give you the initial gist, in case you feel you've already wasted enough of your time on earth on this film. John V Soto did actually write the script the movie is based on, but the original Director (George Miller - no, not that George Miller) diverged significantly and it went straight into the gutter. The original script would actually still make a fine film; that's how different the product is from the blueprint. The Producers only had two options: 1) write the whole thing off and flush the investors money down the tiolet or 2) go with what they had and put a brave face on it. It was their money on the line and they chose (many say unwisely) the second option. Several of these sentences come straight from the ScaryMinds article and they get all the credit for them.