Le zombie venu d'ailleurs

Wow.

This one came out of nowhere. I'm just watching my way through some Z-grade movies, enjoying cheesy science fiction, laughing at half-baked plots, and struggling to get through some real duds. Then I get to PREY. This one stands out from the rest. Not because it's sexploitation (already got a bit of that in HUNDRA) but because it lures you in with one plot but then sucker punches you with another once you get settled. PREY is two-fold, with a pair of plot threads running parallel over the course of the movie. The first, most obvious, and primarily advertised is that of the alien. The movie opens with the landing of an alien ship in the English countryside. The alien quickly murders a man and assumes his identity, wandering into the forest until he comes to an isolated cabin and our second plot line. Living in this cabin are a pair of lesbian lovers, Josephine (Sally Faulkner) and Jessica (Glory Annen). Right from the start, something seems off about these two. Josephine in particular seems angered by the presence of this mystery man and seethes with a hatred for men in general. Jessica is the more naïve of the couple, kind-hearted and caring. Her first reaction to this stranger on their property is to give him shelter and see to whatever wound is causing his limp. Tensions mount as Josephine struggles to turn Jessica against the man, who has assumed the name Anders Anderson (Barry Stokes), while Anderson tends to his own shady business.

You see, the movie starts out as a sort of body-snatchers thriller. We get the alien landing and then it stumbles across an attempted date rape in the middle of the woods; it rips the man's throat out and transforms to assume his identity before proceeding to crush his date to death with its bare hands. All right, cool. We're off to a fun start and there's even some gore effects when he kills the dude. Then we move on to the cabin and…hold on…now the movie is about a young woman trapped in an abusive relationship with an older woman. Keep in mind, when we first meet the alien it rips a man's throat out and yet, still, Josephine comes across as the most evil character in the movie. She's spiteful and passive aggressive; she's mentally and emotionally abusive to Jessica, keeping her trapped on this little farmstead. Josephine fills Jessica's head with venomous lies, telling her that they have to stay in their hidden little cabin because the evil villagers don't approve of their lesbian lifestyle. Whether that's true or not is never seen, as we rarely wander far from the cabin. And Josephine is hateful of any sort of outside interference. We constantly hear of a man name Stanley, a friend who apparently used to come along once in a while before the movie but has since ceased contact with them. Jessica misses him but Josephine insists she's wasting her time prattling on about him.

So we've got an alien presence and an abusive relationship, but that's not all PREY has to offer. This movie is insane and the more you think about it, the crazier it gets. Keep in mind, the women have no idea Anderson is an alien. They assume from his bizarre behavior that he's just mentally disabled in some fashion. They invite this odd stranger into their home and, at one point, have a little party where they inexplicably dress him up in women's clothing, make up and all. OK, he's an alien and has no idea what's going on, but to these women he's just a mentally confused stranger they can slather in lipstick. It gets crazier. At one point, Anderson ends up thrashing in a lake because he can't swim. In the wide shot, he is very obviously in water that can't be more than six inches deep. And he's just splashing around in a panic. Then Josephine and Jessica jump in to save him and all three wind up thrashing in this shallow water in slow motion while the soundtrack pounds away. Mind you, this water was black and seriously nasty, and there are plenty of shots where poor Glory Annen takes in a mouthful of this muck. Ugh, poor girl. And her character is just so stupid. When Jessica goes in search of clean clothes for Anderson, she happens across a trunk in Josephine's room containing bloody clothes and an enormous switchblade. Just a big ol' box of evidence that Josephine has killed. Yet another reason this relationship needs to be aborted, but Jessica forgets immediately and goes back about her daily routine.

PREY is nuts and for that I give it a recommend. It's a science fiction movie about a cat monster from space (Anderson's normal form is that of a cat person) mixed with a suspense thriller about a young woman trapped in a dangerous relationship with a psychopath; two separate plots tossed in a blender and served as a cheesy, sci-fi sexploitation stew.

Instantly watchable and delightfully cheap British sci-fi finds a male alien missionary on Earth being taken in as a house-guest by an unsuspecting separatist lesbian couple. The true fanged creature is concealed beneath a stolen body, but occasionally emerges during conflicts and feeding frenzies(and looks a bit like the titular terrors of THE BAT PEOPLE). The decidedly non-vegetarian visitor becomes caught in the middle of the womyns' peculiar psychodramas and recurring hostilities, and at one point is cross-dressed by them and finds new pleasures in the consumption of champagne....allthewhile drooling over a pet bird they have kept in a hanging cage.

This film, for all its misgivings, remains one of the more "out there" entries in the sci-fi/horror genre...a bad film, to be sure, but one recommendable for its sheer uncommonness. At least they were clearly trying for something altogether different...and they sure did succeed in that task.

5.5 out of 10 -- for decent performances and overall...erm...queerness.

I laughed a lot near the end of this movie. I thought the character of Jo just got funnier and funnier the more jealous she became.

This movie has some really great moments. In particular, the drowning scene, the hunting scene, the fighting scene where Jessica gets knocked out, the drag costume, etc etc! All are pretty original and pretty hilarious when you think about it.

Why they needed the drowning scene to be in slow motion, I'll never know. And the idea of dressing an alien man up in drag, getting him drunk and playing hide and seek with him cracks me up.

Jo was such a drama queen, like when the chickens got killed, when she missed the shot at the fox, when she is yelling at Jessica or running out of the house, she is always freaking out so majorly, it's great! Such an unassuming body/face, and such a huge character.

I liked this movie a lot, it's worth checking out.

Don't expect a top notch production here, by any means. But, if you allow yourself to vegetate, it's entertaining. Even better, the story, to an extent, is believable and possible.

An alien sent on an at first unknown mission lands on Earth and assumes the form of some man he comes across and kills. He's taken in by a lesbian couple, one of whom believes him to be injured. As time passes, however, she starts to want to be his lover and be taken away from her possessive lesbian lover. Said lesbian lover arrives just in time to see, after they have consummated, the alien eating her! She tries to flee, but is immediately hunted down... which leads in to the finale which reveals the alien mission: a child runs about playing as our alien reports in he has found perfect cattle stock to start raising food with!

This is a nice play on the old cliche of Mars Needs Women type of film story. And, though stories have been done where aliens come down to conquer Earth for food (Read "V.") this is, so far, the only film I've seen where they've combined the two cliches: capture Earthlings to use as cattle to reproduce to raise food. Beyond this theme, though, is where the film doesn't do as well. The direction is a bit plodding, but at least, some positive character development is given between the jealously obsessive lesbian lover losing her opposite other. The lighting is practically non-existent, so, turn up the brightness.

All in all, if you can stomach it, it's a good movie. It's not as disgusting as some flicks, of course, but, be warned there is one graphic murder (The eating scene. Who here remembers the great Continental Video release of this, where the front cover box features the alien looming over its victim, chewing on a piece of her body, and blood coating the ENTIRE cover? "THEIR HUNGER MAKES US ALL... ALIEN PREY!") and 2 strong sex scenes.

Alien Prey is a sci-fi / sexploitation movie that accomplishes what it sets out to do: offer cheap thrills and quick T&A. It's far from a good movie, but still fun to watch.

The film follows a shape shifting alien that arrives in the English countryside and starts killing people and animals. He moves in with a pair of lesbians, one of whom may be pretty dangerous herself.

This movie exists for two reasons: to show off the body of Glory Annen and offer some cheap gore. It succeeds more in the first department than the second. Although it offers plenty of titillation, the pacing, particularly in the middle, is rather slow. The climax does offer some surprisingly good gore though, and a twist I didn't entirely expect.

One major issue with this film, in retrospect, is its depiction of lesbianism. The more obvious lesbian, Josephine, is portrayed as a mentally ill misandrist, basically a walking negative stereotype of lesbianism. That said, this wasn't unusual for the time, and the film depicts the other lesbian as a sympathetic character.