Deadly Prey

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Deadly Prey
Deadly-Prey-Sony-Video-Sleeve.png
VHS cover
Directed by David A. Prior
Screenplay byDavid A. Prior
Story by Richard Connell
Produced byPeter Yuval
Starring Cameron Mitchell
Troy Donahue
Ted Prior
CinematographyStephen Ashley Blake
Edited byBrian Evans
Music byTim Heintz
Tim James
Steven McClintock
Production
company
Distributed byAction International Pictures
Release date
  • November 2, 1987 (1987-11-02)
Running time
88 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Deadly Prey [1] is a 1987 action film written and directed by David A. Prior. The film is a loose adaptation of the short story "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell, and stars Ted Prior (director David Prior's brother) as a former soldier who is kidnapped for participation in a human safari.

Contents

Plot

Colonel Hogan is a highly-decorated Special Forces officer who leads a group of mercenaries. His current client is businessman Don Michaelson. A deal is struck, and Hogan recruits new troops; for training, Hogan orders them to kidnap civilians for use as targets in hunting exercises. One of the people they kidnap, Mike Danton, is ambushed while taking out the trash. After being taken captive, he is outfitted in jorts, greased up, and released in a nearby forest as game.

A team of mercenaries hunt Danton; however, Danton, a highly-skilled Vietnam War veteran, picks off the troops one by one. The surviving troops report their difficulties to Colonel Hogan, who sends a task force led by his best man, Lt. Thorton. Another member of the task force is Danton's former comrade Jack Cooper, whose life Danton saved in combat some years earlier. Recognizing each other, Cooper defects from the mercenaries and allies with Danton.

With the help of Cooper, Danton continues to fight off the mercenaries with the goal of returning to his beloved wife Jaimy, who is eventually taken hostage by Hogan. Intending to rescue her, Danton escapes from the forest, equips for battle at his home, and storms the mercenaries' training camp. Danton and Cooper manage to eliminate all of the mercenaries. Lt. Thorton is pursued into the forest by Danton, who chops off the lieutenant's right arm. The detached arm is then used to bludgeon Thorton unconscious, whereupon he is scalped and killed. In the final scene, Danton shows the scalp to Hogan, whom he commands to remove his shirt and shoes. Releasing Hogan into the forest, the hunter becomes the hunted.

Cast

Production

After The Winters Group helped finance David A. Prior's previous film Aerobicide , Prior formed Action International Pictures with executive producers David Winters and Bruce Lewin, and producer Peter Yuval. Their first projects were Mankillers and Deadly Prey. Both movies were shot back-to-back in and around Riverside, California.

Retired U.S. Army soldier Don Michelson acted as a technical advisor, with part of the film being shot at his American Military Museum outside South El Monte, California. [2] Troy Donahue's character used his name in the film.

Release

Deadly Prey was first screened at the American Film Market in November 1987. In the Philippines, the film was released by Solar Films as Born to Kill on February 4, 1988. [3] [4]

Home media

The film was officially released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2015.

Reception

The film review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes lists only one review, by the North Carolina alternative newspaper Mountain Xpress. [5] Reviewer Ken Hanke describes it as "yet another of the seemingly endless barrage of cinematic knockoffs of Richard Connell's short story, 'The Most Dangerous Game' … This particular low-rent effort is a mix of the story and First Blood (1982)." The review concludes that it is "all quite ridiculous, but might be good for a laugh if you’re in the mood for ineptitude on an unbelievable scale."

Sequel

A sequel entitled The Deadliest Prey was released on November 1, 2013. [6]

References

  1. ↑ "Deadly Prey (1987)". IMDb.com, Inc. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  2. ↑ Times, Bob Pool Bob Pool retired in 2014 from the Los Angeles; since 1983, where he had been a general assignment reporter on the Metro staff (1990-04-04). "Tanks a Lot : Lumbering Relics of War--and 5 Puppies--Are on View at Museum". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-01-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ↑ "Movie Guide". Manila Standard . Standard Publications, Inc. February 4, 1988. p. 11. Retrieved September 25, 2022. CAPITOL...................Born to Kill
  4. ↑ "Movie Guide". Manila Standard . Standard Publications, Inc. February 3, 1988. p. 14. Retrieved September 25, 2022. CAPITOL...................Super Cops
  5. ↑ Deadly Prey (R) review, Mountain Xpress, 2008-08-27
  6. ↑ The Deadliest Prey Official
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