The Prey - Additional piece

 I did mull over The Prey (1983), actually 1979 made, and while I can completely understand the nature footage gripe, I did respond favorably to this tragic sense that here you have six young adults, right at the free point in their lives, out of school, going camping, fishing, swimming, and mountain climbing, with no clue that up in North Point there was this heavily burned man-beast with claws ready to crush most of them. I think it was their energy, youthful vigor, that freedom of being an adult, with smoking weed from a pipe and sex at night in the woods emphasizing a joy of life soon to be snuffed out through no fault of their own. That is where the slasher genre can really enhance real horror...youth destructively undermined by this force of evil that undercuts that new freedom to live and have longer life. That landed with me. The film is a ton of nature footage with young folks deep in the woods enjoying each other, cooking fish and talking Monkeys Paw, with the pretty blond making up her face and hair, a brief interlude about stars in the sky, and Coogan as an elderly park ranger serving as an exposition release with Bostwick as his banjo-playing protege, allowed a nice character moment as he spins an ironic joke about a frog asking fellow creatures about feeding, complete with facial performance to add effect. The ending with the man-beast carrying away the last woman as his breeding "mate", clearly informing us she would be a rape victim and child bearer, certainly is a strong example of bad taste. Yikes.