Beefcake "actor" Ted Prior (brother of writer & director David A. Prior) stars as Mike Danton, a former Marine, in this B level gem. It's about as far as you can get from high art, with a whole lot of completely inept action sequences and hilariously lame performances. Obviously owing a heavy debt to that familiar old plot of "The Most Dangerous Game", it's also clearly inspired by "First Blood" and its sequels, as well as "Commando".

Colonel John Hogan (David Campbell) leads a group of mercenaries. They're hired for a gig by an unscrupulous "businessman" named Michaelson (Troy Donahue). The thing about these guys, though, is that they like to have thorough training sessions before the actual missions. So they abduct guys like Mike, and chase them through the California woods. But they've made an extremely dumb move in selecting Mike this time around, and he's going to give them what-for in a major way.

Top billed Cameron Mitchell, who plays a former cop and the father to Mikes' wife Jaimy (Suzanne Tara),is very much just here for his name value. He has little to add to the plot. Instead, the action focuses on the studly Ted P., who for much of the running time darts around in short shorts. Ted may not be Olivier, but his emoting near the end still needs to be seen to be believed. Campbell is amusing as the money hungry villain, as is Fritz Matthews as Lieutenant Thornton, his main henchman.

"Deadly Prey" can boast a steady supply of violence and a respectably high body count, but it might not be gory enough to suit some tastes.

The absolute best moment of this epic occurs between Mike and Thornton. You'll know it when you see it, and may howl with appreciative laughter.

"Deadly Prey" is deliciously daft nonsense, with an ultra corny theme song to serve as perfect accompaniment.

Seven out of 10.

A group of sadistic mercenaries led by the ruthless Colonel John Hogan (a deliciously slimy portrayal by David Campbell) kidnap people and hunt them down in the woods like animals as a training exercise. However, the mercenaries get more than they bargained for after they abduct two-fisted former Marine and Vietnam veteran Mike Danton (played with mucho macho aplomb by blonde beefcake Ted Prior).

Man, does this hilariously horrendous honey possess all the right wrong stuff to rate highly as a definite four-star stinkeroonie: Ham-fisted (mis)direction by David A. Prior, ineptly staged action scenes, over-the-top violence (Danton breaks one man's back against a tree and beats another guy with his own freshly severed arm!),poor acting from a lame mostly no-name cast, cheesy one-liners aplenty, lots of ugly mullets, a ludicrous premise that's treated as seriously as a heart attack, priceless moments of Danton clad solely in Daisy Duke denim shorts roughly it in the wilderness (two words: worm eating),cartoonishly nasty villains, and a ridiculously script that offers an unholy blend of "First Blood" and "The Most Dangerous Game." Cameron Mitchell basically just takes up space as a hard-nosed ex-cop, Troy Donahue snarls it up nicely as evil millionaire Don Michaelson, Fritz Matthews has a field day as vicious flunky Lt. Thornton, and busty brunette Dawn Abraham cuts a foxy figure as mean bitch Sybil. The pulsating score hits the right-on funky syncopated spot. Fantastic crap.

One could easily write off "Deadly Prey" as another uninspired and shamelessly exploitative variation on the famous theme introduced by "The Most Dangerous Game" in 1933. Yes, it's indeed the umpteenth film that basically just revolves on hunting down humans in a forestry region for nothing more than testosterone kicks. However, and this is obviously a lot closer to my own personal opinion, one could also claim that "Deadly Prey" is one of the absolute craziest, most outrageous and hilariously inept B-movies ever made! Just read some of the other reviews around here. All these good people aren't lying or exaggerating when they state their stomachs hurt from laughing nearly the entire time. In spite of the absurd plot and downright impossible situations, everything is served to us in a tone that is dead serious and by a devoted cast that deliver their lines with straight faces no matter how retarded they sound. The violence is explicit and brutal but it actually provokes chuckles instead of shocks and the film literally bathes in a completely wrong 80's ambiance. What does that mean? Well, multiple characters – goodies and baddies – with mullets, of course, god-awful music and girls in over-sized pink shorts. Seriously, I've seen some really bonkers and unhinged cinematic trash over the years, but after seeing "Deadly Prey" I can be sure of it. I can die a happy horror/cult fanatic (though preferably sixty or more years from now, of course)

Down in the gigantic Californian woods, about 70 miles away from Los Angeles, the slightly deranged and dishonorably discharged military commander Don Michaelson is raising a private army of mercenaries. Michaelson doesn't believe in traditional training methods and role plays, however, and thus he sends his first Lieutenant out to the city to pick random people from the streets with the intention to let them loose in the woods and have his trainees hunt them down. Since this is such a massively illegal and immoral operation, you would think that Michaelson keeps his activities secretive, but hell no! He has hundreds of wannabe mercenaries working for him, none of which seem to object to the idea of killing innocent people, and more hi tech equipment than the real American army! Anyway, in his search to finally find a worthwhile opponent, Lieutenant Mullet … err, I mean Thornton kidnaps the athletically built Mike Mullet. Sorry, I mean Mike Danton. Big mistake, as Mickey once was an unstoppable Vietnam warrior himself. Moreover, he was Major Michaelson's most gifted trainee before he went bananas. Being a master of camouflage (he crawls up the worlds' smallest trees) and an expert in primitive weaponry (he impales an enemy on a twig),Danton exterminates about ten dozens of mercenaries before Michaelson gets the brilliant idea to abduct Mickey's sexy blond girlfriend Jamie and rape her. Now he's really angry.

Sheer awesomeness, that's "Deadly Prey", I tell you! Movies like these have one massive trump over the vast majority of other movies and that is unpredictability! Literally everyone is dispensable in this sort of films and all characters have an equal chance of dying (usually they all do die anyway),so it's just a matter of when exactly and in which imaginative ways. And boy, are the kills ever imaginative! There's plenty of machine gun artillery, bare knuckle fights, explosive booby traps and wielding knives, but nothing – and I do mean NOTHING EVER – compares to the sight of Mike Denton ripping off his opponent's arm and beating him to death with it before scalping his mullet! Is that brilliant or what? Our hero, Ted Prior and brother of writer/director David Prior, is a joyously stereotypical beefcake with fists of steel but nevertheless his heart in the right place. B-movie veteran Cameron Mitchell receives top billing for making a brief appearance as the girlfriend's father who starts his own private investigation and quickly fails. The moments of uncontrollable laughter are only outnumbered by the amount of nameless extras dying by the hand of our invincible hero. Mullet-power, dammit!