Hunter or prey: New Predator an intriguing return to form

By Jeremy Niass @JeremyNiass

Prey, now streaming on Disney+, is a welcome addition to Predator franchise.

The last movie we saw in 2018, The Predator, scored a low 33 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes. But the latest instalment to the franchise is anything but prey to the movie critics, scoring an impressive 92 per cent rating.

It is something director Dan Trachtenberg will be proud of, with Prey’s rating edging slightly ahead of his other popular movie, 10 Cloverfield Lane.

Set in native America in the 1700s, Prey follows the story of an ambitious young Comanche woman, Naru, who desires to prove herself as a warrior of her tribe.

Discontent with a life of gathering and run-of-the mill homely duties, Naru yearns to be a hunter and earn the respect of others. When she finally gets her chance to prove herself by hunting a mountain lion she falls short of victory, and her brother is honoured with the kill.

But during the hunt she identifies unfamiliar tracks – a creature larger than a bear.

Naru’s curious nature seeks the origins of the mystery she is faced with. Little does she know that her tribe are caught in an ancient alien ritual – a ritual that began when an alien spaceship dropped off a Predator.

But is the Predator the hunter, or is it the prey? The addition of colonisers who harbour animosity towards her tribe further convolutes an unclear (but interesting) dynamic between the hunter and hunted.

Prey diverges from the franchise’s focus on alien figures to deliver a story that is rich and revealing.

By challenging the status quo of assigned roles in a society, it shows that those who have a fiery passion to prove themselves can step up to the greatest challenges of all. It does this by carefully interweaving a story of someone finding themself: Naru refuses to be the hunted and sets out to prove herself by turning the Predator into her prey.

By adopting a sci-fi background and blending it with a historical context, Prey is a movie that is thought-provoking. Alongside CGI that is neither too unreal nor heavy, the soundtrack carefully balances the suspense created throughout the movie with an ancient landscape in the woods.

The result is a movie that fantastically delivers futuristic horror in a past context – and this blend is sure to entertain fans both old and new.

Feature Image: Prey delivers a welcome change in the Predator scene. Photo: YouTube