Let Us Prey

...from director Brian O'Malley. It's Rachel's (Pollyanna McIntosh) first night as a policewoman in a new town, and when a mysterious stranger (Liam Cunnigham) is brought into the police station, all Hell breaks loose, and the sins of the prisoners and the police officers come back to haunt them.

There's a lot of style on display, from the music to the moody widescreen cinematography. The performances from the leads Liam Cunningham and Pollyanna McIntosh are very good, and raise the material up a few points. The violence depicted is very graphic, almost to a comical degree at times, and the script could have used a little more polishing, as the mid-section, with frequent time-jumps and location changes, is disorienting. Still, this was better than many of the horror films of recent years, and I enjoyed the ending. Filmed in Scotland and Ireland.

I was surprised. This Indie film is great! I'm a very critical viewer and the IMDb rating of 5.6 didn't offer much encouragement. The odd thing is, a number of those reviewers admitted to liking it (so much for the rating system).

The plot of this comes straight out of those Amicus movies (From Beyond the Grave, etc.) as a mysterious stranger arrives at a small-town nick where pretty soon all Hell breaks lose. The acting is fine, the effects effective, script and direction good, and there's a nice nod to John Carpenter with the soundtrack. If you like the better Carpenter movies, you'll probably like this one. Oh, and something a few IMDb reviewers agreed on: they loved the end. So did I.

A mysterious man hands himself into a police station in small town one night. It soon appears that he seems to know about the inner demons of everyone there, the cops and prisoners alike. All of these individuals have dark secrets it seems and the mystery man is the catalyst that brings them to the fore and drives them to further depravity and violence.

Let Us Prey is one of a small group of horror films set in Scotland. As it happens, two of its stars featured prominently in a couple of the other most notable Scottish set horrors of the last few years, namely Liam Cunningham who appeared in Dog Soldiers and Hanna Stanbridge so impressive as one of the main characters in The Outcast. In this one Cunningham has the central role of the mysterious demonic stranger, while Stanbridge gets to sink her teeth into a role of a female cop with a penchant for violence. She is not the only strong female character here though; Pollyanna McIntosh plays the other policewoman and is in fact the lead character to all intents and purposes. It is refreshing to have a genre picture give women more central roles; I have no idea why it doesn't happen more often. As it is McIntosh's cop is on her first night at this remote police station, the very night when things go horribly wrong. In this respect, the influence of John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 is pretty obvious. In addition, the electronic soundtrack used here sounds very Carpenteresque too, which was also nice.

It's a pretty modest production but it makes the most of what it has. The cast all acquit themselves very well and make the most of their characters. The direction is pacey and nicely stylised in places. I particularly liked the opening credit sequence with images of giant waves and sinister ravens. It maybe could be argued that the film doesn't perhaps ultimately go into as interesting places as it promises it might and it does get a little generic towards the end. But it is still different enough to ensure it is interesting. It also has the distinction of having a central demonic villain who is not one dimensionally evil; he's just a guy with a job to do.

Let Us Prey features a police station in a ghost town. Literally. You cannot find any people in this town making you wonder what these idiots are policing. Regardless, a stranger played by Liam Cunningham (Ser Davos from Game of Thrones) appears in the police station and sets off a chain of events which results in everyone in the station confronting/unleashing (mostly the latter) their inner demons.

And boy are those demons nasty or what! The film is not that scary but it is quite fun and has a good sense of humor. It also has good performances from Cunningham and Pollyanna McIntosh as a likable rookie named Rachel. Also in the mix are a gallery of interesting, if not likable characters such as a really creepy sergeant, his two vengeful subordinates alongside Rachel, a (not so) slightly unstable doctor, a grammar Nazi wife-beater and a drunk-driving teen.

Overall, the movie is quite fun with a delightfully nutty climax. The 5.9 rating is a bit too low. Do give it a look!

The plot of "Let Us Prey" might very well be derivative and predictable (I can already list at least 5 similar titles without even thinking too hard), but debuting writer/director Brian O'Malley nevertheless managed to deliver a compelling, brutal and sinisterly atmospheric horror/thriller. Straight from the eerie opening sequences – with a particular fascination for black birds, by the way – you'll immediately notice that O'Malley must be a tremendous genre lover and definitely knows the classics. The script borrows all kind of ideas and elements from different horror sub genres, from raw 70's grindhouse features to grotesquely silly 80's slashers, but somehow everything neatly and coherently interweaves into a tense and gruesome little film. Liam Cunningham, the extremely charismatic and marvelous actor who previously starred in "Dog Soldiers" and Dario Argento's "The Card Player", is well-cast as the mysterious stranger (complete with beard and clichéd long raincoat) who comes wandering into the police precinct of a quiet and remote Irish community. He seems to know an awful lot about the darkest secrets of everyone that is there – cops as well as petty criminals – and clearly intents to penalize them and mess up their minds beyond repair. It's up to Constable Rachel Heggie, on her very first night at a new location, to deal with the overload of maniacal tendencies that suddenly come to the surface. The Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Films promoted "Let Us Prey" as a – and I quote – demonic version of John Carpenter's "Assault on Precinct 13". That is actually a rather apt description, and I can also add the film is properly produced and brings forward impressive special effects, make-up art and a handful of cool stunts. The primarily stern plot makes a couple of absurd loops near the end, including the most derailed serial killer in recent cinema history, and admirers of harsh violence and explicit slaughter certainly won't be disappointed. Cunningham receives good and solid support from the rest of the cast, including powerful females Pollyanna McIntosh (watch "The Woman" if you dare) and Hanna Stanbridge, whom I already admired in the obscure "Outcast" and whose accent makes Irish sound like the sexiest language on earth.