Review | Prey movie review: Predator prequel starring Amber Midthunder is the best follow-up feature yet in the sci-fi action horror franchise’s history
- 35 years after the release of the original Predator film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, franchise fans get a movie that recaptures the spirit of the original
- Amber Midthunder delivers a stellar performance as the Native American, alien-fighting heroine, with the movie shot in both English and the Comanche language
4/5 stars
It’s been 35 years since Arnold Schwarzenegger went toe to toe with a murderous alien in the jungles of Latin America. There have been numerous sequels and crossovers in the years since, but nothing to match the lean, visceral intensity of John McTiernan’s original Predator.
That all changes with Prey, a back-to-basics prequel set in the early 1700s, in which an extraterrestrial hunter drops into Native American Comanche territory just as a young female warrior sets out to prove her worth to the rest of her tribe.
In this fiercely patriarchal community, Naru (Amber Midthunder) is expected to stay at home with her mother, while her brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers) and his friends scour the formidable countryside for food.
When a mountain lion is spotted close to camp, the young men are dispatched to hunt it down. Against their wishes, Naru tags along, and it soon becomes apparent there is something else in the woods – something infinitely more dangerous that is stalking them.