I admire Dick Maas: he doesn't let a stupid concept stop him from realising his vision. Killer elevators (Der Lift, Down), a murderous scuba-diver in the Dutch canal system (Amsterdamned), an evil Sinterklaas (Sint): all fairly preposterous, but executed with plenty of enthusiasm and fun. Now add 'man-eating lion with ninja-like stealth' to the list.
Prey's 'mane attraction' is a 7ft big cat with a taste for human flesh, on the hunt in Holland's capital city. How it got there is left a little fuzzy. As is its ability to prowl the streets and parks of Amsterdam unseen or sneak on board a tram without so much as a 'hey, you gotta buy a ticket to ride, Aslan!'. No-one seems to notice the lion until it's too late. Not good for the citizens of Amsterdam, but good news for fans of trashy, gory horror - people get eaten left, right and centre, the lion leaving mangled body parts strewn all over.
The acting is atrocious - or at least the English dubbing is - but the film's characters are enjoyably daft, with special mention going to Mark Frost as the English big-game hunter Jack, who is called in to try and track and kill the lion: he's only got one leg and travels around in a motorised wheelchair, but that doesn't stop him from going face to face with the ferocious big cat, even sacrificing his remaining leg to help lure it into a trap!
It's probably a stretch to call Prey a 'roaring' success - the CGI used to realise the lion could have been better and the pacing is a little uneven - but Maas should take 'pride' in the fact that his film is still worth hunting down.
6.5/10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.
