Whenever you watch a film made by British director Norman J. Warren you always know that, whatever might happen, it's probably going to be very nasty indeed. Watching his ultra low budget science fiction quickie PREY, you might be forgiven for thinking that this is an exception - and you'd be right, at least for the first seventy minutes or so. The movie is basically a three-hander with the added plot device that two of the females are lesbian lovers, giving Warren a chance to indulge in some gratuitous sex scenes - being a slice of '70s exploitation, this comes as no surprise.Warren makes good use of his secluded woodland location to create an isolated location in which the story leisurely unfolds, variously killing off minor characters (even the pet parrot) before the true horror of the story comes to the fore. The film isn't without faults - it's probably Warren's most poorly-paced movie, with all the violence and graphic horror saved for the ending rather than dotted throughout like in TERROR and INSEMINOID. Some scenes do drag, like the dinner party featuring Stokes in drag (!), or the laughably dramatic pond-drowning sequence which seems to last an age. The scenery and foreboding atmosphere, plus the human dramas inside the household, do keep it watchable throughout however.It's difficult to judge the performances of Glory Annen and Sally Faulkner, playing two matter-of-fact women going about their humdrum lives; they're not really required to act much until the finale. Faulkner, however, makes for a scarily convincing desperate woman with homicidal desires, whilst Annen takes an understated approach instead limited to only one screaming fit. Barry Stokes, on the other hand, is pretty good as the handsome but alien visitor, packing his performance with strange mannerisms, odd expressions and a stilted personality to perfectly reflect his alien persona. Ironically, it is when he reveals his true self that the effect is ruined through cheap makeup, with a plastic snout and spiky teeth, although those red reptile contact lenses are pretty creepy.The film is best remembered for the incredibly gruesome finale, in which Faulkner finds that her lover has been disembowelled and cannibalised by the alien intruder - we're talking explicit gore here, blood splattering up the walls, entrail munching and everything. It's not surprising that this scene has been heavily cut in various UK releases over the years but whichever version you do see, you'll still get the impression - a grotesque slice of stomach-churning terror that gives Fulci's cannibalism in ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS a run for its money. An even weirder British addition to the sci-fi/horror genre came in the early '80s with Harry Bramley Davenport's unique and utterly bizarre epic XTRO, with which this has much in common.

Call it a dilemma that is as old as screen writing itself. How do you bait your Alien Vampire movie with the proper cheese to draw an audience like hungry rats? The answer: You thrown in a hot and heavy lesbian subplot, that's how.This is where I would usually say "Makes me proud to be an American" except for the fact that the movie was made in France and it would be silly to make such a statement about being an American when the film comes from France and not the USA. Oh I could have easily not told you that this was a French film and assumed that you would never ask but then you would have looked at the poster and discovered for yourself the movie's country of origin and then you would be giving sideways glances at your computer screen and wondering what kind of misinformed dunderhead was at the other end of this review and then decided for yourself that you didn't want to read anymore of his reviews based on the simple fact that he doesn't do his homework in preparation and assumes that his readers have short attention spans and won't notice anything so piddly and meaningless anyway.Don't give me that look, it's 3am Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh yes, lesbians. The movie is simply three kinds of movies grafted onto one another. It's an alien invasion movie, a vampire tale and a lesbian love story. The first two seem pretty sound, the third seems to come out of nowhere.In England, (Remember this movie was made in France) a lesbian couple Jennifer and her rather mannish lover Jo live a carefree life out in the middle of nowhere. What does that have to do with aliens? Well, basically it means that they have no help when the invasion begins but it also means that the two get to strut around the house naked as a jaybird. In other word no, it has nothing to do with aliens.One night a spaceship lands (oh good . . . REALITY!!) and out comes a creature who takes the form of a skinny lad that the creature easily does away with. Posing as a man named Anders Anderson (his real name is Kator) he attempts to infiltrate the house owned by our Saphic duo and make them into food for his trip home. He is a vampire cannibal as evidenced by the 300 or so shots where he bares his fangs.The couple obviously doesn't know that Anders is an alien-cannibal-vampire and when he enters their home he causes a bit of a rift between the girls. Joe doesn't like anyone messing around with her best girl (Jennifer, we later learn, plays both sides of the fence) and especially has a problem when she figures out that Jennifer and Anders have shared the same bed. Why is Jennifer a bisexual? Well because if she weren't then we would be spared some gratuitous sideways mambo shared by Jenn and Anders shortly before he nibbles her neck - the hard way. Anders and Jo discuss the problem when Jo tries to bury the hatchet - In his head!! That rather dubious negotiating tactic fails when Jo is killed by Anders who makes a meal out of her too.Then there's some business about an old boyfriend of Jennifer's named Simon who we surmise was done away with by the jealous Jo but the movie forgets that in order to get to some very silly business involving the last words of Wally the talking parrot. Believe me, the less said about this . . . the better.The word "weird" doesn't begin to describe it, but for your sake I haven't really begun to describe it either. Just start with the information that it's a French production, set in England with an English cast and then dubbed into French (at least when I saw it). If you consider this and the fact that that no audience would have ever been drawn to the movie this deadbeat without the graphic lesbian love story, you have to ask yourself: Did they really have a choice?

I'm glad I didn't go out and buy, or even rent this movie, but watching the low-resolution version on MovieFlix.com was enjoyable enough.Glory Annen played the best character, the somewhat vapid lover of the older lesbian. Trapped in a relationship that doesn't really excite her that much, and wanting to learn more, she plays a key role in bringing the "newcomer" into their lives.This movie was nothing special, fairly typical, if a bit kinkier than usual, Brit fare. But it was entertaining enough to watch it all the way through, which is more than I can say for a lot of films I've watched lately. A mildly interesting plot, a totally hokey alien, enough skin for the prurient, something to make a bowl of popcorn and watch when you have naught else to do.

Instantly watchable and delightfully cheap British sci-fi finds a male alien missionary on Earth being taken in as a house-guest by an unsuspecting separatist lesbian couple. The true fanged creature is concealed beneath a stolen body, but occasionally emerges during conflicts and feeding frenzies(and looks a bit like the titular terrors of THE BAT PEOPLE). The decidedly non-vegetarian visitor becomes caught in the middle of the womyns' peculiar psychodramas and recurring hostilities, and at one point is cross-dressed by them and finds new pleasures in the consumption of champagne....allthewhile drooling over a pet bird they have kept in a hanging cage.This film, for all its misgivings, remains one of the more "out there" entries in the sci-fi/horror genre...a bad film, to be sure, but one recommendable for its sheer uncommonness. At least they were clearly trying for something altogether different...and they sure did succeed in that task.5.5 out of 10 -- for decent performances and overall...erm...queerness.