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Dan Trachtenberg (USA, 1981) debuted with the sci-fi horror movie 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016), with a script rewritten by Damien Chazelle (who was supposed to be the director), and produced by the team of Cloverfield (2008), i.e.
producer Jeffrey Jacob Abrams, screenwriter Drew Goddard and director Matt Reeves
. The film certainly packs a lot of suspense and shocks. The girl is the object of a double horror: first the human monster and then the alien monster, perhaps also a metaphor for a philosophical discussion on whether the human race deserves
to survive after all.
The ending leaves the audience with the dilemma of whether the protagonist is a heroine or a complete idiot.
The film opens without sound. We only see that a young woman, Michelle, is
upset and drives away into the night on a country road. At a gas station
a car stops behind her. The radio broadcasts the news of a mysterious blackout.
While driving, she suddenly loses control of the car
and the car plunges into a ravine. Some time later, Michelle wakes up in a cell, chained to the wall, with a broken leg. A middle-aged man comes to bring her
food, Howard. He tells her that he saved her life and gives her a key to unchain
herself. She immediately tries to escape, injuring him, but he doesn't take
revenge.
Howard explains that everybody is dead except for them because of a nuclear
or chemical attack: they are alive because he built the underground bunker in
which they are.
Through a window Michelle sees Howard's truck, that has a big dent on the side and remembers seeing it for a split second in the rear mirror when she was hit by the truck.
She meets the other guest of the bunker: a young man, Emmett, who helped build
the bunker and confirms that there was a massive attack and he even
injured his arm when he squeezed into the bunker before Howard locked it.
Emmett confirms that the air outside is "contaminated" and she would die if
she escaped.
Howard shows Michelle that the bunker is a cozy place with all comforts.
Howard also confesses that he caused the car accident but has an explanation:
he was fleeing the explosion and, panicking, lost control of his truck.
Howard treats her like both a prisoner and a daughter, telling her that his own
daughter Megan died.
Michelle manages to steal the keys to the various locks is about to escape when a disfigured woman starts banging on the door begging her for help.
Howard shouts not to let her in because the radiations would kill them all.
Now convinced that Howard's story is true,
Michelle bonds with Emmett and the trio starts living a normal life.
One day Howard asks Michelle to sneak into a duct to fix the ventilation system
and finds that someone wrote the word "HELP" and also finds earrings that
seem to belong to Megan, based on a picture Howard showed her.
Michelle concludes that Howard killed Megan. Michelle tells Emmett and shows
him the picture of Megan, except that Emmett recognizes her as someone else,
a neighbor who disappeared two years earlier.
Now thinking that he is a serial killer, they decide that she will secretly make a biohazard suit while he will steal Howard's gun. However, Howard senses that
they are plotting something and forces them to confess in front of a barrel
full of acid that can dissolve a body. Emmett confesses and takes all the blame.
Howard appreciates the confession but shoots him dead anyway and then dissolves
his body in the acid.
Now it is confirmed that Howard is a serial killer and Michelle is terrified.
Michelle keeps working on the biohazard suit but one day Howard finds out.
They fight and she manages to hurt him with the acid and to escape through the
duct. She wears the suit and walks outside. A flock of birds signifies that
she doesn't need the suit after all. However, everything else that Howard
told her turns out to be true: there are indeed aliens and there is no sign
of human life. A horrible alien hunts her but she manages to destroy it and
to drive away in an abandoned car.
The radio is broadcasting an update on the war against the aliens and asking
for volunteers willing to fight to converge on Houston. Michelle stops the car,
turns around and heads for Houston.
Prey (2022) is the fifth installment in the series started with John McTiernan's Predator (1987).
(Copyright © 2024 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )
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