A monster-in-the-woods quickie from prolific triple-threat indie auteur Brett Kelly, Prey for the Beast opens in typical fashion with a camping couple disturbed by strange noises from the woods. Naturally, they go exploring alone in the dark and are ravaged by an unseen beast. Our story proper begins as bullish survivalist Frank (Jodi Pittman) organizes a guys’ weekend in the woods to cheer up the recently divorced Bud (Brett Kelly), along with friends Owen (Mark Courneyea) and Gill (Ray Besharah), only to happen upon a group of college-age co-eds including sporty blonde Kim (Amanda Leigh), her lipstick lesbian gal pal Sarah (Anastasia Kimmett), man-hating brunette Annie (Lisa Aitken) and nature lover Kira (Kerri Draper). Their fun weekend turns into a fight for survival when the mysterious monster starts stalking and killing them one by one.
This shot-on-video Canadian creature feature comes courtesy of Brain Damage Films, a DVD label marketing cheap and cheerful horror fare at budget-conscious gore fans. On this evidence, you gets what you pays for and fright fanatics have to accept a certain amateurish enthusiasm in place of studio slickness. Brett Kelly produces a fairly professional looking, low-budget effort with some impressive helicopter shots and tight editing but performances are pitched at home movie level. Most of the cast double as crew members and while the mismatched groups of middle-aged men and fun-loving college girls are almost interestingly characterised, the players don’t have the acting chops to make much of an impression. That said, Kelly gives himself the most potentially interesting part, as Bud gets bitten by the beast and goes crazy, underlining his madness by blowing an innocent chipmunk away (“How do you like them apples?!”). And Amanda Leigh sidesteps clichés as an Amazonian blonde in denim hotpants who knows a thing or two about wilderness survival and can handle a gun or a longbow.
Written by Jeff O’Brien, author of Bone Dry (2007) the misogynistic indie thriller that paired Lance Henrikson with Luke Goss, the screenplay acknowledges its debt to Predator (1987) and Deliverance (1972) early on, but undermines whatever character quirks it has with some random idiocies. Especially ridiculous is how characters keep yakking even with their intestines spilling out or legs torn off, and worse, keep wandering off on their own even when they know there is a monster about. Matt Ficner’s creature suit is impressive but seen in broad daylight resembles a Power Rangers villain. The script avoids explaining its origins although there are glimpses of an ill-fated biologist and his bounty hunter sidekick tracking this supposed aberration of nature. Kelly has a knack for fancy camera angles and splatters pancake syrup everywhere, but films his monster attacks in slapdash fashion with characters puking blood towards the camera.
Refreshingly for a low-budget horror film, the middle-aged men take more of a paternal than sexual interest in the girls and the smartest, most capable characters are a lesbian couple.
