375. The Naked Prey (1966)

Starring: Cornel Wilde, Gert van den Bergh, Ken Gampu

Director: Cornel Wilde

Running Time: 96 mins

The Naked Prey is an American film about one man who, after offending a local tribe because another on his safari refused to give them a customary gift, becomes the victim of a savage hunt.

This film was fascinating. I thought that it was a brilliantly fast, adrenaline-filled, and incredibly intriguing story to follow along, being very intense throughout, and completely unpredictable at every step of the way.

The idea of this story was very gruesome, and that was represented very well in the film itself, both visually and psychologically, making it often mind-wrenching to watch.

That was what I was most impressed with in this film, the fact that it was so convincing. What seemed like a relatively random story ended up being extremely believable due to various directorial triumphs.

Of course, filming the whole thing in Africa was a good benchmark, but the way in which the film showed the man in such distress, and then eventually setting in so well into his natural surroundings to keep him alive made the idea totally plausible.

The soundtrack, involving that tribal, bongo sort of music added to both the atmosphere and the incredible pace of this film, ramping up the excitement from the start, and still making it ever more convincing to watch.

There did come a point eventually when this mad race slowed down, however the fact that it did so so dramatically was a bit of a shame in my opinion, as I was really into the rapid pace of the story, and the excitement that came with it, but still, this movie was very impressive in pretty much everything, so that’s why it gets a 7.8 from me.