Parents' Guide to Prey

From the start, this ridiculous horror-suspense movie is fraught with nonsense and a head-scratching lack of logic; though it eventually goes crazily over the top, it's too late to care. It's as if writer-director Franck Khalfoun (P2, Amityville: The Awakening) and co-writer David Coggeshall (The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia) just charged right ahead with a half-baked idea and didn't bother to stop and work out any of the kinks. The entire setup for Prey, all of the bizarre antics required to get Toby to his island, is beyond slapdash. (What mother would ever allow their child to sign up for a program so clearly destined to go so horribly wrong? How would such a company even get insurance?)

Once on the island, Prey jumps through more idiotic hoops, starting with Toby's astonishing lack of survival skills -- but, just days later, he's morphed into a combination of Rambo and MacGyver. Madeleine's story makes even less sense; she's been there for years and years without ever asking the most obvious questions. For example, only after three days does Toby manage to mention that he's supposed to leave, sparking Madeleine's ire. On the plus side, the movie is handsomely shot, with nifty use of the island and its creepy jungle, and the stars are appealing. Miller conveys the pain and guilt over the loss of his father, and Froseth manages a hypnotizing, otherworldly quality. But that's not enough to make Prey anyone's desert island classic.