Dreamtime's Over (II) (2009)
"Prey" (original title)

Three Australian couples stumble across an ancient curse in the Outback, and their dream holiday turns into a nightmare that may kill them all.

Director:

Oscar D'Roccster

Writers:

John V. Soto, Elizabeth Howatt-Jackman (additional story and dialogue),

Stars:

Natalie Bassingthwaighte, Jesse Johnson, Natalie Walker

Cast

Credited cast:
Natalie Bassingthwaighte	...	Kate
Jesse Johnson	...	Gus
Natalie Walker	...	Ling
Ben Knight	...	Matt (as Ben Kermode)
Christian Clark	...	Jason
Kristin Sargent	...	Annika
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Nicholas Bell	...	Bill
Joe Hachem	...	Motel Operator
Jennifer Hansen	...	Waitress
Geire Kami	...	Patient
Dawn Klingberg	...	Kora
Suhayb Lahdo	...	The Man
Pamela Shaw	...	Morgan Weismann
Leon Stripp

Storyline

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?

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Plot Keywords:

one word title | stalking | torture | loosely based on real events | violence | 

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Taglines:

When the hunter becomes the hunted.

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Genres:

History | Horror | Thriller

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Details

Official Sites:

MySpace Official site

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 May 2009 (Australia)

Also Known As:

The Outback

Filming Locations:

Campbellfield, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Company Credits

Production Co:

Top Cat Films

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film is considered an Ozploitation picture, an Australian exploitation movie.

User Reviews

Uh… lets prey on something else.

Not good. Not good at all. "Prey" is a very low-budget independent Australian supernatural horror feature set in the devastatingly ominous outback involving a group of young adults on a 4WD road-trip to a secluded beach, but get side-track when they take a detour to find a water-hole and end up encountering a centuries old Aboriginal curse known as Kadaicha. The bizarre concept had something there to work upon and there are some odd developments (like its hip opening introducing its characters and a sensual lesbian undercurrent), but in the end it's poorly conceived, embarrassing and lousily executed to simply make it banally camped-up, jumbled b-grade hokum. Outside of the expressively edgy location photography and "What the… ending involving the survivors smacking lips", not much works or remains interesting. Aside from some neatly realised imagery, when it came to the shoddy special effects is risibly done (sometimes the deaths happening off-screen or out of shot) and the cheapness of that made the atmospherics weakly orchestrated. The pumped-up direction went hand-to-hand with its brisk editing like something from a music video clip in probably trying to cover its low-scale image. There's nothing horrific about it, as the daftly plotted story seems to get worse as it mopes along with its laughably inconsistent developments and misguided timing. When the terrible script comes to the conclusion to why all of this weird stuff is happening to these people, it's mindlessly goofy and unfulfilled with a trashy ending. Not to mention quite dull, as it heads really nowhere when they go four-wheel driving. Not helping was the clunky rock / metal soundtrack inclusions that felt out of place in certain scenes and destroys any ability of cementing a suspenseful mood. The performances don't fair any better, either being leaden or overdone with their stereotypical characters. Jesse Johnson (that's Don's son) and actresses turned singer now actress again Natalie Bassingthwaighte take the lead and would be the only recognizable names to sweat it out. Well more for being Don's son for Jesse (as what else has he done) and Bassingthwaighte would have an Australian following. Again the story is supposedly inspired by certain true events, which I never even heard about. The film might get it fans, but I'm not one.