Movies
‘Prey’ Review – Soaring Epic Meets Intimate Storytelling in Crowd Pleasing New ‘Predator’ Movie
Director Dan Trachtenberg’s feature debut, 10 Cloverfield Lane, transformed a spinoff entry in a sci-fi horror franchise into a white-knuckle claustrophobic thriller nestled loosely within the same universe. His follow-up, Prey, continues his streak of injecting fresh ideas into beloved sci-fi horror franchises. Prey takes its cues from 1987’s Predator in terms of simplicity and bloody action-horror. Its cultural specificity and period setting lend a sweeping period epic feel and introduce emotional stakes through its memorable characters.
Set in the Great Plains in 1719, Prey introduces Naru (Amber Midthunder), a young Comanche woman uninterested in fulfilling the domestic role her tribe expects of her. Naru wants to hunt, like her brother and respected hunter Taabe (Dakota Beavers). She misses her initial chance to prove her skills in a rite of passage when she notices something amiss across the ridge. Naru realizes it brings a significant and unknown threat and sets out to test her mettle and protect her tribe.
Trachtenberg, working from a script by Patrick Aison (“Jack Ryan,” “Treadstone”), takes the time to establish the main characters before the Predator action kicks into high gear. The sibling bond and rivalry between Naru and Taabe engender rooting interest in both characters immediately; Midthunder and Beavers make it so easy to care about Naru and Taabe. That’s all the more impressive, considering just how little dialogue exists within this action-forward feature.
(L-R): Dakota Beavers as Taabe and Amber Midthunder as Naru in 20th Century Studios’ PREY, exclusively on Hulu. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Seeing the inner workings of their tribe and the characters’ roles within them highlights the honor in their hunt. The Comanche tribe’s fierce warriors adhere to a code regarding combat and prey. Above all, the lengthy character building of act one underscores Naru’s observant and adaptable nature; she’s constantly watching and learning. Even scenes that seem, at first, nothing more than establishing a way of life contribute to Naru’s overarching arc, all of it relevant to the full throttle back half.
Prey may also be the most stunning Predator film yet. Trachtenberg captures the natural beauty of the setting with wide sweeping shots and panoramic views of the mountains. Entirely set outdoors, Trachtenberg introduces multiple breathtaking set pieces, from sinking mud pits to rivers to foggy fields, providing greater visual interest and a propulsive feel to the narrative. This rich world setting becomes more epic in scope with an atypical, sweeping score that feels more in line with epic adventures than horror. All of it gives a larger-than-life quality to an intimate story.
Working against this is the overreliance on VFX. The heavy CG utilized in multiple animal encounters struggles to blend with its practical surroundings and may show its age over time. The great practical work of the Predator (Dane DiLiegro) can also get buried beneath overlaid VFX. Luckily, it doesn’t become too huge of a detriment to what works about Prey, which is nearly everything.
Amber Midthunder as Naru in 20th Century Studios’ PREY, exclusively on Hulu. Photo by David Bukach. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Prey may take place three centuries before Predator, but it’s not really a prequel so much as it is a film in conversation with the original. Trachtenberg includes subtle callbacks, including iconic dialogue lines, in organic ways that don’t come across as nostalgia bait. More importantly, it’s in the way that Prey opts for simplicity in the narrative; it’s hunter versus hunter set loose in the wild. Naru’s story grounds a brisk, lean, and bloody action horror movie right through to its thrilling conclusion. Amber Midthunder commands the film with ease with a resilient and compelling protagonist prone to make mistakes but quick to learn from them.
The Predator finds an unexpected, worthy adversary in Prey, a perfect mirror for the viewer’s experience. Prey surprises in how different yet similar it feels to the franchise’s origins. It feels right at home with the mythology of the Predator universe yet stretches the boundaries in tone and scale. Soaring spectacle meets intimate storytelling, delivering one of the most solid entries in the franchise yet. It’s a shame that Prey isn’t getting a theatrical release as well; it’s a genuine crowd-pleaser.
Prey debuts exclusively on Hulu on August 5, 2022.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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