The Prey is a 1983 American slasher film directed by Edwin Brown, and starring Debbie Thureson, Steve Bond, Lori Lethin, and Jackie Coogan. It follows a group of campers in the Rocky Mountains who are stalked and murdered by a disfigured assailant. It was the final film credit of Coogan, who died in 1984. Inspired by such films as The Hills Have Eyes (1977), film was written by director Brown and his wife, Summer, for Essex Productions, a studio specializing in adult films. Brown was previously a producer on one of their features, the softcore thriller Human Experiments (1979). Filming of The Prey took place in late 1979 in Idyllwild, California. The Prey was acquired for distribution by New World Pictures, and released theatrically in the United States in November 1983, about four years after it was completed. It was concurrently shown on premium television in Canada, and was later released on VHS by Thorn EMI in 1988. In 2019, Arrow Films announced they had completed a restoration of the film for an impending Blu-ray release, marking the film's first home media release in North America since 1988. Contemporary critical opinion of the film has varied, with its sparse dialogue and pacing being points of criticism. Other film scholars have praised its languorous pacing, which accelerates considerably in the final act. Plot In 1948, a wildfire ravages the North Point section of the Keen Wild national forest in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, decimating a rural community of gypsies who live in seclusion in a cave. Thirty two-years later, in 1980, an older couple, Frank and Mary Sylvester, are cooking food over a campfire in North Point. Unbeknownst to them, they are being watched by a mysterious figure in the shadows. While Mary walks to the lake to rinse their dishes, she hears her husband scream and returns to the campsite to find her husband's decapitated corpse. She is then killed by the killer wielding her husband's axe. Several weeks later, three teenage couples—Nancy and Joel, Bobbie and Skip, and Greg and Gail—embark on a hiking excursion in North Point. While purchasing their nature permits, the women speak with Mark O'Brien, a forest ranger, who tells them that few people venture into North Point. As the group progress deeper into the wilderness, the high-maintenance Gail earnestly tells her friends that she senses someone has been watching them, but they dismiss her