A Dangerous Prey

There may be fancier movies out there, but the raw power just won’t quit in the indie thriller A Dangerous Prey, written and directed by Terry Spears. Aiden (Marlon Ladd) is a salesman on a business trip in Austin. During the day, he closes his deal, and at night, he secretly goes out and robs a drug dealer at gunpoint. He leaves the drugs and takes the cash home to his wife, Kesha (Taja Brittaney). She is going to school and dislikes how the rent in their crime-ridden neighborhood keeps rising due to gentrification. When she walks past someone who gets shot during a liquor store robbery, she demands that Aiden buy a house. She doesn’t know how Aiden made the extra money needed for the down payment, as he continues robbing dealers during business trips.

“Kesha discovers Aiden’s stash of drug cash and guns, so he has some explaining to do…”

While moving into their new home, they are questioned by Chuck (Justin Russell) and Junior (Bryce Barfield), two white dope slingers. They have a problem that Aiden and Kesha are black…though Junior openly fantasizes about raping Kesha. Kesha discovers Aiden’s stash of drug cash and guns, so he has some explaining to do about where it came from. She is freaked out by his hidden side hustle, especially as she is expecting. While Kesha reviews her situation, she meets Al (Miranda LoPresti) at school. Al is intensely interested in having sex with Kesha and is quite upfront with her about it. As Kesha is married, she slows down Al’s pursuit to seduce her but doesn’t stop it completely… 

Spears shows once again the crucial importance of cinematic cheap thrills. Yes, you could sit in front of another $200 million picture and watch it behave. You could devote three hours to it and realize at the end that they forgot the salt. Or you could hop aboard a no-budget midnight cruiser that will blast through the vanishing point in under 90 minutes. Maybe all the parts don’t quite fit together. Maybe you can see the tape holding it in place. All of this can be tolerated as long as the picture has a kick. A flying saucer where you can see the string can still fly high enough to get you off the planet.