Prey (2022)

Ephraim Belnap 

Very good! 

It's a spin-off of the Predator series. 

Predator films always follow a simple formula. The titular alien with various death-dealing devices arrives at some place, there are some regular people who get caught unaware by him, and these unlikely heroes - or usually hero singular - end up killing it by the end. It's like a slasher film with an action sci-fi bent, and where the villain doesn't resurrect in the sequel. Since the Predators are aliens, you can just have another one be the antagonist in the next film. That said, despite the simple formula it's still been gacked up many times by elaborating on the formula too much, or simply being a bad movie. But not this time. 

Prey is the kind of bare-bones, effective genre storytelling we find rarer and rarer in big franchises these days. There aren't any big star actors, no multitude of quips, no inserted kids or jokesters to make the story more fun. No stop-gap means inserted by the studio in a desperate attempt to make sure this property is profitable. Just simple, exciting, deft storytelling and action. 

            

In this one, the Predator is hunting some Comanche Native Americans in the 1700's. While the first Predator film was about muscly macho men facing a threat even they couldn't breeze through, this film is about traditional hunters facing a prey - see what I did there? - even their long-lasting methods can't kill. The only cure for this enemy is creativity, and the only person there with the mind for this is Naru, the lone female hunter whose peers reflexively don't want her there. 

I could say more about how good the action is, or how the film doesn't indulge in gore or sex for "maturity" value, or how it doesn't overbroadcast its points, but the short version of all of this is that it's a darn good film, and if any of this sounds appealing to you, you'll enjoy it.