The Prey is a 2018 Cambodian action thriller about a corrupt warden who sets up a hunting game for rich men using the prisoners as their prey.
From Fantasia Festival 2019: Director Jimmy Henderson‘s The Prey is essentially a cat and mouse game gone awry as those in charge inadvertently toss in an undercover international cop into the mix. Xin (Shangwei Gu) is said cop, spending his life catching criminals, now suddenly needing not to be caught himself, made doubly difficult as he also has taken to help out another prisoner, Mony (Rous Mony). With three wealthy men separately tracking their prey in hopes to win the game, things don’t go as planned when Xin and Mony manage to turn the tables and perhaps get the upper hand.
This is all Xin, who has more brains than brawn, which works to his advantage, even in the gun-heavy action. He has a lot of grit and while there isn’t a lot to his background, it’s made clear that it’s the right now that matters, how this prison, the warden, and the game may or may not change him. That warden is played by Vithaya Pansringarm, making quite an impression, despite the fairly familiar archetype, but he truly wears it well, facing off against Xin. It’s a small bit compared to the three hunters, especially two of them, the army camouflaged Mat (Byron Bishop) and his nephew, Ti (Nophand Boonyai), but it’s memorable. He’s more grounded with Mat and Ti’s story getting a little far-fetched in the movie’s struggle to give it all more depth.
The Cambodian jungles do make for a suspenseful setting, with most of the movie lost in such after the opening set piece in the prison. Lucas Gath‘s cinematography is the real highlight of the film, managing to find all kinds of creative angles in keeping up with both hunters and hunted, making all the action that much better. That action is mostly gun play with plenty of catchy firearms, including what Ti comes packing, and the bullets blend well with the natural ambiance of the jungle. The score is a jumble of moody and playful with some intensity toward the finale, composer Sebastien Pan handling the tonal ups and down fairly well.
That all said, The Prey – even with its technical achievements – still falls short with its story. There’s little interest in the characters, and while this is an action movie, it doesn’t exactly hold together so well narratively. There are some decent gun fights and the combat is brutal but it’s never made all that inviting to get behind anyone in the fight.