Let Us Prey (2014)

Held in a remote police station, a mysterious stranger takes over the minds and souls of everyone inside.

Director:

Brian O'Malley

Writers:

Fiona Watson, David Cairns

Stars:

Liam Cunningham, Pollyanna McIntosh, Bryan Larkin

3 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview:
Liam Cunningham	...	Six
Pollyanna McIntosh	...	PC. Rachel Heggie
Bryan Larkin	...	PC. Jack Warnock
Hanna Stanbridge	...	PC. Jennifer Mundie
Douglas Russell	...	Sgt. MacReady
Niall Greig Fulton	...	Dr. Duncan Hume
Jonathan Watson	...	Ralph Beswick
Brian Vernel	...	Caesar Sargison
James McCreadie	...	Mulvey
Sophie Stephanie Farmer	...	Young Rachel
Andrew Parker	...	Young Man
Holly Beattie	...	Car Crash Victim
Katie Gilbourne	...	Mrs. Hume
Max McCarthy	...	Dr. Hume's Son
Ellen Keaveney	...	Dr. Hume's Daughter

Storyline

Rachel, a rookie cop, is about to begin her first night shift in a neglected police station in a Scottish, backwater town. The kind of place where the tide has gone out and stranded a motley bunch of the aimless, the forgotten, the bitter-and-twisted who all think that, really, they deserve to be somewhere else. They all think they're there by accident and that, with a little luck, life is going to get better. Wrong, on both counts. Six is about to arrive - and All Hell Will Break Loose!

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Plot Keywords:

mysterious stranger | police station | police | stranger | night shift | 

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Taglines:

Darkness shall rise.

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Genres:

Horror | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

UK Ireland

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 June 2015 (Ireland)

Also Known As:

Aprisionados

Filming Locations:

Ireland

Company Credits

Production Co:

Creative Scotland, Fantastic Films, Greenhouse Media Investment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the room where Rachel was kept as a young girl, there are 5 names scrawled on the wall: Annabelle, Lucy, May, Heather and Rachel.

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Goofs

(at around 1h 13 mins) Cameraman is visible in the glass in the background, shortly after Sgt. MacReady shoots the shotgun into ceiling, as the camera pans around.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Caesar Sargison: Fuck! Oh fuck, shit!

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Connections

References Hawaii Five-O (1968)

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Soundtracks

Gather Up the Devils
(uncredited)
Written and Performed by Steve Lynch (feat. Masha)

User Reviews

You will meet a tall, bearded raincoat-stranger...

The plot of "Let Us Prey" might very well be derivative and predictable (I can already list at least 5 similar titles without even thinking too hard), but debuting writer/director Brian O'Malley nevertheless managed to deliver a compelling, brutal and sinisterly atmospheric horror/thriller. Straight from the eerie opening sequences – with a particular fascination for black birds, by the way – you'll immediately notice that O'Malley must be a tremendous genre lover and definitely knows the classics. The script borrows all kind of ideas and elements from different horror sub genres, from raw 70's grindhouse features to grotesquely silly 80's slashers, but somehow everything neatly and coherently interweaves into a tense and gruesome little film. Liam Cunningham, the extremely charismatic and marvelous actor who previously starred in "Dog Soldiers" and Dario Argento's "The Card Player", is well-cast as the mysterious stranger (complete with beard and clichéd long raincoat) who comes wandering into the police precinct of a quiet and remote Irish community. He seems to know an awful lot about the darkest secrets of everyone that is there – cops as well as petty criminals – and clearly intents to penalize them and mess up their minds beyond repair. It's up to Constable Rachel Heggie, on her very first night at a new location, to deal with the overload of maniacal tendencies that suddenly come to the surface. The Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Films promoted "Let Us Prey" as a – and I quote – demonic version of John Carpenter's "Assault on Precinct 13". That is actually a rather apt description, and I can also add the film is properly produced and brings forward impressive special effects, make-up art and a handful of cool stunts. The primarily stern plot makes a couple of absurd loops near the end, including the most derailed serial killer in recent cinema history, and admirers of harsh violence and explicit slaughter certainly won't be disappointed. Cunningham receives good and solid support from the rest of the cast, including powerful females Pollyanna McIntosh (watch "The Woman" if you dare) and Hanna Stanbridge, whom I already admired in the obscure "Outcast" and whose accent makes Irish sound like the sexiest language on earth.