The Prey

The Prey (1983)

It's not human, and it's got an axe!

Three young couples set off into the mountains for a weekend of climbing, drinking and lovemaking; little do they know that they are stumbling into the terrain of a fearsome predator – a wild man, horrifically burned as a child many years ago in a fire which engulfed his gypsy camp and left only him alive, roaming the woods in search of his next human prey.

Date of release
1983-11-04
TMDB
4.2 / 10 (60)
Runtime
1h 20m
Genres
Horror
Director
Edwin Brown

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Budget: $150K
  • Filmed in: Utah

The Prey is a 1983 American slasher film directed by Edwin Brown, and starring Debbie Thureson, Steve Bond, Lori Lethin, and Jackie Coogan. It follows a group of campers in the Rocky Mountains who are stalked and murdered by a disfigured assailant.

Production

The Prey was directed by Edwin Scott Brown, who also co-wrote the film with his wife Summer Brown, who served as the film's producer. The film was produced during the height of the slasher film boom, which had become popular after the wake of John Carpenter's immensely profitable 1978 film Halloween. The film was director-producer team's first non-pornographic feature, as they had previously worked making adult films.

Brown and his wife Summer wrote the screenplay, choosing the Colorado Rockies as the setting, and were inspired by Halloween, as well as Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes (1977). Brown stated that he devised most of the film's plot trajectory and characters, writing drafts of scenes which Summer subsequently edited and organized into a comprehensive screenplay.

The film was lead actress Debbie Thureson's first screen role; she had previously appeared in a Maxim coffee advertisement with Kirk Douglas that aired in Japan. Thureson recalled that the screenplay featured little written dialogue, and that much of the filming involved improvisation between the actors.

Former child star Jackie Coogan was cast as forest ranger Lester Tile. Coogan had previously starred in Charlie Chaplin's 1921 film The Kid before later starring in the role of Uncle Fester in the 1964 television series The Addams Family. The Prey would be Coogan's final film role released before his death from cardiac arrest on March 1, 1984 at the age of 69, though it was not his final film role.

Director Brown had wanted to shoot the film on location in Colorado, where it is set, but was unable to afford the production costs. The filmmakers initially scouted Big Bear, California, but decided to use Idyllwild instead, as it was less populated at the time, and was in close proximity to Los Angeles.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended