Hunter Prey

source: Hunter Prey

The coolest thing about Hunter Prey to me is not the visuals, it's the story and how it builds to the end. You don't know anything about the characters in the opening and then every little scene or even line of dialog that happens from there, you get to learn something new about them. There is nothing wasted or squandered. The structure of the story is solid and the character performances are good. It was like an old western. It looks great, but everyone has said that. The characters and all the little nuances and what they did, is what kept me interested in the movie. Each one of them had things they did to prepare for the ultimate meeting of the characters. They're subtle, but there. If you're looking for a video game, non stop action movie, Hunter Prey isn't for you, but if you like an old school, story and character based sci fi film, you will love this. 10 stars!

I am personally surprised by the high reviews this film has achieved. I admire the film maker and all those connected with it for creating a film on such a low budget with what they wanted to achieve, but I feel, as I'm sure they feel, they did not achieve even close to what they wanted to. Remake this in 15 years time with some love. You could blame the budget, or you could blame the lack of art direction. There is no art in this low budget film, there is an awful location choice, there are bad camera angle choices (sunflare is not cool, emptiness is) , there is minimal story. This film screams of trying to be an even more intelligent Enemy Mine, but does not come close in terms of art or intelligence. The director had two decent actors, some budget for decent costumes and some minimal model special effects... but it was all wasted, the actors could have easily given so much more I am sure, the costumes could have been better (why are they roman?), there seems so many flaws with this film, the budget should have been spent on art direction and story. If you want to do 'cult', then do 'cult', do not half ass it like this effort. Go crazy, be unique, or don't bother. This film seems like a compromise. As a compromise its OK, if your starved of sci-fi like it seems we are these days, then it may be worth your time.. but really, your gonna be disappointed, it is nothing like people would have you believe. It is poor, I wish it was not, but it is.

Incredible use of landscape and costuming in this low budget gem. The alien makeup effects were great as well. SciFi on a budget is very hard to do with aliens and costumes, spaceship models, etc. Most people do horror because it's cheaper and easier to achieve. "Hunter Prey" is much better than anything I've seen on SyFy, and I'm sure it was done for either equal the budget or less. Every part of it was done better and it didn't have a dumb, CG monster that looked like it was done by film school students. There's parts I'm sure that could have been better, but I think most of them are because there wasn't enough money. What stands out the most are the score and the cinematography. "Hunter Prey" looks and sounds incredible. I don't think I've ever seen a low budget film that had shots and music of this quality. It was a little too much "Planet of the Apes" sounding in certain parts, but it's very good. The director definitely has the eye (and ear) for these kinds of films.

Let me first say I appreciated the story. I found myself wanting to find out more about this deceptive prisoner, and when I found out who/what it was, I was pleased. The scenery was nice and the direction was OK. Erin Gray as the computer voice was great. Due to the lack of decent props and tech, I was almost ready to turn this one off. I understand a shoestring budget, but you can find college theater students who will work for free and will design better costumes and tech than what we see here. Or at least more talented ones than the director found to make these costumes. The holsters were made out of cardboard,and they were plugging mini-headphone cables into their computer devices, etc. Just extremely weak. And the "storm trooper" helmets I suppose were done on purpose as a "shout out." The dialogue was decent, except I almost laughed when I realized I might have to watch the entire movie never seeing the actors' faces. There was no need for them to have "digitized-sounding" voices. Modern communication devices even today carry voices quite well. I would think advanced aliens would not have to resort to "walky-talky" type communication. I couldn't believe some of the logic that was being thrown out there by the computer. I just didn't feel like it was feasible that the computer was suddenly become a rebel of sorts, joining sides with Centuri 7 to somehow break away from his race. Give this director a little money, and we probably get something remarkable. But I'm not going to give this above a 5, because it doesn't deserve it.

Refreshing to see something so incredibly refreshing in the realm of low budget science fiction. The design, art direction and production value of "Hunter Prey" is so far beyond anything else in its budget range, that it actually hurts the film. It looks so good, that people judge it in the same class as they do bigger budget, studio films. Summer movies with big set pieces, accomplished actors and all the other things that come with a 25 million dollar plus film. Collara didn't have anywhere near that kind of money for this movie, yet it looks as good or better than anything I've seen in the theater this summer. It has its problems as all movies do, but they stem more from budgetary issues in this case, than anything else. The acting is good, the story though simple, is very engaging, it looks marvelous and is very well directed. Amidst the throngs of incompetent and flat out bad genre films out there, "Hunter Prey" rises above.

Good example of what can be done on a low budget when there's actually people with some talent behind these smaller, micro money flicks. The creativity and ingenuity of the filmmaker rises above the material, and that's what sets it apart from the typical SyFy channel crap. Nothing that special or too original about the story or plot, but there were some interesting twists and creative choices that kept me interested in the movie. Good visual storytelling, good acting and nice production design, creatures and cinematography. Music was overbearing at times, but very good. Big step above what is usually achieved on this budget range. It has its problems, and the end left me scratching my head a bit, but overall a solid movie.

Though to the trained eye, the lack of action and set pieces reveal the budgetary limitations of this film, the director's ability to achieve this brand of cinema on such an independent level, is astounding. It was refreshing to see an original genre film that wasn't a remake or based on some comic book or video game, as I feel there's never enough credit given for originality in this industry. The first act has some pacing issues, the dialog is a little clunky and the performance of the alien guy falls a little flat in places, but the bold creative choices Collora makes throughout the film, always deliver. The make-up, costumes, props, and effects are all top notch, making the visually dense world of this film a totally believable and immersive experience. This is as cinematic of a movie you're ever going to see at this budget.

In particular, a first season episode called "Unchained Woman" starring Jamie Lee Curtis. Buck crashes on a desert planet and breaks a prisoner out of an underground prison and needs to return her to the Earth defense directorate alive. As they trek through Vasquez Rocks doubling for a desert planet with cheesy moons in the background, they are pursued by an alien android trying to recapture the prisoner. There's even a slithery tentacled creature called a sand squid on this planet, that they ripped off as well in Hunter Prey. They even went as far to hire Erin Gray (who played Wilma Deering on the show) to be the voice of the A.I. in their movie. This looks way better than the Buck Rogers TV show, but the corny acting is just as bad, if not worse. Hunter Prey wasn't horrible by any means, and it's certainly better than any of those awful SyFy channel movies. It looks beautiful, especially for such a low budget movie, but I have to give it a big fat goose egg for originality.

Very cool to see this kind of armored commando movie in live action instead of animation or CG. It just looks more real and is more fun to watch and more interesting. Story was really good, too. The way the scenes flowed into one another, following what each character was doing, was an interesting way to tell the story. The director took the time to let the movie breathe a little bit and tell the story at a very natural pace. All the reviews on here that say it was paced wrong, need to take some Ritalin and pay attention to the movie. You'll notice something in there called atmosphere. There are little things that are critical to the characters and the story in there as well, but I guess you probably wanted giant CG robots. The action was good when it was on screen and the shootouts and hand to hand combat was not shot with shaky cam garbage. Acting was very good, especially the Jericho character. I also caught a lot of the references to Micronauts and Star wars and Blade Runner, etc. The story struck me more as an old school Trek episode than Star wars, but Collara is a fan of all the right stuff and it shows in the movie. He should make the Halo movie or Warhammer. I'd also like to see him do God of War.