Wild Boars Hate France

I couldn't let the year end without one more review. I just couldn't! I'm closing out my theme for the month with Prey (2010), a movie from France. It has been a fun month with lots of movies. I closed out the month over at Top Horror Movies Club by putting up a review for We Are What We Are yesterday. I have no real plans for next month. I think I will just get back to reviewing whatever strikes my interest for a bit at least. I may not be real excited about going into my 7th year, but at the same time, I am. Since I have decided not to worry about how many reviews I get in on a month, I have been in more of a mood to actually do reviews. Now though I may have to compete my time with Star Wars: The Old Republic. I'm just getting started with it so if anyone else plays, let me know!

Nathan (Grégoire Colin) is with his wife, Claire (Bérénice Bejo), while visiting her family. Her father, Nicolas (François Levantal), owns a pesticides factory that is in danger of closing. While Claire meets with her father, Nathan goes in to talk to Eric (Fred Ulysse), Claire's grandfather, and David (Joseph Malerba), her uncle. Nathan discovers that Eric has some bad chemical burns on his back, and that Eric and David are going boar hunting. Some deer was attacked near their home and a tusk was left in one of the deer. David feels it is larger than his record setting boar, so wants to go hunting. Nathan is invited but turns it down at first. Nathan and Claire are wanting to announce that Claire is pregnant but that is pushed out of the way when Nicolas wants Claire to return to work. I don't know if this means Claire no longer wants the baby, or if it is just dangerous for the baby since all she says about it is "we can have another one." Nathan decides to go on the hunt when he learns Nicolas is going, hoping to change Nicolas' mind. What they find in the woods will make them wish they never went hunting and reveal things about the factory.

With Prey, I was both surprised by it and disappointed by it. I was surprised by it because at times director/co-writer Antoine Blossier manages to throw in some good tension. I can't say that I'm a big fan of this sub genre within a sub genre that is killer wild boars. I liked Prey because there is good reason for the boars to be pissed off. It isn't about mutated boars, like I thought it might be. The plot is pretty easy to follow, and it isn't all that hard to figure out what will happen. I was surprised by Nathan's actions towards the end of the movie though. I was a little disappointed by Prey because despite having more than one wild boar running around, we barely ever see the things. We hear them and see the grass and whatever moving at times, but the boars themselves aren't shown much. Maybe that was for the best really, since it did add to the tension in some spots. Having never been boar hunting, though it seems to be popular on A&E, I can't say how realistic it is or isn't. I know it got a bad review from someone that said the boars didn't act in a realistic way though. Anyway, the pacing was done well, with hardly a boring moment except at the start. That wasn't really boring, just setting things up.

What we do see of the boars is a couple of dead ones, which could have been the same one but done differently on either side. All this, and some boar heads that we see once in a while, all seem to be done with actual FX instead of CGI. There isn't all that much for gore effects though. There is a scene where someone cuts a boar open and lets the blood pour all over them though. The acting was also pretty good. I enjoyed all the actors this time around. The small cast is what helped though too. The only actor I haven't talked about so far was Isabelle Renauld. She played the part of Nicolas' wife and isn't in the movie all that much.

One of the things I found kind of funny was the relationship between the brothers. Even though I think they were in their late 40s to early 50s, they still fight and argue at times like they are teens. I guess sometimes brothers never get passed that phase in their relationship. I found Prey to be a fun film. It certainly isn't as gory as some of the other French films that have been coming out there, but it was still an interesting film. Even though I don't feel it is one of the greats, it is still well worth the watch. I know some of the blogs I read really dig the killer boar movies, so I hope I see this movie pop up on those blogs. It is closing in on midnight here as I write this, so I hope everyone has a great New Year's!!
3 out of 5 What is better than a killer boar? A pack of killer boars!