The unfortunate PC. Rachel Heggie (Pollyanna McIntosh) chooses possibly the worst day possible to start a new job at an end-of-nowhere outpost in rural Scotland. The holding cells are inhabited by a variety of killers (a wife-beater, a joy rider, a psycho doctor), her colleagues are bitchy idiots and her superior officer (Douglas Russell) is a religious nutter who surreptitiously looks at porn in his office. What’s more, a mysterious stranger (Liam Cunningham) turns up who might be a vagrant, might be a murderer or might well be some kind of demonic envoy sent from hell to gather up black-hearted souls.
A curious low budget Irish – English co-production, Let Us Prey has a lot of similarities to Ivan Zuccon’s 2013 release Wrath of the Crows, even down to the presence of crows as a kind of harbinger of impending doom. It’s much the better film, though: the narrative might not make a great deal of sense but at least manages to avoid being cheesy; it runs along with a good sense of pacing; and it has a good sense of atmosphere. Much of it is shot in a single location, giving it something of the feel of a supernatural Assault on Precinct 13, and novice director Brian O’Malley shows enough skill to indicate that he might be a considerable talent for the future. Most importantly, though, whereas Wrath of the Crows was saddled with Tiffany Shepis and Debbie Rochon, here you have the likes of McIntosh, Cunningham and Russell, proper actors who manage to breathe life into the ambiguous characters they portray.
6/10
