THE PREY (1984) Blu-ray
Director: Edwin Brown
Arrow Video USA/MVD Visual

Horny campers have more to worry about than horny chipmunks when they become THE PREY, on Blu-ray from Arrow Video.

Six young campers – studly Joel (Steve Bond, MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH) and practical Nancy (Debbie Thureson), diva Gail (Gayle Gannes, HOT MOVES) and trust fund doormat Greg (Philip Wenckus), joker Skip (Robert Wald, THE NAKED TRUTH) and meek Bobbie (Lori Lethin, RETURN TO HORROR HIGH) – set off into the heights of Keen Wild's Northpoint for a camping and climbing weekend. Gail is pretty sure that there is someone else lurking in the dark beyond their campsite, possibly the same person or thing responsible for the disappearance of an elderly camping couple (SOMETHING EVIL's Connie Hunter and WILD RIDERS' Ted Hayden) that is being investigated by extremely kooky ranger Mark (Jackson Bostwick, THE OUTING), possibly the rumored badly burned sole survivor of a massive forest fire that killed an entire camp of gypsies in 1945. When two of the campers also mysteriously vanish, the other four assume they went home and elect to continue scaling the mountain and deeper into the mountain lair of a mad killer.

Shot in 1979 and finished in 1980, THE PREY for all of its lack of originality might have seemed like a precursor to slasher entries like FRIDAY THE 13TH, THE BURNING, and/or THE FINAL TERROR had it been released back then when filmmaking team Edwin and Summer Brown were piggybacking on the success of HALLOWEEN instead of delayed until 1984 when the slasher genre largely fell out of favor apart from the major franchises. Just how early the film was started was not widely known until an interview with actress Lethin for Severin Films' BLOODY BIRTHDAY in which she discussed the film and recalled that it came before the latter film. While it is difficult to appreciate the film's more genre cookie cutter elements as more "original" given when it was actually shot rather than when it was released, the film is much better remembered (and reviled) for its quirkier elements from the excess of macro wildlife photography – not stock footage since the perpetrator of this material gets a credit – and the sparest of characterization by the young leads ("I hear it comes down to his knees!") to the outright oddness of Bostwick's park ranger who tells the story of the wide-mouthed frog to a doe and strums his banjo in scenes that suggest he could not possibly be the guilty party. Nothing much happens until the last fifteen minutes but the final chase scene does ratchet up the tension as it intercuts the slow motion running of the would-be victims with undercranked POV footage of the killer (the Steadicam photography is an early credit for mainstream operator Randy Nolen who also worked on HELL NIGHT the year after). Jackie Coogan (THE ADDAMS FAMILY's Uncle Fester) appears as the local sheriff and Carel Struycken (THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK) puts in a special appearance.

Not released until 1984 by Roger Corman-era New World Pictures ("It's not human, and it's got an axe! "), THE PREY was more widely seen on Thorn/EMI's dark VHS and late night television screenings that trimmed what little nudity and gore was on display when you could see it. While the American cut of the film ran just under eighty minutes, a longer version turned upon Australian and British videotape featuring a lengthy gypsy flashback purporting to describe the events that lead to the pre-credits inferno told by the campfire in place of the retelling of "The Monkey's Paw." Although filmmakers Edwin and Summer Brown got their start and would work on and off in adult filmmaking, they claim to have not been involved with this material despite the presences of adult performers Eric Edwards (CORPORATE ASSETS), Arcadia Lake (PUSSYCAT RANCH), and John Leslie (NEVER SLEEP ALONE) among the gypsies, although the sex scenes barely qualify as softcore and are no more graphic than one expects from an R-rated film.

Arrow Video's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray of the film's theatrical cut (79:46) comes from a 2K restoration of the original camera negative. The transfer is a massive improvement over what has come before, retaining the darkness of the night scenes while daytime shadows are no longer harshly underexposed. Most of the faint damage seems to be inherent in the elements from a blue emulsion scratch during opening forest fire sequence to some specks here and there and some subtle pulsing flashes that dilute the colors for a few frames that presumably happened in the camera. The early make-up effects of John Carl Buechler (DOLLS) look more rubbery than before and it now appears that the carrion eaten by a buzzard is actually lunchmeat. The LPCM 1.0 mono track is excellent, from the bombastic classical cue over the opening credits to the thudding heartbeat that accompanies the stalking POV sequences. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided.

The film is accompanied by an audio commentary track by Made for TV Mayhem's Amanda Reyes and "PREY obsessive" Ewan Cant who provide a casual but entertaining talk recorded the night before the film's premiere at this year's Texas Frightmare Weekend. Cant provides production anecdote from his interviews with cast and crew while Reyes provides analysis, sometimes lofty such as contextualizing such films with the concept of "urbanoia" – wildness versus modernity, noting that the film uses the camera to demonstrate how the killer belongs to the environment and the victims are shown as vulnerable – but also likening Bostwick's ranger to George Kennedy's ranger character in the somewhat similar JUST BEFORE DAWN (both sort of in between the locals and the outsiders demonstrating a peaceful oneness with the environment) and indeed, the filmmaker-unapproved gypsy flashback further reads into the notion of those belonging to the land being "othered" by the white characters.

The film can also be viewed with separate audio interviews conducted by Cant with director Edwin Brown and producer Summer Brown. While Edwin Brown still claims no involvement in the gypsy footage, he is forthcoming about the early porn work and reveals that the film came about as a result of producer Joe Steinman (SUPER SEX) wanting to do a horror movie in the aftermath of the Browns' HUMAN EXPERIMENTS, throwing together a script inspired by HALLOWEEN and THE HILLS HAVE EYES with funding already to go. He also reveals that the cinematographer "Teru Hayashi" João Fernandes who worked prolifically both in porn for the likes of Fred Lincoln under the pseudonym "Harry Flecks" (based on his pronunciation of Arrfilex) and in the mainstream mainly for Joseph Zito (FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER) but also for Chuck Norris (MISSING IN ACTION). Summer Brown elaborates on their working relationship, also expresses her opinions on the gypsy footage, recalls their intention to shoot the film in Big Bear where the film THE MAIN EVENT had been shot but discovered it was more populated than it appeared in the film and were recommended locally to check out Idyllwild, as well as writing the role of Gale for actress Gannes with whom they lived for a time when they first came to Los Angeles. She also notes that THE HILLS HAVE EYES producer Peter Locke recommended composer Peake to them. The film can also be viewed with a Texas Frightmare Weekend 2019 audience track similar to The Tybee Post Theater Experience on Arrow's THE SLAYER or the Vine Experience track on Grindhouse Releasing's PIECES although certainly not as raucous however corny some of the film's humor. The track can also be played as part of the Texas Frightmare Weekend 2019 Experience in which the film with the track is followed by a Q&A session (17:05) featuring Lethin, Bostwick, and Struycken who Cant identifies as the "surviving cast" in a tongue-in-cheek manner since Bond at least is still with us and two of the actresses not present at the Q&A are seen and heard elsewhere in the disc's extras.

Actress Thureson is interviewed in "Gypsies, Camps & Screams" (27:01) in which she discusses her early TV commercial work – some of which is on view like her Country Time Lemonade ad – and the heavy amount of improvisation in the script and her memories of the location shooting and the cast (including Struycken being referred to as "the monster" by the crew). Lethin appears again in "Babe In The Woods" (13:45) and also remarks about the use of improv as they were directed to "act natural" since the filmmakers emphasis was on the feeling of being watched. Gannes appears in "Gayle On Gail" (11:49) in which she recalls her friendship with the Browns after appearing in HUMAN EXPERIMENTS, how providing catering for a film from her father's barbecue restaurant lead to her secondary career with her own barbecue sauce brand which has appeared in TGI Fridays and California Pizza Kitchen restaurants. Bostwick appears in "The Wide-Mouthed Frog & Other Stories" (18:20), recalling his early acting career coming out of the army, including his TV role as Captain Marvel on the show SHAZAM!, elaborating on his scripted role in the film as well as incorporating some of his own belongings into the role, and noting that the last pickups he shot for the film were in 1980. Struycken appears in "Call of the Wild" (7:13), noting that he already had his own production company and studio by the time of the film but was often approached on the street to take roles in other films. He recalls being fitted for the make-up but not being present for most of the kills or the POV scenes. Thureson also appears with Cant in "In Search of The Prey" (13:58) revisiting the Idyllwild locations, including the cabins where the cast stayed during production and recreating certain scenes at their locations. The first disc also includes a U.S. TV spot (0:35), a home video trailer (1:24), and the original screenplay (visually excerpted throughout the interviews) as a BD-ROM extra.

The limited edition includes a bonus Blu-ray disc featuring the aforementioned international cut (95:37) of the film, seemingly reassembled using film elements for the gypsy footage and the 2K restoration of the theatrical cut for the body of the film. The flashback material has usually been charted at roughly twenty minutes while the international cut is only fifteen minutes longer; however, the international cut actually removes little bits here and there, from the "Monkey's Paw" rendition into which the flashback has been inserted in its place to, most sacrilegiously, the wide-mouthed frog monologue and scenes of the ranger strumming his banjo. The running time of the also-included composite cut (102:34) suggests that roughly seven minutes of the theatrical cut was removed from the international version. While these two versions are indeed longer, they are less interesting than the NIGHTMARE AT SHADOW WOODS cut of BLOOD RAGE or the composite cut also included on the Arrow edition of that film, and it is likely that more casual PREY obsessives will go back to the theatrical cut once their curiosity has been satisfied by either finally seeing the gypsy footage or finally seeing the footage in good condition. More interesting on the disc are the silent outtakes (45:48) which reveal some interesting differences between what was shot and what ended up in the film: for instance, the first female victim is not axed offscreen as in the finished film but seen here being grabbed around the neck, while the killer's face is revealed earlier in the outtakes as he attacks one of the mountain climbing victims rather that the final scene reveal of the finished film. Not provided for review were the reversible cover or limited edition booklet featuring a new writing on the film by Cant and Reyes. (Eric Cotenas)

BACK TO REVIEWS

HOME