Vile Prey: Written Review

Hi everyone and welcome to MyIndie Review vlog, the show that gives you spoiler-free reviews of indie films. My name is Asaf Angel from MyIndie Productions.

This week’s review is on the 2016’s horror feature film, Vile Prey. The film comes to us from American indie filmmaker, Tim Novotny. Thank you, Tim for sending us your film.

The story follows three sadistic, psychopathic murderers, Marcus – the leader, Vince and Pete, who work together as a pack. The three are portrayed by Kevin Winstead, Jim Roberts and Mike Vamos. They hit a small town and perform hideous acts of torture, rape and murder against innocent people. Finally, their killing spree brings them face to face with an evil the likes of which they couldn’t have prepared for. The tables rapidly turn as the viewer gets to witness what evil men are really made of.

This one is not for the faint of heart. Even though the gore level serves the story, it is still not for everyone. Hardcore horror fans, however, should feel right at home.

Novotny admirably succeeds in turning three antagonists into characters you might find yourself worried about at certain points in the film. That’s an interesting take, because he didn’t hold back in the exposition of the film to make sure his three killers will be despised by the viewer.

As the story progresses the viewer may become unsure as to how to feel as there is a conflict of ideals between what we know about these characters, and what we see them go through. That is NOT by accident. That made the film stay with me long after I was done watching it.

In my opinion, it is always interesting to play around with the polarity of these fundamental issues, meaning Good and Evil. Stories tend to be more interesting when the protagonist has moral flaws. Flaws help you create more interesting, well-rounded characters, because when they are written well, they appear more realistic, more genuine. This helps the viewer accept the reality of the world within the story, that these characters could actually exist in real life. I am, of course, referring to anti-heroes. In Vile Prey, Novotny took it several steps further. He gave his three killers extreme moral flaws. Why? Because later, when the film focuses on their sheer dread and helplessness, it makes for a far more interesting experience.

According to IMDb this film was made for an estimated US$1,000, an extremely low budget, yet with a whole lot of heart. Every flaw relating to production value is easily forgiven, because the story is fairly solid, and the film holds up well.

To sum up, if you’re a horror and a gore fan, if you appreciate the grit and heart of low budget indies, then I highly recommend you track this one down.

Vile Prey gets a 7/10 on the Look At Me, I’m a Film Critic scale

The film is available for streaming on AngerMan Distribution‘s Vimeo on Demand channel HERE.

Until next time, keep supporting Indie Film. My name is Asaf Angel, and thank you for tuning in to MyIndie Review Vlog.