Macabre…ish Horror Review: Let Us Prey

 

Let Us Prey, 2015/ 92 min

 

 

Caesar (Brian Vernel), out joy riding, was seen by a police officer, striking a pedestrian with his car. They have not recovered a victim but there is blood on the head lights. But Sgt. MacReady (Douglas Russell) says, no victim, no crime.

 

While they search for a victim, Caesar will be jailed, for the time being.

 

A man (Liam Cunningham) is brought in by two other officers under the assumption that he is the victim. He has a few scratches and a head wound and that he won’t speak. They call for a doctor, to check him out.

 

On his person is just an old book full of names and symbols. No keys, no phone, no ID, nothing. They opine he may be from the local asylum and he escaped but no one recognizes him and they would if he were local. When he finally speaks he says “And it’s a pale fuckin’ horse.” Then the lights go out.

 

After tending his patient, the doctor, Dr. Hume (Niall Greig Fulton), starts having a terrifying vision, a memory and then the doctor say’s “He knows. Everything.” while going after this unknown stranger with the scissors. He has to be restrained by the officers.

 

And the man doesn’t so much as flinch. But Dr. Hume is arrested. As the nameless man is finger printed, he looks at the two officers, PC Warnock (Bryan Larkin) and PC Mundie (Hanna Stanbridge) attending him and seem to know their secret and they know it.

 

It is discovered that his name is Alexander Monroe from Port Glascow, he’s aged 79 and in 1983, he died in a fire. Or he has that man’s finger prints.

 

He says midnight is approaching and as he’s being questioned, he peers into the Sgt. MacReady’s secrets and freaks him out. He orders the prisoner jailed. By the time he’s locked in a cell. He has seen all of their sins.

 

As MacReady heads out, he’s spooked by the prisoner’s face with white eyes in his rear view mirror, while he passes by someone dying on the side of the road.

 

Meanwhile, everyone in the police department is having terrible flashbacks from their pasts. Pct Heggie (Pollyanna McIntosh) keys the names in the aged little book, into their system, and find that they are all deceased.

 

Then one of the jailed, after having a conversation with the man now known as Six, bashes his brains in by running into the cell bars over and over. Dr. Hume manipulates his was out of his cell using the man’s condition as a ruse.

 

Meanwhile, other police are checking out Dr. Hume’s house and discovered the secret that Six already knows. The life of a doctor and the futility of saving lives has driven him insane. Now instead of saving lives, he’s driven to slaughter to search for a cure for death and key to immortality. His answer was to capture and preserve the soul.

And Sgt. MacReady is no better, he has a secret too and for a religious man, keeping that secret has meant becoming a different kind of monster. Driven by self hatred and desperate need to keep his sexuality a secret, he kills the people he wants the most. Well tonight he snaps completely, in a religious fervor while spouting scripture, he decides everyone needs to be cleansed with fire.

 

All but one, in this precinct has done terrible things and they all have to atone for their sins. But one can redeem themselves, if they choose to do the right thing before it’s too late. The lone individual who is the odd one out has met this man before, in another place and another life.

 

This British-Irish religious horror is directed by Brian O’Malley and it’s good! Great use of a small cast. Violent, bloody and very gory. Good physical effects and fight/kill scenes. There is nudity and adult scenes. Good pacing and story, well done!

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