LET US PREY (2014)

Studio:       Dark Sky Films
Director:    Brian O’Malley
Writer:       Fiona Watson, David Cairns
Producer:  Brendan McCarthy, John McDonnell, Eddie Dick
Stars:     Liam Cunningham, Pollyanna McIntosh, Bryan Larkin, Hanna Stanbridge, Douglas Russell, Niall Greig Fulton, Jonathan Watson, Brian Vernel

Review Score:

---

Summary:

A small town police station erupts in chaos when a mystery man arrives with the power to expose everyone’s darkest secrets.

---

Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

In the small Scottish town of Inveree, recently transferred police constable Rachel Heggie wakes from a nightmare memory of being held captive as a child to find a black feather on her pillow. While on foot patrol later, Rachel is about to confront a mysterious bearded man when local hooligan Francis “Caesar” Sargison suddenly hits the man with his vehicle. The man inexplicably vanishes, but Rachel arrests Caesar since there is blood on his car’s headlights.

Rachel escorts Caesar to the police station and turns him over to Sgt. Jim MacReady. Caesar is placed in a holding cell near wife-beater Ralph Beswick.

MacReady interrupts a sexual encounter between constables Jack Warnock and Jennifer Mundie in their patrol car to have Rachel task them with locating the unidentified man. Warnock and Mundie eventually find the man and bring him to the station.

With the man uncooperative and initially unwilling to speak, MacReady decides to hold him on a vagrancy charge. The man becomes identified as Six in reference to the number of the cell where he is later placed. Rachel finds a notebook with strange symbols next to handwritten names in Six’s possession. Dr. Duncan Hume arrives at the station to examine Six’s injuries.

Dr. Hume realizes that Six has the power to enter people’s minds and expose macabre secrets when he has a sudden, horrific flash while examining the mysterious man. Dr. Hume tries to kill Six with his scalpel, causing the police on hand to arrest the doctor and place him in a cell near Ralph and Caesar.

Fingerprints identify Six as Alexander Monroe, who died in a fire at age 79 in 1983. Six cryptically warns that midnight is approaching before getting into MacReady’s head, causing a psychological response of terror similar to Dr. Hume’s.

Rachel escorts Six to a cell near the other inmates. Mundie touches Six while locking his cell and flashes back to a thrill kill when she and Warnock beat a suspect to death.

Warnock and Mundie are tasked with locating Dr. Hume’s wife. MacReady exits the station under the pretense of tracing Six’s true identity, leaving Rachel alone with the four prisoners. Rachel begins researching the names written in Six’s notebook and discovers that all of them are deceased.

In the cellblock, Ralph pulls out a bothersome tooth while being psychologically tormented over his habitual spousal abuse. Seemingly compelled by Six’s mysterious ability, Ralph begins bashing his own head repeatedly into the metal bars of his cell. Rachel is forced to free Dr. Hume so that he can tend to the injured prisoner, but Ralph dies.

Warnock and Mundie discover the doctor’s entire family brutally murdered inside the Hume home. A fight ensues between Rachel and Dr. Hume when Warnock radios to report the grisly discovery, but Rachel subdues Dr. Hume and returns him to his cell.

MacReady returns home to dispose of the mutilated bodies of two dead male lovers. After Rachel calls him to report what happened at the station, MacReady arms himself with a shotgun while quoting scripture.

It is revealed that the blood on Caesar’s headlights actually came from a young girl struck earlier in the evening, and who now lies dying by the side of the road. Six tells Caesar that he has the opportunity to save himself if he confesses his crime to spare the girl’s life.

Warnock and Mundie return to the station. Mundie takes Hume to an interrogation room with Rachel. Hume claims that he killed his family in an effort to physically find their souls and achieve immortality. After Six confronts Warnock over his torturous murder of a suspect, Warnock angrily overturns the interrogation room table and impales Dr. Hume’s head on one of the legs. Rachel observes in shock.

Caesar confesses to Rachel, but Six reveals that the girl already died two minutes earlier. Rachel is then forced to remember her time as an abused girl when she met Six for the first time after wishing for revenge on her captors.

Rachel overhears Warnock and Mundie plotting to kill her for witnessing Hume’s murder. While the trio fights, MacReady returns to the station wrapped in barbed wire and carrying a shotgun. Rachel and Mundie barricade themselves in the cellblock after MacReady kills Warnock. MacReady then cuts the station’s power and sets fire to the building.

Six indicates to Rachel that it is too late for the others’ souls to be saved, but she tries helping Caesar and Mundie escape anyway. While fleeing from MacReady, Mundie trips and impales her throat on the broken glass of a windowpane. MacReady captures and kills Caesar, but Rachel crushes MacReady’s skull with a battering ram after a physical confrontation.

Rachel exits the burning police station with Six following calmly behind her. Six explains that he collects the souls of the wicked when the clock strikes midnight. Six elaborates that he is blamed for the ills of the world even though he is just a witness, indicating that he may be an agent of either Heaven or Hell, possibly even God or The Devil himself. Six offers to burn the corrupt souls of those whom she wishes vengeance upon if Rachel chooses to join him as his companion. Rachel agrees and the two of them kiss.

---

Review:

From perpetrators of hit-and-run homicides and wife-beating feticides to committers of psychopathic familicide and serial-killing mutilation, the sleepy Scottish hamlet of Inveree (maybe or maybe not meant to be confused with the real-life village of Inverie) is populated exclusively by terrible people.  Recently transferred constable Rachel Heggie is idealistic enough to not realize this quite yet.  But Six, a trench coat-sporting, cigarette-smoking, beard-wearing John Doe so mysterious that he is only referred to by the number of his holding cell, knows everyone’s sinister secrets intimately well.

Six’s unexpected arrival at the small town’s police station comes with a cryptic warning about the approach of midnight, and kickstarts a macabre nightmare forcing police officers and prisoners alike to confront inner demons in truly horrific fashion.  Angel, devil, or something else entirely, Six has come to collect the souls of the wicked, and to offer retribution to those who might still be saved.  Though for Rachel, there is a different proposition entirely, provided she can survive the explosive chaos inspired by this mystery man’s very presence.

First-time feature director Brian O’Malley is evidently out to kill a full murder of crows using one stone.  Built with bricks of Judeo-Christian mythology and mortar made from mass murder mayhem, “Let Us Prey” fills out its foundation with interpretive psychological horror and frantic fits of violently gory splatter.  For the most part, the smorgasbord of supernatural and slasher elements combines into an entertainingly efficient thriller, even though its component parts randomly clash in ways where a hand is as likely to stifle a chuckle or a yawn as much as it is a scream.

The film is visually terrific and plays just as well, achieving exceptional value out of a modest budget and predominantly singular interior set through rich production design and a smartly cast roster of recognizable talent.  Although by cutting swaths of cerebral mystery, visceral terror, black comedy, and siege suspense during its 90-minute circuit, this overwhelming desire to bite off all it can chew and then some occasionally swallows too much.

“Let Us Prey” takes itself seriously, though not to an extent that it doesn’t take time out to wink every now and again.  In that vein, dialogue is not as consistently clever as it wants to be, coming across as comically corny whether or not the intention is humor to begin with.

During one scene, “the doctor will see you now” comes out of the mouth of a physician raising his fists to fight.  That’s a cartoon villain quip seemingly plucked from a 1960s-era Stan Lee comic.  Another character’s retort for the classic “go to Hell” insult is, “why bother?  The devils are already here.”  Overwrought instances like these can undercut the high stakes drama that the rest of the movie wishes to put across.

The script’s bigger issue for some is its “choose your own explanation” ending, certain to interest those who delight in dissecting ambiguity while frustrating those looking to conclusively understand the method behind Six’s madness.  “Let Us Prey” is not so bogged down by Biblical overtones and scripture passages that non-religious types will feel preached to or miss the message, if there is one.  But the storyline is steeped in spiritual philosophy about soul redemption and traditional good versus evil themes that read differently depending on the viewer’s personal belief system.

From “The Woman” to “White Settlers” (review here), Pollyanna McIntosh is always an enigmatic watch no matter how the movies themselves turn out.  However, she might be mildly miscast here.  McIntosh’s distinguishable stature, as well as genre fans’ familiarity with her as a ferocious fighter, makes her a curious choice for a bullied police constable initially depicted as mousy despite her dominant presence.  As in previous roles, McIntosh has her chance to shine when Rachel morphs fists-first from mouse to lion.  Yet the way her squinted eyelid quivers more than once as the main way to convey frustrated subservience hints that convincingly portraying this aspect of a character is not McIntosh’s strongest ability.

“Let Us Prey” is a seesaw of various parts fighting within themselves to stand out as good or bad without developing definitively into either.  Characters are clichéd, but the performances maintain their engagement.  Lighting accents dread-filled atmosphere beautifully while the music paints over it with too thick of a brush in places.  A mysterious stranger seizing a building and the exposure of a small town’s innermost horrors isn’t new grist for the thriller mill either, but the movie concludes with a satisfyingly wild third act only liars will claim they saw coming.

The varying quality of its individual pieces lands “Let Us Prey” in a nebulous area where time will not etch it in stone as a classic, nor will it be dismissed as a trifle.  “Let Us Prey” has enough going for it to be worthwhile to thriller and horror fans hungry for a hearty helping of supernatural suspense, even if that interest turns out to be passing in the end.

Review Score:  65

---