The Prey is a 1983 American slasher film directed by Edwin Brown, and starring Debbie Thureson, Steve Bond, Lori Lethin, and Jackie Coogan.

[i] 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.

A few weeks later, three young couples from California — 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 forest ranger Mark O'Brien, who tells them that few people venture into North Point.

Lester tells Mark a story about witnessing a young gypsy boy wandering the woods after the 1948 fire, horribly disfigured by burns.

Nancy and Bobbie hear his screams and run to the peak, where they are confronted by the disfigured killer: the gypsy boy from Lester's story, now fully grown, and with razor-sharp claws.

[9] Brown and his wife Summer wrote the screenplay, choosing the Colorado Rockies as the setting, and were inspired by Halloween, as well as Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes (1977).

[10] Brown stated that he devised most of the film's plot trajectory and characters, writing drafts of scenes which Summer subsequently edited and organized into a comprehensive screenplay.

[11] The film was lead actress Debbie Thureson's first screen role; she had previously appeared in a Maxim coffee advertisement with Kirk Douglas that aired in Japan.

[18] The filmmakers initially scouted Big Bear, California, but decided to use Idyllwild instead, as it was less populated at the time, and was in close proximity to Los Angeles.

[27] He has stated that, due to budgetary restrictions and running out of film stock, some sequences in the screenplay went uncompleted, including one in which Mark, the forest ranger, joins the campers at their campfire.

[28] Producer Summer Brown spent a significant amount of time on set, and Thureson recalled her as being a "mother hen" figure to the cast and crew.

[33] Director Edwin Brown was an acquaintance of that film's producer, Peter Locke, and was put in contact with Peake to write a musical score.

[48] The restored theatrical version of the film was screened at the 2019 Texas Frightmare Weekend[49] with stars Lori Lethin, Carel Struycken, and Jackson Bostwick in attendance.

[56] The additional footage featured in this sequence was shot by an unknown director in the summer of 1981, and was incorporated as a campfire story told by Joel to his friends.

[57] This flashback sequence is present on several international VHS editions, including the Japanese release,[58] and was added at the insistence of Essex Productions executive Joseph Steinman, who wanted the film to contain more nudity.

[1] TV Guide awarded the film one out of five stars, writing: "The killer in this standard mad-slasher-in-the-woods effort is a crazed gypsy mutant horribly burned in a fire that occurred 30 years before.

"[63] Dread Central gave the film a favorable review, calling it "an effective little backwoods slasher offering some vicious kills and a memorable, downbeat shock ending".

[64] In his book The Gorehound’s Guide to Splatter Films of the 1980s, Scott Aaron Stine echoes a similar sentiment, writing: "The highlights (be as they may) are some impressive National Geographic-style nature photography.