Wednesday, June 26, 2013

30 Days of Nightmares #26: PREY (2010)

 
The Story: Four hyper-masculine men go on a wild boar hunt with high-powered rifles.  Shit happens. 

Expectations: A friend recommended this monster movie to me.  I didn't know much about it, except that it's French and French filmmakers have produced some of the most extreme horror films of the 21st century.  I had a feeling that things would get messy.

Reaction: There are plenty of disturbing things in this movie, not least of which is the way the characters treat each other.  The four main characters are, technically, family -- and with family like this, they don't need enemies.  Once they find themselves among primal beasts (not one boar, but a whole herd of mutant boars), the men become equally primal.  In many ways the story unfolds like THE DESCENT, with the hunted humans turning into monstrous hunters -- although PREY lacks the mythic quality that distinguishes THE DESCENT and so many other great monster movies.  The scare are simple but effective, and the film bodes well for first-time direction Antoine Blossier.

(Gordon, you're 3 for 3... I'll welcome movie recommendations from you anytime!)

Most Nightmare-Worthy Moment: When one of the men realizes that the boars hunt by smell, he implements a gag-worthy plan to disguise his humanity. 

1 comment:

  1. I have good instincts. ;) Thank you for these terrific reviews and taking time to vet them out.

    Clearly, we have similar tastes and I look forward to giving them a spin!

    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete