Macabre…ish Horror Review: Prey

Prey, 2022/ 1 hr 39 min

It’s 1719 and on the Great Northern Plain, Naru (Amber Midthunder), a young Comanche woman trained to be a healer, wants to prove she is a great hunter, like her brother, Taabe (Dakota Beavers). While out collecting plants, she practices throwing her axe and tracking animals. She and her dog, Sarii, are on the chase one day and Sarii is caught in a trap.

And that’s not the only strange thing they experience, there are strange sounds and lights in the sky. She thinks it’s a sign, the Thunderbird, that it’s time for her Kuhtaamia.

Taabe is not sure but Naru is determined. Even her mother, doesn’t understand it. Naru is great at so many things, why does she need to hunt too?

Puhi (Samuel Marty) has been dragged off by a lion and a group is formed to track it and bring Puhi back. Naru tags along and only the one that really welcomes her is her brother. They find Puhi, badly injured but alive. Naru tends to his wounds, gives him medicine to cool his blood, orange totsiyaa, and keep him from bleeding out. Others build a stretcher and the rest want to track the lion. Along the way they see worrying signs like a skinless snake and a tree dripping blood.

Later, an alien ship lands nearby but it is not the only danger. There are French trappers in the area too.

Taabe decides the lion hunt will be her kuhtaamia. She will be bait and when the lion comes, she’s to face it and tell it, “This is as far as you come.’ But while she’s waiting, another hunter is attacked by it and when it is Naru’s turn to face it, it’s in a tree and she falls to the ground.

Naru wakes up in her family’s teepee, her brother carried her back. He then later returns with the lion. But Naru says there’s something else out there. And she insists on going but Taabe is sure she isn’t ready.

Naru takes off with Sarii and follows the trail of fluorescent green blood through the forest and to the ridge. Meanwhile, the Predator is hunting everything and taking the heads, still attached to the spines, as trophies.

Naru finds a field full of dead buffalo. The bodies are fully intact except for the skins. And she finds herself in real trouble when she wanders into a bog and as she throws her axe, looking for an anchor, she’s sinking. At the last minute she saves herself. And behind her is the Predator, who’s tracking her through the field of dead buffalo. Naru then encounters a bear and it’s aggressive, even after Sarii distracts it, it comes back with a fury, chasing Naru into a beaver’s dam where she hides.

But it retreats into a battle with an invisible Predator. Naru only sees is as it lifts the bear over it’s head and bathes in it’s blood. Sarii swims away. Back in the woods she runs into a group of her people who are searching for her. She says she saw the Predator and she fights Wasape (Stormy Kipp) to keep from being dragged home. And all the while the Predator lurks and watches from the trees. And Naru can hear it. They take her weapon and tie her wrists. And she sees opossums running in their direction. She knows it’s not for no reason. Wasape, after seeing the telltale sign on his chest, three red dots in a triangle, he is the first one to go down.

The predator is there and the hunters are ready to fight. One by one, they are cut up, limbs are sheared off everywhere. By the time Naru gets loose, only Itsee (Harlan Blayne Kytwayhat) is left and they hide in the tall grass. But the predator can see Itsee’s heat signal, so they run for it. Itsee doesn’t make it and Naru is captured in one of those iron traps. French trappers arrive and kidnap her. She wakes up in a cage at the trapper’s camp. And the Predator silently watches and follows.

The leader of this gang of degenerates, Big Beard (Mike Paterson), is wearing buffalo skin. And after harassing her, he gets a man who speaks Comanche to communicate with her. They want to know if she’s seen the Predator.

They also have her brother, Taabe and they cut him for fun. They use the siblings as bait to lure the Predator out in the open. They still aren’t ready when he arrives though. But Naru knows he doesn’t want bait, he wants to hunt, it’s seen her before and just walked past her.

The trappers hide and trap him with a huge bear trap and a net and it still takes him just a few minutes to kill most of them. They won’t get the minute and a half (at best) to reload their guns. During the slaughter, Naru gets her and her brother free using a bear trap. And they take off, Taabe to get horses and Naru to get Sarii from the trappers’ camp. She kills most of those at the camp, by herself.

The translator returns with only one foot, asking for her help. He also tells her how to load a gun. She gives him the good stuff, orange totsiyaa, that cools the blood and stops him from bleeding out, it also makes you invisible to the predator. And when it returns, the translator plays dead and Naru hides. But when the predator aims at her dog, Taabe strikes. He gets some incredible strikes in too. Taabe’s so formidable that the Predator has to use his cloak. After a while, Taabe tells his sister that this is as far as he goes and to run. But she won’t. The Predator doesn’t even see her as a threat…yet.

Naru watches her brother die a hero, then cleans herself up. Word is sent back that, Taabe, didn’t make it. But Naru intends to fight. This is her kuhtaamia. But first she goes after what’s left of the trappers who made them bait and she uses the Predator to do it.

She starts by shooting a hole in the Predator’s head and the mask off his face. Then taking the mask and setting her trap. Then she strikes like a cat and when she’s down Sarii takes the offense. Naru’s fast and smart, the Predator never really stood a chance.

And at the pivotal moment she says, “This is a far as you go.”

When it’s over, Naru takes the head home and presents it to her tribe, she’s decorated herself with its fluorescent green blood and tells them they need to move.