A shape-shifting alien, Kator, lands on Earth. His mission is to evaluate if earthlings are a worthy source for food for his race. After he kills an amorous couple in a car, he assumes the identity of the male and then crosses paths with a lesbian couple who live in isolation in the countryside.

Wow. Prey is another curveball on the Video Nasties Section 3 list.

Whilst there are moments of horror in Prey, most of the action is regarding the power dynamics of Jessica-Ann, Josephine (the lesbian couple) and their new friend who tells them he is called Anders Anderson (surely a red flag right there).

For 1977, the portrayal of a lesbian couple was quite daring. We even get a lovemaking scene which, to it’s credit, isn’t a scene to titillate heterosexual male audiences who are turned on by female on female action.

The introduction of a (very odd) male stranger into the women’s lives brings out jealousy in Josephine who is very possessive of Jessica. This produces friction and erratic behaviour on her part. It also provides the film with a subplot regarding who is the real prey and who is the quarry.

There are so many scenes that are truly bizarre including the scene where the three of them hold a party just for the three of them which involves dressing Anders up as a fellow woman and then playing hide and seek, a very strange scene of the three of them in a muddy duck pond (most of which is in slow motion) and a plot to catch a fox who has killed some chickens on the grounds of the property.

Prey remains truly strange and off-kilter but never feels like the later Inseminoid by the same director (Norman J Warren) with it’s awful ‘luvvies slumming it in a B movie’ schtick.

Human Prey, a proposed sequel, was abandoned.

Prey is a strange 70’s trip.

2.5 out of 5 stars