Deadly Prey

DEADLY PREY (1988)

Written & Directed by: David A. Prior
Starring: Ted Prior & Cameron Mitchell

God damn, this movie is all kinds of awesome. Seriously, how Ted Prior and his amazing, indestructible Daisy Dukes didn’t get nominated for some kind of award is anyone’s guess. Yep, that’s right the lead actor, the extremely buff and extremely mulleted Ted Prior wears Daisy Dukes (i.e. women’s) style shorts. Not only does he wear them, but he wears them for almost the entire duration of this flick and nothing else. Yes, nothing else. If this was some kind of softcore Chippendale’s video, fair enough. But Deadly Prey is an action film (and features a surprising amount of soldier killing action) with the hero running around in nothing more than a pair of jean shorts. A sight to behold and one you will probably fail to extinguish from your memory any time soon. I know I’m having trouble.

The set up is pretty cool: a bunch of military nuts are kidnapping local folks and hunting them in the bayous as part of so called “training.” Unfortunately, and not just because he is only wearing Daisy Dukes, they kidnap Ted Prior who just happens to be some kind of bad ass Rambo type motherfucker. Cue lots of running around in tight shorts, posing in an almost monkey style manner and nobody batting an eyelid that he is wearing a pair of freaking Daisy Dukes.



David Prior produced and directed a ton of these cheap jack action flicks most of them pretty bad, a few of them pretty good. Deadly Prey certainly ain’t good by any means but should be seen by anyone who calls themselves a fan of cinema. On top of Ted Prior’s (Dave’s brother) amazing wardrobe and acting we have Cameron Mitchell stumbling around drunk and bloated trying to help the hero and failing miserably, and an endless stream of “there definitely not trained military personnel” for the hero to off. In the film’s defence, there is a lot of killing and action meaning the pace never lags but watch out for Prior slamming a very obvious dummy into a tree and a bad dude so shocked at discovering a dead comrade he backs up into a tree but carries on with the scene. Brilliant and up there with the equally awesome scene in Fred Williamson’s Black Cobra where a dude steps on a pipe and knocks himself out: amazing. Action cinema doesn’t get any better.

Deadly Prey is not for the faint hearted. If all the killing and bloodletting wasn’t enough, the site of a dude running around in women’s shorts pushes this movie to extreme limits. Prior has made better than this (Night Trap, The Lost Platoon) and at least got Pamela Anderson to bare all several times in cheesy classic Raw Justice (aka Good Cop Bad Cop) and that almost erases the image of Ted Prior running around in those fucking shorts.

Deadly Prey: see it and die!