The Naked Prey
The Naked Prey
| 17 February 1966 (USA)
The Naked Prey Trailers

A group of men are on safari. One of the party refuses to give a gift to a tribe they encounter. The tribe is offended, seizes the party, and one-by-one, kills all but one of the safari members in various creative and horrifying ways. The last surviving member is given "The Lion's Chance" by the tribal leader to be hunted down by a party of tribal warriors.

Reviews
Titreenp

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

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SnoReptilePlenty

Memorable, crazy movie

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Micah Lloyd

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

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Kodie Bird

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

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gavin6942

A group of men are on safari. One of the party refuses to give a gift to a tribe they encounter. The tribe is offended, seizes the party, and one-by-one, kills all but one of the safari members in various creative and horrifying ways."The Naked Prey" was filmed on location in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). The initial version was set in the American Old West and more closely resembled the incident that inspired it; however, financial concerns persuaded Wilde to change the setting to Africa.The change is interesting. On the one hand, it allows for the showing of more exotic scenery and animals, which surely adds to its appeal. But also, it changes the tribe from Indians to Africans. While in either way, the white man can be seen as the bad guy for his intrusions, it was probably easier to have Africans be the opposing force because they would not have lobbied as hard.

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mark blanchard

I recently watched this film with my 20 year old son who was raised on modern, flashy, quick-cut action adventures. Throughout the whole thing he kept asking me "What's going to happen next?" He did this because he could tell that "Naked Prey" didn't speak the language of the modern formulaic action adventure. Nothing in it is predictable, nothing follows a conventional trope.The story completely shifts gears at about the 15 minute mark after sharing some extremely disturbing footage of an elephant hunt. That's just enough to get you on the edge of your seat wondering, "What the eff?" Next comes the native "feast" complete with its main course cooked in a terra cotta "pot" and you go OMG! Then the real movie starts and for the rest of its hour plus running time there is almost no dialog and no incidental music except for the sound of native drums. You cannot predict what will happen next.When it's done, all you can say is Bravo Cornel Wilde! Beautifully shot, beautifully acted, unlike anything else. How he ever got this movie made, I have no idea. But I'm glad he did.

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BA_Harrison

Set in Africa in the 1850s, The Naked Prey stars its director, Wilde, as 'The Man', a safari guide whose hunting party is captured by a primitive tribe; after killing the other captives in a variety of brutal ways (including clubbing them to death and impaling them with sharp sticks), the natives strip and release The Man, giving him a few minutes head-start before pursuing him for sport, spears at the ready. However, The Man's resourcefulness makes him a formidable prey.I'm a huge fan of films that pit 'civilised man' against bloodthirsty savages, among my favourites being the gruesome Italian cannibal movies that were popular (with gore-hounds, at least) in the 70s and early 80s. Although Cornel Wilde's The Naked Prey contains just one scene that suggests cannibalism (a man coated in clay is roasted on a spit over a roaring fire), the movie's shocking early scenes, which feature real animal deaths (of the National Geographic/mondo footage variety), gratuitous female nudity courtesy of the native women, and plenty of bloody violence, are enough to indicate that it could have served as the blueprint for the Italian cannibal genre as a whole (until now, I had thought A Man Called Horse to be the original inspiration).It's not all about the shock value, however: The Naked Prey is an extremely well crafted piece of cinema—a rollicking adventure tale with sparing use of English dialogue, an effective tribal drum soundtrack, convincing performances, impressive cinematography and a wonderfully tense finale. Something for everyone then…Highly recommended. 8/10.

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AppleBlossom

Cornel Wilde impressed me with this story of survival, not only did he star in it, he also directed and produced it. The action begins whereby a hunting expedition lead by Wilde comes across a group of tribal huntsmen. Through no fault of his own Wilde is forced to ignore the huntsmen's request for passage through their domain. While the expedition have set up camp the tribesmen lead a surprise attack and kill most of the party, bar a few 'white men'. The awful fate of those captured was an ingenious concept, similar to how the American Indians dealt with invading European 'white man'.Eventually Wilde has his turn of punishment and is given (really) a fighting chance than his other party members. He's stripped naked and sent running out into the wilderness…given a few minutes interval between tribesmen chasing after him. If caught he's dead!!! In such a country as Africa and in a time where civil wars and unrest between cultures were prominent, you can imagine the untold dangers. Not to mention the wild life and the terrain….makes one think on how vulnerable we all are without modern living. An extremely well orchestrated production and filmed on location, this film delivers an underlying message for all of us to take note. Well worth seeing.

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