The Outback aka Prey (2009)
Horror/Thriller Not Rated
Plot
The story is inspired by the disappearance in the late 80's of a North American couple who disappeared in the West Australian desert on a 4WD holiday. They were never seen alive again. Their abandoned vehicles and totally unused supplies were found in sand dunes near an Aboriginal sacred site--less than an hour away from the closest town. Two years later, the two men were both found dead of natural causes, on the same day, 1000 miles apart back in North America. Twenty years after the original incident, 3 couples who set out into the same desert and unluckily end up in the same area, at the same time of year, with disastrous results. The previously unrevealed psychological and sexual liaisons the couple's had secretly shared come to light as there lives end one-by-one. Who will survive?
Acting
Very inconsistent, with a lot of unnatural pause between when the dialogue goes from one character to another, however the two leads Jesse Johnson, and Natalie Bassingthwaighte are both mostly reliable, and show more star power than the rest of the cast.
Gore
Lots of flowing blood, and an eye pops out of a guys head when its crushed by a car
Sex/Nudity
A clothed sex scene.
Final Thoughts
Given the films title and Australian origins, I'm sure many will expect it to be a rip off of the superior film "Wolf Creek", however it's is not that at all, in fact its not a slasher flick, as it focuses on a supernatural story. What it is however is pretty average, with CGI effects that many will find very lackluster, and that would rival many SciFi (or SyFY, whichever you choose to go by) channel movies. While I don't find it to be an incredibly entertaining movie, It in my opinion does not deserve the overwhelmingly negative reviews I have seen of it, and I give them credit for actually trying something a bit different, even if it did not quite hit the mark. I also found ti amusing, given the current circumstances, that the meeting place this group of people chose to go to was a BP gas station.
Overall Rating
C
