Prey (2021)

Prey (2021) is a German film released by Netflix, interestingly enough on an 11th of September.

Not to be confused with the French films Prey (2010) and The Prey – La Proie (2011), nor with the Dutch film from 2016 (yes, the one with a lion on the loose in the middle of town!), nor with the 5th instalment of Predator released in 2022.

You could say that this is a German survival film that’s a bit different from the usual American survival clichés.

The film boasts a talented, mainly male cast, including David Kross, who appeared in The Reader alongside Kate Winslet. He stars alongside Hanno Koffler (The Authorship), Robert Finster (Freud), Yung Ngo (Dogs of Berlin) and Klaus Steinbacher (The Oktoberfest Empire). Maria Ehrich plays one of the only female characters in the film.

So I’m totally blown away by the hatred and anger this film has aroused. It’s perhaps the first time I’ve felt such contempt for a film I adored. Well… at the same time, I hate most films that most people love. So I’m going to call it even!

I think the acting is perfect. The playback doesn’t necessarily work in their favour, but the actors make the film interesting. From start to finish, I waited impatiently for the final punchline so that I could understand the motives of this markswoman. Once discovered, the film takes another turn…

In the cinema, walks with friends never end well. Or very rarely! Often unlucky, the victims can end up in the hands of a witch, as in The Blair Witch Project, or hunted down by cannibals, as in Deadly Detour. From the very first minutes of Like Prey, the viewer is unsure of what he or she is getting into. Five men are about to return to their vehicle when they come under rifle fire. The assailant, well hidden in the forest, has no intention of letting them go.

So what’s got everyone so upset? Was it the fact that there were men who weren’t too macho and a strong, powerful woman? If that’s the case, I’d love to see these same people get chased like in the film. I’d love to see their own reactions! It’s people who see wokism everywhere and end up confusing and lumping everything together…
Is it the fact that the psychopath always manages to catch them walking, while they’re desperately running? Those being chased don’t know the forest, unlike the criminal chasing them. It’s also a detail to remember for those who always judge too quickly, without thinking.

Admittedly, there are some phoned-in moments, some problem-solving that’s a little too easy. I’ve always had a problem with those moments when someone walks into a house uninvited, visits all the rooms without getting caught, finds a computer on… and simply presses Play to get the answer to their questions!

No, that’s a bit far-fetched. And having pity on someone who’s at our mercy when he’s just destroyed our whole life… I don’t really believe that either. You’d really have to be very pious to do that. It couldn’t happen, for example, to someone who sleeps with his brother’s wife! Not the way I see it, anyway.

I saw that a few people compared it to Deliverance (1972), which I don’t worship, but which I respect. That’s it: I’m going to make enemies again… and the problem is, I love that! Especially if it leads to heated, constructive debate.

So… this film isn’t a masterpiece for these various reasons… but, for me, it’s still excellent!