A man's life is in danger when a mysterious stranger knocks on his door. This is our review of directorial duo Ben Poppy and Kory Sean Williams' Prey.
When it comes to the oft-used time travel fantasy, the idea of correcting or preventing a mistake has been popcorn food for countless movies; Whether it's protecting the mother-to-be of a revolutionary soldier who may lead a rebellion against vicious killer robots, making sure your parents fall in love so you and your siblings can be born, or getting help passing a history test, Movies have provided some of our favorite stories simply by traveling back in time.
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Writer: Patrick Aison
Stars: Amber Midthunder, Dane DiLiegro, Harlan Blayne Kytwayhat
Ben Poppy and Kory Sean Williams Prey is a 22-minute lo-fi time travel thriller that gives us a different angle on the time travel mythos with less emphasis on (as one of the characters says) happy endings. While cinema over the years has conditioned us to believe that when traveling through time we should never collide with ourselves, even though that's what everyone would do if given the chance, Prey throws all of that out the window. right away as our protagonist Prey (played by Jordan Turk) is disturbed by a knock on the door from a version of himself 10 years in the future. His older self (played by Phil Webster) has come to ask him to kill himself, so in that sense, Prey sticks to the formula that meeting your future self can be very dangerous.
Shot in elegant black and white, with its sense of doom and underlying theme of death, Prey reminds you of another less obvious but definitive classic time travel movie, 'It's a Wonderful Life', but this short is so much more. nihilistic and much less uplifting. Prey is not George Bailey and his future self is certainly not Clarence. Co-director Ben Poppy's writing takes the form of a duologue with two characters locked in an angry philosophical argument about the meaning of life, death and what it means if you're still alive.
Jordan Turk as Prey gives a powerful performance, questioning everything, while Phil Webster's outsider is every inch his equal; both manage to convey that they are the same person. Although they are not completely identical, the use of black and white colors helps to emphasize the similar characteristics that they have. The script is peppered with profanity, his angry exchanges are pointed and sharp, giving the film a modern feel and an immediacy that makes the audience question themselves. If you already know his future and it turns out that future is rubbish, is it really worth sticking around to see?
Though set in a single room, Poppy and Williams' shot choices and direction keep things tense and dramatic, while Henry Meredith's black-and-white cinematography adds to the film's overall pessimism. Finally, when Ryan Bridgewater's music kicks in, it's used in a way that surprises and alarms us, even mimicking a real alarm at certain points in the film.
Watch Prey 2022 Movie Trailer
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