Innocent Prey

Scream queen Soles features in a rare lead role (although still a victim) in this Australian film no less, playing the wife of a sadistic serial killer who emigrates down under after he escapes from the mental hospital.

Top-notch cast features locally well-known Australian TV actors Kit and Grigor Taylor (no relation) and Americans Balsam as a sheriff and Thurman in a small role as an oil investor early in the first act. Warnock is an interesting one, I was never certain whether he was sympathetic or sinister suffice to say the film doesn't leave you in limbo.

Cliched but intriguing, this rampaging Ozploitation thriller has a decent plot, taut suspense and is violent and gory just the way nature intended such films, an odd mix of southern slasher meets voyeuristic thriller that's better than you might expect.

Probably could've succeeded with a local cast/location, although the commercial benefits of Soles (and to a lesser extent Balsam) should've been bulletproof in 1983, which makes the fact it wasn't released until 1990 all the more confounding. Soles demonstrates she's more than a supporting ingenue, able to carry a film with two distinct plot lines (across two continents) and despite her character's suffering, still exudes a wholesome, cheery disposition potentially the result of enjoying herself on what was her maiden voyage to Australia (according to her on-screen interview in the Umbrella DVD extras, where she also speculates on the film's long gestation period prior to its belated release). Worthy viewing for slasher or Ozploitation fans.

"Innocent Prey" has a couple of marks against it right from the outset. For one thing, it was filmed in 1984 but not released until 1991. How does that happen? It's not like we're dealing with "Begotten" or something like that with genuinely challenging material that people might not want to touch. And here's the other thing: it's never been released on DVD.

Both of these facts add up to one thing: nobody was happy with the way the movie turned out. And who can blame them? There is something fundamentally wrong with the movie's pacing, and direction. Key scenes and vital information are not underlined, so you don't realise what's supposed to be important, you don't feel what you're supposed to feel - you don't even know what you're supposed to know.

The (ridiculous) plot is about a woman who not only catches her husband mid-coitus with a prostitute - she also witnesses him slicing the woman's throat, and all in the one shot.

This shot is a piece of work. Our heroine peeks through the window and can see the naked prost with her husband standing behind her. She can also see into the hotel room's bathroom mirror, which helpfully reflects to give us a view of her butt. Who said this movie was shabbily directed?

So when our heroine - whose name I never picked up - witnesses her husband slicing the poor lady's throat, she freaks out and runs off to Australia, where the movie gets more lost than Burke and Wills did. Why didn't she just go to the police?

I didn't understand much, or anything, about her life in Australia, and certainly didn't understand the ending. We see that there is a pervert with hidden surveillance cameras in all the rooms of the hotel or whatever it is that the lady stays in. But this is communicated so badly to the viewer that I didn't know what to think.

And then it was over.

"Innocent Prey" is a sleazy Australian slasher that was shelved for years.I managed to get the copy of this film and I can safely say that it's pretty good.Cathy(P.J.Soles)discovers that her husband Joe brutally murders a prostitute with a razor.She confronts her husband who violently turns on her.Cathy seeks refuge from her friend sheriff Virgil Baker(Martin Balsam).Joe is sent to the state hospital for the criminally insane.Cathy resumes her life but is shocked when she learns that her husband has escaped..."Innocent Prey" offers a nice amount of suspense and bloody violence.The murder of a hooker is surprisingly nasty and gruesome.The acting is decent and the direction is well-handled,unfortunately the climax is rather disappointing.Still the film is enjoyable enough to watch it few times.Recommended.

Would you believe P.J.Sole's luck, not just starring in this stinker of a film, but with the men she falls in love with. She doesn't give a half bad performance (remember, she was one of those bitches from Carrie) as a Dallas girl, whose Aussie man, murders prostitutes. This insane Aussie guy, a successful oil worker, as I remember, is arrested, put in a hospital for the criminally insane, but escapes. A scared Soles flees to New Zealand, falls for a new guy, Mr Perfect (Grigor Taylor) who at the end, also turns out to be a nut, as is the young and little backward handy man, who works on this wealthy guys estate. If you can believe it, the only good thing to come out of this is Soles, not a major American import, but without her quite impressive performance, as a naive young lass, who's taste in men, is obviously terrible, this could of sunk much lower. An inane ridiculous film, honestly, although Taylor's last line of dialogue, serves as a classic and humorous one liner. Apart from that. PHOOOOOR!

Australia's addition to the 80s psychotic slasher market, "Innocent Prey" is a surprisingly modest foray by writer / director Colin Eggleston. Who'd be remembered for his eco-horror; "Long Weekend" (1978) and then two years later after prey he gave us the highly stylish supernatural slasher "Cassandra" (1986). It's as customary as you can get, but its selling point would be that of American actress P.J Soles (Halloween, Carrie) taking on the heroine role. For most part of the movie she looks bemused in the face (that's when your eyes are not distracted by her permed hair), but it's no wonder why, as she has two… yep not one but two psychotic nut-jobs that are seeking her attention. These two aren't working together either! One is the perfect husband with a real dark side and the other is a wealthy, loner weirdo who likes to watch.

Living in Dallas Cathy is happily married, well that's how it seems but one night she curiously discovers her husband murdering a prostitute while peeking through a motel window. She aids the police in his arrest, where he's taken to a prison for the criminally insane. Soon he escapes and goes back after her, but after another encounter she decides to move in with her best friend in Australia, Sydney. But here in her new place, might just be another threat in the shape of her new landlord.

The low-budget production is sturdily presentable, as there's nothing too flashy if some professionally expressive camera-work. Other than that it's quite plain, but even during its slow progression Eggleston delivers moments of tension grabbing jolts, more so in the first half and there's no hiding its quite unpleasant in its details. Far from graphic, but it's still sleazy, voyeuristic and suitably uneasy. This tone can be attributed a lot to the creepy performances of Kit Taylor and particularly the sly turn by John Warnock (who has an inventive way to knock some one off) as the psychos. It was an interesting if overblown set-up, especially how it dresses things up before twisting and turning upon itself with the dangers that Soles' character faces and then a smarting closing frame to end on. The soapy hysterics remain elaborately amusing; as it seems to get a lot darker, tighter and even trashier the further it goes along. Some questionable actions shoot up (in regards to Cathy), and the dialogues can be awkwardly goofy. The thing that disappointed me more than anything was Brain May's inconsistently overwrought music score, which simply seemed to be going through the motions.

Soles is simply sub-par in the lead, as her beady character is not all that sympathetic despite the ordeals she finds herself in. The support features some familiar faces; Martin Balsam is likable as the town sheriff and Debi Sue Voorhees as an unlucky prostitute. Also there's decent show-ins by the locals Grigor Taylor, Susan Stenmark and Richard Morgan.

A conventional, but endearing Aussie slasher.