PREY by Antoine Blossier
Nathan is visiting his fiancée Claire at her family’s estate. When mutilated animals are found on the terrain, Claire’s grandfather, her father and her brother decide to form a hunting party. They set of into the woods with future son-in-law Nathan trudging along. A wild boar seems to be the main suspect for the carnage, but there’s something far more dangerous afoot. The family also owns a chemical factory and a leak in a tank with an experimental type of fertilizer has infected the surrounding wildlife. The pollution has started a mutation in the local population of boars, who aggressively attack anything that breathes, including themselves. The family members start bickering with each other, poor Nathan is stuck in between and the boars have tasted blood. Prey is another fine addition to the subgenre of wildlife gone mad. Illustrious examples like Razorback, Black Sheep and Tremors show what fun you can have with this when it’s done right. And with Prey, young debuting director Antoine Bloissier has done the right thing indeed ! This is one very stylishly filmed horror trip. The foaming beasties steal the show, but the ones who tear each other apart the most are those animals walking on two legs. So it gives you lots of pleasure to see how these not very sympathetic characters end us mangled and mutilated in boar stomachs.