Prey [DVD] [1978] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

The above description of the movie is a little misleading; by no means would I describe it as "gore-soaked" although there are a couple bloody scenes. Basically this is a British film from 1978 about an alien who lands on Earth and assumes human form. He stumbles upon a house occupied by a lesbian couple, who assume he is some kind of halfwit and let him stay awhile. I remember seeing this one on video under the title "Alien Prey," with the front cover being a big-time spoiler of the one gory scene in the movie! I rented the DVD, expecting a big gorefest, but instead got a reasonably good, occasionally slow movie with effectively weird moments.

This film was directed by Norman J. Warren, whose interview is also featured on the DVD. Apparently there is a Warren boxset in the works featuring four of his films: Prey, Inseminoid (Horror Planet), and two others. In the interview, Warren mentions previous softcore sex films that he's done; in fact, Prey features a fair amount of nudity and a really hot lesbian sex scene. The erotic tension underlying the relationship between the two lesbians and the alien guy is pretty well-communicated here: the "butch" is quite jealous of the alien's designs on her more feminine companion. The whole movie takes place in and around the women's secluded country home; as expected, it looks all to be shot on a shoestring budget but doesn't really suffer for it. It's well-photographed, with decent, understated performances from the actors and simple dialogue. Not a penny wasted here. And what an ending!

I'd recommend this film for anyone who likes low-budget sleaze and weirdness, especially you freaks who are into 70's softcore sex films. I was pleasantly surprised even though I expected something a little more "gore-soaked."

Prey

With a title like "Prey" one would expect this British sci-fi horror film to either be very bloody or very lurid. In this case, it's both. A cannibal alien from outer space on a reconnaissance mission to Earth drops in on the estate of a wealthy, eccentric British lesbian and her neurotic woman-child live-in girlfriend. Now how can anyone possibly go wrong starting with a premise like that? It has the feel of a Merchant-Ivory film adapted by Roger Corman (or maybe a Roger Corman film adapted by Merchant-Ivory?) As added attractions, the women are erotic and beautiful and the music, for some reason, is awfully nice in parts. A great B-movie.

Prey isn't for all tastes, but for the game British sci-fi or horror fan it's a great treat.

This story revolves around three figures. There are two women who are in a lesbian relationship. The younger girl owns the house that is outside of England. Her crazy lover is just that, crazy. She is crazy and very paranoid that her lover will move on to England to meet other women, men, whoever. The older crazy female even kills a neighborhood man who had come to visit the two women. Later the younger female finds a huge knife and some bloody clothing that had belonged to the victim in the other girls belongings. So by that point she knows she has to carefully get out of the lesbian relationship.

Enter the ALIEN. The ALIEN can physically assume the form and identity of another person or being. As soon as the alien enters the human environment he kills a guy who is making out with a girl in a car near the lesbian's house. The ALIEN then assumes the male identity. Later two policemen are dispatched to look for the missing man and find the car. The ALIEN unknowingly walks up to the crime scene and then flees from the policemen. In a struggle the ALIEN kills the policemen. Later in the film we find that the alien is indeed a meat eater, or call him a cannibal. The alien kills some rabbits, some chicken, a fox and finally the girls' pet parrot.

The older female is indeed whacked out and we find at the end of the movie that she had been confined to a mental facility. The younger girl is convinced that the alien is also from a mental institution because he is so strange. Proving this strangeness, at one point the alien jumped into a pond after a goose only to find that he had no idea what WATER really is. He panicked and started to drown. The alien is indeed bizarre and this is accentuated later when the girls clad him up in a dress, lipstick and so on. The ALIEN didn't know what water is, how to dance, how to kiss. The ALIEN didn't have a name or how old he was, or where he was from or where he was going. The ALIEN just let the young girl fill in the blanks for him. He would just take a cue from her and nod along. This is a trippy movie. The lesbianism isn't very exciting. The possessive crazy older girl makes love to the younger girl but mostly the lovemaking is one sided, so it isn't very erotic at all. I guess the older woman didn't have a great body because they just focused on nude scenes with the younger girl. The young girl also did look quite young for a love scene. I would think she was just only about the age of consent for being nude on film. She might have been between 17 and 18. Watch this movie for the crazy older lesbian and the quiet creepy alien guy.

LOL at "gore-soaked" remark as this movie has very little gore at all. Most of the gore itself is unconvincing and laughable. I guess Norman thought less is more by shooting the death scenes (without showing the killing itself of the two policemen). If you know a little about the B-Movies Norman has done from "Inseminoid" and "Bloody New Year) (two cheesy classics) then you know what to expect from this movie.

The acting is at least passable. The suspense is there but could have a better payoff. Other scenes are just badly put together like the "rescue" of the alien which comes across as hilarious with the cheesy 70's music. There is at least some nudity and sex but not nearly enough to warrant repeated viewings of this movie.

The movie has a 4.9 score on IMDB which is typically what any Norman J. Warren movies gets (below average score) still if you are in the mood for a different type of alien movie (that is more geared toward drama since the two lesibans take up a bulk of the screen time) than anything else) this might be for you. Otherwise avoid it.

An alien (Barry Stokes) meat eater lands on earth and takes human form as one of his victims. He is taken in as a house guest in an English country manor by a pair of lesbians. The two women are a bit odd. Jessica (Glory Annen) the not too shy owner of the estate inherited it from her parents. Jo (Sally Faulkner) worked there and stayed on as the alpha female in the relationship.

The alien is socially inept. Jessica is fond of him, "He's very attractive...for a man" to the dismay of Jo who suspects something is up. The film has slow scenes and takes time to build up to a climax that wasn't worth the wait. Low budget soft core sci-fi from the 70's. A drive-in movie flick.

Parental Guide: F-bomb, sex, nudity (Glory Annen, Sally Faulkner, Barry Stokes) girl/girl sex, cat fight.