Prey (2022) Review

Prey (2022)

Prey follows Naru, a skilled Comanche warrior, who must protect her tribe from a highly evolved alien predator that hunts humans for sport, fighting against the wilderness, dangerous colonizers, and this mysterious creature to keep her people safe. 

I’ll be honest, other than the original with Arnold Schwarzenegger, I’ve mostly written the Predator sequels off as not really worth my time (though you know me, they’ll land on here at some point). So it comes as no bigger surprise than to myself that the new one, a prequel set in 1719, isn’t only good, but is just as intense and original as the first (if not better). And that’s because of it’s simplicity. At it’s core, this is nothing more than a violent passage of rights, where both hunters must prove their worth. The Predator is on Earth for one reason and one only—his right of passage, to become a full fledged predator. Similarly, Naru wants to do the same, never taken seriously because of who she is, and using that to her advantage, as the Predator also never sees her as a threat, making her far more dangerous in the end. 

It’s one thing to nail the story but this is Predator we’re talking about, we’re here for the action. Luckily, Prey more than delivers on that too, presenting us with a more primal iteration of Predator that looks and feels unstoppable in every sense of the word. We see him fight bears, wolves, and droves of people, hardly breaking a sweat as he dismantles them completely, though it isn’t until Naru that he faces true competition. And it’s because unlike everyone before her, she paid attention, using every encounter and trial she faced before to defeat him, feeling really invocative of what Dutch would do many years later. 

We get a stellar cast too, starring Mike Paterson, Nelson Leis, Michelle Thrush, Stormee Kipp, Dakota Beavers, Dane DiLiegro, and Amber Midthunder. Midthunder made for a hell of a surprising lead, carrying this film without hardly a word needing spoken, more than stepping up to the physical challenge against DiLiegro’s Predator, who is one of my favorite iterations we’ve gotten on screen. 

Prey, directed by Dan Trachtenberg, is a sprawlingly beautiful and simple entry into the Predator series, succeeding so well because of its parallels to our two hunters, demonstrating why Naru would succeed where the Predator would fail.

9.1/10