Three hundred years ago, Naru (Amber Midthunder), a skilled Comanche warrior, notices some strange tracks in the woods. She tries to warn her brother, Taabe (Dakota Beavers), of the threat that can kill a wild grizzly bear with ease, but the hunting party does not believe her. As they continue their journey, they come across a French trapping camp, armed with guns, but soon after the beast that made the massive tracks shows itself. The Predator (Dane DiLiegro) makes quick work of the Comanche and the French, and it soon becomes clear that the only way to defeat this foe will be through a battle of wits. 

Prey is only the second feature for director Dan Trachtenberg, whose career which leans more towards television, fits well into his body of work that takes existing sci-fi genre elements and blends them with a unique way into a story to create wholly original entries into franchise entertainment. Patrick Aison writes the script for Prey after breaking the story with Trachtenberg based on the Predator characters from Jim and John Thomas. The period piece, action thriller was released directly to Hulu from Twentieth Century Studios with little fanfare, and at a breezy 100 minutes, it is a shame that this film could not fight its way onto the silver screen. 

Midthunderis given the burden of carrying film, and she excels in the role. A bit of a jack of all trades, Naru is skilled and trained in medicine, but she also enjoys hunting and training with the hatchet and her dog, Sarii. The film is carefully written, though, so that she never feels invincible because of her wide-ranging knowledge and skills; the film often knocks her down which also helps make her successes feel that much more triumphant. Much of the narrative finds Naru in situations where she must use her ingenuity to escape and gain the upper hand, and because her enemies are always so much more powerful at the onset – a lion, a grizzly, armed Frenchmen, and Predator – the thrill is in watching her use the environment in creative ways so that she can bend the outcome. There is always a sense of danger because even though she is skilled with a bow and arrow as well as her hatchet, her foes are always better equipped from the start. 

The environment in Prey is striking. It captures the beauty of the Comanche lands with its majestic mountains, running rivers, and vast plains by highlighting the natural colors of the undeveloped landscape. These idyllic vistas are all captured on Jeff Cutter’s camera, backed by Sarah Schachner’s score which melds Hollywood conventions of action music with indigenous drums and vocals to create a fully realized audio and visual identity for the film that serves to enhance the world we get to experience with the characters. It fits the scope of the narrative perfectly, a Comanche warrior facing off against a massive alien invader, and when that is working in tandem with Kara Lindstrom’s overall production design, Prey becomes one of this year’s highlights in terms of craft and other below the line areas of focus. It may be lofty to compare Prey to Robert Eggers’ The Northman from earlier this year, but both tell a simple story that is elevated by its sense of place, and while Prey has a lot more freedom afforded to it given the alien antagonist and it spends much of its run time in untouched wilderness, the amount of detail and care poured into the film – even going so far as to release a Comanche dub – needs to be recognized and commended. 

Being five features deep into a franchise, Prey does little in ways of setting the audience up for any missing bits or lore about the Predator. There is no team of scientists or military operatives to deliver the exposition about where this creature came from, what it is capable of, and why it is here. We learn everything we need to know about the Predator for Prey with the characters so even without the backing knowledge of the previous entries, the film plays out as a fully self-sufficient release. To keep it in perspective, the overarching lore does not run super deep; this alien is overpowered and ready to annihilate anything in its path, seemingly for sport. What the film does so smartly, though, is that we learn about its skills and its tools simply by watching it work. The onus then is on us to keep up with the film, and again it has a simple enough plot so it is not that large of an ask even for a direct-to-streaming title that is competing with the allure of screen time on our phones. Like everything in life, you will get out what you put in, and for those following along to the details, they will be rewarded with a delicious finale that is far more nuanced than the film’s logline and IP-propagating pitch would lead anyone to believe going into it. 

Prey is a true surprise delight of a film that even though is immediately accessible through Hulu, its release has been rather muted. With strong performances bolstered by the amazing work of the entire production crew, Trachtenberg threads the needle as he did once before with 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) in creating a compelling piece of understated sci-fi, and grafting the franchise elements on top of the established narrative. Despite the seemingly “commercial need” to be part of a larger story to have a project greenlit in today’s Hollywood, Prey does not come off as any number of the soulless cash grabs its parent studio, Disney, is so known for. Trachtenberg and Aison put the story first and found room and reason for the Predator to exist in this film, even if that reason is as simple as destroying everything. Finding an unlikely match in Naru, the film is bursting with excitement as the young warrior develops her own skills and trusts her intuition as she strives to protect her tribe from impending doom.