Popcorn Frights 2026 Coverage
Savage Prey reviewS
Stay out of the…wait…go into the woods?
Festival reviews will not contain spoilers.
Savage Prey
Directed by David Ryan Keith
Written by David Ryan Keith
Starring Marta Svetek
Savage Prey Review
I’ve written a lot of reviews about horror tropes that are used as full on plots of movies. “Stay out of the woods” is one of the more common ones. Everybody dies in the woods. At best…nothing good ever comes out of going into the woods. Savage Prey appears to be a “stay out of the woods” movie for a good chunk of its story. But the main character has (what she believes is) a good reason for entering the woods. That’s what keeps her going through the period of time those pesky woods are doing what the woods seem to always do. It makes whether or not the desperate character is right a little more intriguing. The woods are Hell…but you have to go through Hell to find what she’s looking for.
Ava (Marta Svetek) is looking for her son. It seems like a fool’s errand given he disappeared a full year earlier. Especially since he vanished in the woods. We’ve talked about the woods, right? Stay out of the woods. Ava isn’t just looking for what happened to her son…she believes he’s still out there somewhere. She has no choice but to go into the woods.
Early parts of Savage Prey make you wonder if Ava is seeing things. Well…we know she’s seeing things. She sees visions of her son out in the woods where he most definitely is not. But that’s not all she sees. It doesn’t take long to discover that not everything is happening in her head. Mainly the masked man who shoots her while taunting her via walkie-talkie. He’s real. So are the things he does to her once she’s captured. But his presence alone suggests that her quest may not be as fruitless as originally thought.
Savage Prey isn’t a basic “stay out of the woods” movie. In fact, it pretty much turns the premise on its head. Ava is just as driven as her tormenter. And it’s hard to break someone who has already lost the thing that matters most to her. The movie even explores this in a pretty interesting way when Ava is forced to choose between her best friend and her ex-husband as part of the hunter’s twisted games. Now…it’s pretty ridiculous that this scenario exists in the woods…but it is fascinating character wise.
This is a survival movie with a target that only has more and more reason to survive. That makes for an interesting story…on top of wanting to see her turn the tables on the masked man. The climax of Savage Prey takes another interesting turn. It feels like a completely different movie in a really good way. The violence of the woods is briefly traded in for a suspenseful but polite conversation. It’s more unsettling than any of the brutality…and the right choice for the story. There’s a mystery to be solved…and Savage Prey approaches it in a pretty unique way.
Marta Svetek is great here. You can feel her desperation and easily get on her side through every hardship. You can also believe her perseverance and retribution. “Stay out of the woods” meets “don’t mess with a mother” and there is little doubt who is going to win that battle. But does that mean she’s right? Savage Prey had a choice to make about that, and it won’t please everyone. But it feels right for this story…and that’s what ultimately matters most.
Scare Value
There were moments where I was sure Savage Prey was going to lose the thread. Times where I wondered if it was making the right calls. But it knew what it was doing. Even in its most important moment…the one that all the violence and torment was leading to…Savage Prey had a strong idea of how to change things up and deliver something fresh. A strong protagonist with a gut feeling willing to spill those guts (and anyone else’s) to find the truth. Stay out of the woods becomes stay out of her way.
