Prey is a modest and reasonably well-made monster movie. As a debuting filmmaker, Trevor McBain directs with a slick and professional look. He displays a good grasp of the mechanics of the genre and moves the film along with a fair degree of suspense. The whole film has essentially been contrived around the initial appearances of the Yowie with the substantial bulk of the story then consisting of a cross-country flight by a group of people and their siege at the cottage. The extended climactic scenes with the survivors cornered in the farmhouse are well sustained. The monster is about the one aspect that looks B-budgeted and it is here that McBain doesn’t quite grasp the virtue of many other B-budget films in keeping glimpses of it to a near-subliminal minimum.

There is a reasonable attention paid to characters who all have credible reactions to the situation, which is the basis of any good survival horror film. Most of the performances in the film – all unknown newcomers – are convincing and do not let the show down. There is never any explanation given for The Yowie, except for a few vague comments about it being a mythical creature.

Prey should not be confused with some ten other films using the same identical title. Most of these are short films, but others include Norman J. Warren’s alien horror film Prey (1978) and the killer lion film Prey (2007), as well as another unrelated Australian horror film Prey (2009).