The Prey Information

The Prey Made in 1978 (but not released until 1984) by the duo of Edwin and Summer Brown and starring Steve Bond, Lori Lethin and Jackie Coogan.

It was Jackie Coogan's final film.

Synopsis

The film is set during the summer between high school graduation and college. The film begins with a couple Frank (Ted Hayden) and Mary Sylvester (Connie Hunter) cooking food over a campfire while being watched by a mysterious figure in the shadows (played by Carel Struycken but not seen until the end of the film). While Mary is taking a walk in the woods, she hears her husband scream and returns to the campsite to find her husband's decapitated corpse. She is then herself killed by the killer wielding her husband's axe. Several months later, six friends are hiking in the same remote forest high in the Colorado Rockies to enjoy the nature and to spend some time alone with their boyfriends/girlfriends. As they progress deeper into the wilderness it's clear that the killer from the beginning of the film is stalking them. During their first night in the woods, Gail (Gayle Gannes) hears a noise and sends her boyfriend to check out the disturbance. While isolated they are both murdered by the killer.

The next day, their friends find the couple's gear missing and assume that they have turned back and gone home. The boys decide to head for the infamous Suicide Peak to do some rock climbing while the girls suntan. Meanwhile, the forest rangers Lester Tile (Jackie Coogan) and Joel (Steve Bond) get a phone call about the missing Sylvester couple and Joel heads for the forest to investigate. Before leaving Lester tells his partner a story about a boy he once saw during a forest fire years ago. The gypsy boy was covered in burns, horribly disfigured and left for dead.

While exploring, Joel discovers Gail's decomposing body and sets to find the killer. The killer attacks Skip (Robert Wald) and Greg (Philip Wenckus) while the teenagers are rock climbing, killing them both. Hearing the noise, Nancy (Debbie Thureson) and Bobbie (Lori Lethin) put on their clothes to investigate but are confronted by the killer. The killer is revealed to be the gypsy boy from Lester's story, who has survived in the wilderness but has razor sharp claws and is horribly deformed. They run but Bobbie stumbles into one of the killer's traps as is killed instantly. Cornered by the killer, Nancy faces it alone until Joel appears, shooting it with his tranquilizer gun. He starts comforting Nancy, but the killer awakens and kills him. In the final minutes of the film, we see the seasons change as many months go by and the final shot is of a cave, where we hear the crying of a newborn baby.

Cast

Actor / Actress	Character
Jackie Coogan	Lester Tile
Steve Bond	Joel
Carel Struycken	Gypsy Forest Fire Survivor/The Monster
Debbie Thureson	Nancy
Lori Lethin	Bobbie
Robert Wald	Skip
Philip Wenckus	Greg
Jackson Bostwick	Mark O'Brien
Gayle Gannes	Gail
Garry Goodrow	Sgt. Parsons
Ted Hayden	Frank Sylvester
Connie Hunter	Mary Sylvester
John Leslie (uncredited)	Gypsy

Production

The movie was filmed in 1978 in Utah.

Release

It premiered on 11 November 1984 in the United States with a limited theatrical release and Thorn EMI Video released it in 1988 on VHS.