Fera Assassina

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.

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.

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.

You can't blame Dick Maas for not trying. This movie is probably not going to disappoint you if you're are a fan of his much older work. You might think Maas learned from his past mistakes, but his directing style is not going anywhere and it is still utterly horrible. The whole plot (or lack there of) is awfully slow, nothing really happens until the lion shows up and after that the whole film seems oddly paced. I won't go into details to avoid spoilers. The lion was supposed to be done entirely with digital effects, but because of the lack of budget they had to resort to animatronics, for which you could applaud the makers. Sadly, everything falls apart quickly. Whenever you see the lion, it's never believable. Not only because of how it looks, but also it's behavior. The action is entirely unsatisfying and the whole movie falls flat after the hour mark. The acting ranged from horrible to decent, which might add to the camp factor of the movie.

This movie was supposed to fall into the "So Bad It's Good" category, like most of Maas' films, but this genre is overrun by movies that made this an art form (look at the library of "The Asylum", movies like "Sharknado" and it's sequels). This movie doesn't get to that standard. What you do get is a movie that doesn't know what it wants to be, a thriller, a horror, a comedy or an action movie. Selling a movie on just the idea of a lion going on a rampage in Amsterdam isn't something you can base a complete movie on this way in 2016.

It comes down to a nice try to revive the 80's bad horror movie, something Sam Raimi recently achieved beautifully with his Evil Dead franchise. But you need more self-awareness as a filmmaker to get this to work in this day and age.

The movie supposedly cost around 3 million to make, around three times the budget most other Dutch films are made for, so it's surprising the movie feels like a bad 10.000 dollar movie.

As stated before; if you like films by Dick Maas, you might enjoy it and feel the nostalgia coming over you. But wait for it to come to Netflix and watch it on a rainy Sunday, instead of paying for a theater ticket. For all other people; save your money and don't bother with this.

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!