Prey: The 'First Predator' vs the First Nations Has a Good Look and a Familiar Narrative

By Jim Slotek

Rating: B-minus

Two years ago, Parasite director Bong Joon-Ho scolded Hollywood on the world stage for not being able to get past subtitles.

“Once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles,” he said in his Golden Globes acceptance speech, “you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.”

Amber Midthunder engages in combat with another sort of heavily-armed “settler.”

There is enough right and apparently painstakingly accurate about Prey – the Predator series prequel in which the now-familiar species of extraterrestrial hunters sets sights on a tribe of 18th Century Comanches – that hearing the characters speak an actual indigenous language would have taken it to a whole other level. Instead they speak jarringly modern English.

Yes, there is a “Comanche dub” available on Disney+, where the movie debuts Friday, August 5. But how much more authentic would it have been for everybody to hear Comanche? It wouldn’t be as if you’re asking people to read a book at the bottom of the screen.

It’s more surprising from a sci-fi horror film in which the cast and at least one producer are Indigenous. But box office math still says most people don’t come to theatres to read.

Directed by Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane), Prey follows a familiar bloody narrative for anybody who’s seen any movie with the word Predator in the title.

It is, however, directly inspired by the memorable scene in the 1987 John McTiernan/Arnold Schwarzenegger original, in which the Native mercenary Billy (Sonny Landham) ceremoniously prepares to engage his alien adversary and embraces his fate with a warrior’s dignity.

Prey also, for the first time I think, seeks to get into the head of the Predator, how it chooses its prey, etc. Essentially, it is a hunter that hunts hunters. (A wolf and a bear are among its first trophies).

Which is why born-hunter Naru (Amber Midthunder) is not in immediate danger when the first-of-its-kind-to-visit-Earth begins doing what predators do. She is not considered a threat, neither by the alien Visitor (Dane DiLiegro) nor by her fellow Comanches, because, well, she’s a woman. Her brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers) is particularly critical. At times, it seems like her scene-stealing dog Sarii is the only one in her corner.

It’s fitting that this film ended up on Disney+ given that Naru follows a familiar Disney/Pixar narrative of her own. She’s the indomitable young woman (a la Brave and Mulan) who’s not going to let anyone tell her no - albeit on a graphic violence level that would kill Walt if he weren’t already dead.

But back to the Predator. There’s a suggestion that sportsmanship is a concept it understands (at one point it uses its technology to fire arrows at its disadvantaged prey). But still, this is a species that, in early films, wiped out a well-armed 20th Century platoon of mercenaries, battled the Xenomorphs from Alien to a draw and had a literal “nuclear option” in their gloves if facing defeat.

So why pick on a handful of settler-era Native Americans? Especially when your advantages include invisibility? What kind of bragging rights do you get back on the home planet for shooting fish in a barrel? As a premise, Prey is reminiscent of Jon Favreau’s 2011 Cowboys & Aliens.

But, as I say, there is a narrative to these movies. There will be slaughter. And tables will be turned, however unlikely that may seem at first.

And as in any horror movie with a body count, there are people we’re sorry to see killed and some not. The pot gets stirred a little with the introduction of a disagreeable group of French traders. They are given villainous non-names like Big Beard (Mike Paterson) and Waxed Moustache (Nelson Leis).

The inherent moral: You can be a hostile alien invader (of a human sort) one day, and prey the next.

Prey. Directed by Dan Trachtenberg. Starring Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers and Mike Paterson. Available on Apple+ Friday, August 5.