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Wednesday, August 1, 2018

"Prey: In Cold Blood" - Lots of kills, but nobody you'll miss

"Prey: In Cold Blood" is one of those movies that kind of mixes survivalism with horror and throws in a  bit of relationship drama for good measure.  It's not really a genre I usually enjoy, even though I made two suspense movies that fit the category ("Stopped Dead" and "Indiscretions").  But, someone posted it in the Indie Streams Facebook group, where I actually encourage folks to share movies for review and it's on Prime, so I gave it a watch.


I was surprised.  I actually enjoyed it less than I expected to.  I'm sorry, you guys know I'm usually not hard on indie movies and this one doesn't deserve my wrath more than any other, but it just was not my pint of beer. There wasn't one character who I actually liked.  I sympathized with a couple, but only because they were surrounded by people even more annoying than they were.  It was one of those movies where all of the characters are kind of jerks.  Is that realistic?  Maybe, but it doesn't leave you anyone to really root for in the end.

Heck, the first two characters we meet I just kept hoping one of them would kill the other because I couldn't stand the thought of watching them for 90 minutes.  You know it's a bad sign when the first bit of action occurs, you say to yourself, "Finally!" and then check the run time and realize it's only been five minutes.  I know, I'm guilty of a six minute monologue at the opening of the "Jack vs Lanterns", but there's a reason for that.  I kept forgetting my lines and didn't leave enough edit points to trim it down much.  ( I didn't say it was a good reason.)

I think most of the acting was pretty solid. I don't think we were meant to like most of the characters, I didn't and so the cast did their job there.  Some of the cinematography was excellent and the locations were great.  Some was average.  None really hit me as bad.  The audio, on the other hand, was greatly flawed at the beginning.  Like most movies shot outside, audio was hit and miss when they were near a road or in the car.  Once at the main location, in the house, things get easier to understand, so stick with it if the audio is making  you think of tuning out.


The entire middle third (probably about half the running time) of the movie is mostly our annoying characters talking about why they hate each other.  A bit of the story of stolen gold comes into play here, and then they all start acting like cartoon characters trying to get their hands on "the riches".

Then things go wrong, the movie takes off and we start weeding out the unlikeable cast.  I hate to suggest fast forwarding an indie movie on Prime, because we're paid by the minute, but if you're thinking of tuning in the middle, skip to the end.  Things do pick up and don't stop until the credits roll.  Well, maybe they slow down a bit.

So, if you're up for a bit of "Lifetime" channel style drama with your action-adventure horror in the woods and you can get over the fact that the group of friends are more middle-aged instead of college aged, even though they play spin the bottle and "I've never" as if they're in high school, then  you might enjoy this movie.


If you prefer straight out blood and guts action, you'll enjoy about a third of this movie, so have a snack ready or someone to talk to during the slower bits.





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