Prey - A Film I Hadn't Heard About
 

I’ve found a film called Prey in a heap of very cheap discount DVDs when looking for marzipan. It’s about an American family on safari that get stuck when out on a game drive and how a pride of lions basically try to get into their vehicle to eat them. It says it’s based on a real story, which seems very unlikely. Has anyone seen it or heard about it? I don’t have time to watch it right now.
Here’s a website: http://www.prey.co.za/index.html

I have a copy and it's as bad as the description sounds :D

HAHAHA... Go to the website and click on media gallery. The fake Lioness head attacking the guy's face is a riot!

We saw it recently and found it entertaining because of the stupidity of the characters involved. The story is set and/or filmed (I can't remember) on an actual safari property in South Africa...and one has to wonder why the safari vehicle didn't have a radio so the family could call for help after their driver was killed.

John

The trailer leaves me wondering.

Didn't their vehicle have a radio (or someone with a mobile?) If with experienced guides, why did anyone leave that vehicle, if there appeared to be game around - big game, big cats! Just one foot needs to hit the ground, and you're no longer this big boxy thing a lion sees... you're prey and if there's any blood (a la the trailer)... seems it wasn't a pleasant experience going forward!

Rule #1, when lost in the wilderness (Africa or elsewhere) - don't leave your vehicle!

Think I'd skip this one!

Sandi,

No radio that we could tell, which is a great advertisement for the real-life lodge ;). And stupid behaviour by the characters makes sense...no stupid action, no story, no film.

John

Agree, dumb story line-highly unlikely but the scenery was good. If you'd never been on safari before, it would scare you to think it could happen, but we know better, right? I enjoyed it despite it's obvious flaws. 1 thumb up.

Dennis -

A thumb? I would have thought a pinky!

Check out 'Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness' from 1927. We got it from Blockbuster. Interesting history, seeing how far we have come. ((*))

Thanks for your comments. I’ll see the film as I’ve bought it and Dennis recommends it. I’ve been stuck myself for 4 hours without a radio. The guide had a mobile, but there was no coverage, or so he said at least. We even got out of the vehicle, so I suppose it’s my kind of film. :-D

Chang looks interesting, but it seems like it’s some sort of documentary and it’s not African.

You are right. I saw Chang about 2 years ago, and remember it was about elephants. But it was about Thailand. Sorry. ((*))

John,

I haven't seen the movie, but I have been in vehicles when we were in areas where they could not send or receive radio transmissions so they should have had one in the movie but just showed that it didn't work. At the frequencies they use, I believe communication is mostly line-of-sight. I spent a few exciting minutes one night searching around in the bush in the dark with a trainee ranger to find enough rocks to block our wheels (it's a long story) so we could change a tire because we couldn't raise anyone on the radio. Wish we'd had a flashlight! This wasn't a game drive of course.

George

George,

Yes, it would have heightened the tension if the vehicle was shown to have a radio, but it was disabled in some way. Maybe there was something like that but the scene ended up on the cutting room floor.

John

All I can say is this; you need some serious suspension of disbelief for this movie.

2 hours of my life wasted.

Hi, just checked the website, it's gruesome..... Sonali

Now I’ve seen it. It was scary, but really really stupid and I saw it with some stupid people who will never go to Africa. ;) There was no radio, but the stepmother had a mobile with no signal. It almost looked like the guide got killed because the family wouldn’t open the car door for him. I can’t find anything about the “true events” on which this film is supposed to be based. The <b>real</b> name of the lodge is mentioned and it’s here: http://www.africa-game-farms.co.za/leopardsrest.html

From the credits: &quot;Title Sequence by Dereck Joubert, Wildlife Films&quot;