Devil's Prey (2001) Reviews

• You need some high-powered drugs to make it through this one.

  capkronos2003-05-08

  Five L.A. teens make the mistake of accepting an anonymous invitation to attend a backwoods rave called 'Straight to Hell' and, wouldn't you know it, that's just what the local sect of Satanists had in mind when they lured them there! Before you can say trite morality lesson, the kids (who've apparently burned too many brain cells as is) are run off the road by a van and chased around in the woods by hooded, masked cult members who want to sacrifice them to gain immortality. After the token black fifth wheel is snuffed out, the survivors (plus a young woman who escaped an earlier sacrifice attempt) stumble onto a very small town inhabited by (surprise!) more Satanists and it's time for round two. Don't waste your time with this irritating semi-throwback to 1970s drive-in horror films. The movie doesn't look bad, a few of the actresses are pretty hot and it has one effective plot shift near the middle, but those things are a dime a dozen in horror films and not nearly enough to sustain interest during the entire length of this stupid, boring movie.

• "You just dumped six bodies on me & I ain't even finished my breakfast." Watchable teen horror.

  poolandrews2006-03-06

  Devil's Prey starts late one night as five teenage friends, David (Charlie O'Connell), Susan (Ashley Jones), Eric (Bryan Kirkwood), Samantha (Jennifer Lyons) & Joe (Rashaan Nall) drive along an isolated backwoods road on their way to a rave in a barn. Eventually they reach their destination & inside the barn everyone seems to be having a good time until David gets involved in a fight over drugs & the five friends are kicked out. They drive off heading back home but hit a girl named Fawn (Elena Lyons who is a bit of a babe) who stumbles into the middle of the road, after stopping they try to help her & decide to drive her to a hospital. However they are forced off the road by a van, the friends are now stuck in the middle of nowhere & to add to their problems Fawn informs them that a satanic cult known as 'the shadows' operate nearby & are always in search of fresh, young sacrificial victims for their sinister devil worshipping ceremonies... Directed by Bradford May I thought Devil's Prey was an OK teen horror, I certainly thought it was watchable at the very least. The script by Randall Frakes & C. Courtney Joyner moves along at a fair pace & is never boring, at first it plays pretty much like a standard slasher film with a group of clichéd teens, the obligatory black dude, the 'strong' female, the idiot, the couple etc., being hunted down by people in robes & masks that reminded me of the killer from Scream (1996) but about halfway through they come across the small town of Hallow's Point where the film takes a different direction. I'm not saying that Devil's Prey suddenly becomes a masterpiece or anything like that, far from it in fact but it was nice to see the film try & break out of the normal horror mould that appears set in stone these days. The character's are non descript & forgettable although they don't annoy too much, the plot twists are far too easy to figure out & I was one step ahead of Devil's Prey all the way & there is one bit which bugged me & still does even now. It's the fact that Fawn deliberately walked in front of a moving car as part of an elaborate plan, OK fine but there is no way on Earth that she could be sure that being hit by a speeding car wouldn't kill or seriously injure herself, is there? In fact I thought she was unbelievably lucky to bounce off the bonnet of a speeding car & get up with no visible injury whatsoever. That's a massive chance to take for very little benefit, I mean the guys in the van force the car off the road anyway, right? Director May does OK & Devil's Prey looks alright, it doesn't have much style or visual flair but it's good enough. There isn't much gore, someone gets a bullet through their head, there are a couple of really tame Satan worshipping rituals & the films best sequence in which Patrick Bergin has intimate relations with Elena Lyons all inter-cut with Jennifer Lyons breasts & body being cut with a knife, nice. Technically Devil's Prey is fine, it's well made & competent throughout. The acting was OK & a couple of the girls here, especially Elena Lyons, are pretty hot. Devil's Prey is a decent attempt at a teen horror, it's not the best but it's far from the worst & I personally think it's worth a watch if your a fan of the genre & aren't too demanding. Not a bad effort. One more thing when the satanic cult are referred to as 'the shadows' I take it it has nothing to do with the Hank Marvin & Sir Cliff Richard band?!

• A Dreadful Teen Movie, With a Screenplay Full of Flaws and Ridiculous Dialogs

  claudio_carvalho2004-03-24

  Five friends (Susan (Ashley Jones), David (Charlie O'Connel), Samantha (the horrible Jennifer Lyons), Erik (Brian Kirkwood) and Joe (Rashaan Nall)) are invited to go to a rave party in a distant location. In the party, Erik starts dealing drugs and David fights with a local, and the group is invited to leave immediately the place. In the way back home, in a lack of attention of David while driving, he hits Fawn (Elena Lyons) on the road. He stops the car and they rescue the girl. Fawn is hurt and tells them that she was escaping from some fanatics for Satan, who wanted to sacrifice her. While going to the hospital, a large van chases their car and throws it out of the road, in a field. The maniacs capture Joe, but the rest of the group escapes. In the morning, they successfully reach a small town, meet the local minister Seth (Patrick Bergin) and the sheriff (Tim Thomerson) and report what happened along the night. Many absurd surprises happen with them in the town. This film is a dreadful teen movie, having a screenplay full of flaws and ridiculous dialogs. The ham `actress' Jennifer Lyons has a terrible tone of voice, her character is ridiculous and her lines are unbelievable. Some parts of the story are reasonable, but in a certain point of the plot, it becomes so unreasonable that even a fan like me of horror movie gets completely disappointed. Things happen without explanation or further consequence. My vote is four. Title (Brazil): `Sombras do Mal' (`Shadows of Evil')

• Complete waste of time and money!

  Kungfuzombie2002-04-10

  I don't know why people actually liked this movie just for a bit? Maybe because of the big breasted teens? There is NO plot, almost nothing is happening and it drags on and on. I'm a big B-movie fan and I don't care if the acting or the fx are bad (sometimes it makes movies even more fun!) but nothing is happening in this movie. So AVOID this one! I warned you!

• Don't bother with this "film"

  nsanders-22002-10-04

  What a waste of celluloid. The acting is atrocious, the direction appalling. The script and story line are so transparent and obvious that after a five minute introduction, set your dvd to 16x and you'll get the rest of the movie in a further five minutes, and miss nothing. The only surprise was that after the first bit of flesh there was no more. I can only surmise that the actresses involved decided to prevent their reputations getting further destroyed.