12 Movies Like Prey That Fans Should Check Out Next

The much-anticipated "Predator" prequel "Prey" arrived on Hulu in August of 2022, quickly earning critical acclaim and plenty of fans for its portrayal of a fierce Comanche warrior battling the Predator three centuries before Arnold Schwarzenegger did it. Rich with historical detail, centered on a compelling performance from star Amber Midthunder, and featuring a brand-new Predator design that gives the creature a more ferocious look than ever, the film quickly made an impression on Hulu streamers.

And since "Prey" is such a tense, action-heavy experience, you may have come away from the film wanting to keep up the adrenaline with another movie immediately, whether it's something from the same talents, a film with a similar story, or something that directly inspired the movie. With all that in mind, we're here to help. From action sci-fi classics to Native American horror films (not to mention a few very unexpected choices), these are the films you should watch after you see "Prey."

If you enjoyed "Prey," there's a good chance you stuck around to make sure you knew who directed the action hit, and you might be curious what other projects he's done that might grab your interest. While Dan Trachtenberg's career includes a handful of short films and television episodes, his only other feature film to date is "10 Cloverfield Lane," the 2016 stealth follow-up to the found-footage horror movie "Cloverfield."

Like "Prey," "10 Cloverfield Lane" focuses on a small group of characters working to survive in a deeply tense situation, and also stars a young woman trying to fight her way out of a bad position. The film stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Michelle, a woman who gets caught in a car crash in the middle of nowhere, then wakes up in a mysterious bunker, which an overbearing man (John Goodman) will not let her leave. Much of the film is about Michelle's attempts to both escape the bunker and figure out what's going on outside that has her captor so paranoid, and the answers definitely aren't what she was expecting.

Like "Prey," it's a tense, intimate little film with a great cast and a wonderful sci-fi hook, so you should definitely check it out if you're a fan of Trachtenberg's style.

Though it didn't arrive on Hulu until the summer of 2022, director Dan Trachtenberg was actually working on the story that would become "Prey" quite a bit earlier. In fact, the director cited seeing "Mad Max: Fury Road" in 2015 as a key inspiration point for the film that would become his take on the "Predator" franchise.

"I was very inspired by 'Mad Max: Fury Road' for finally throwing the gauntlet down and saying, 'You can make a movie that is all action and it still be a great film,'" Trachtenberg told GamesRadar. "I was also drawn to that challenge. Could I make a movie that is primarily told through action, but also have some emotionality to it?"

Like "Prey," "Fury Road" is an action spectacle with a cast that only speaks when they really need to. The film follows "Mad" Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) as he's thrown into a survival scenario when he's used as a "blood bag" by a tyrant of the wasteland, then pulled along on a chase as one of the tyrant's lieutenants, Furiosa (Charlize Theron), goes rogue and runs off with his brides. Like "Prey," it's a film that focuses heavily on using action setpieces to drive home the story's emotion, and it's a breathtaking visual achievement all its own.

"Prey" has earned both acclaim and attention for its focus on making a film about Native Americans that stars actual Native actors, often speaking the Comanche language onscreen. It's a great step forward for action films, but it's not the first time a Native American-led cast has made a big genre film that's worth your time.

Like "Prey," "Blood Quantum" features an ensemble cast of Native actors facing off against a supernatural threat, in this case a zombie virus that seems to be devastating the world. But Jeff Barnaby's film has an interesting twist to it, in that the virus doesn't seem to infect the Native population, instead focusing on other races as the people who lived on the land first remain healthy. It's a great premise, and Barnaby infuses the whole thing with invention, tension, and some great straight-ahead horror storytelling. If you're looking for more films with Native casts to support, you should definitely track down "Blood Quantum."

Like Predators, sharks are dedicated hunters who can be incredibly dangerous, especially when they get into the mindset of gearing up for a fight. On the surface, "Prey" and Steven Spielberg's 1975 classic "Jaws" might not share much in common, but look a bit deeper and you'll find plenty of common ground worth celebrating there.

Spielberg's film is set during a terrifying summer on the Massachusetts coast, where a great white shark is preying on the populace and a local police chief (Roy Scheider) is determined to bring the beast down, even if other local authority figures would rather pretend it's not a problem at all. Like "Prey," it's a film full of tense creature-driven sequences, and "Prey" director Dan Trachtenberg highlighted the film's use of obscuring the title character as a major influence on how he shot the Predator encounters.

"There's this funny thing in that, a lot of people argue that what makes 'Jaws' such a great horror film is that you don't see the shark," Trachtenberg told Games Radar. "Everyone making a thriller or a horror film always says, 'It's all about what you don't see.' I really see it as the opposite. I think it's about what you do see. The thing I always thought was remarkable about 'Jaws' was that we get that point of view shot, that we see the buoy moving and being pulled." Now might be a great time to revisit "Jaws" with Trachtenberg's thoughts in mind.

If you're captivated by the American frontier setting of "Prey," you might be on the lookout for more films that take you back to a time when much of the country was still wilderness, and "The Revenant" is a great example of that very idea, while adding in a dose of survival thriller tension to the mix.

Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Revenant" tells the true story of Hugh Glass, a fur trapper and trader in the early 1800s who is left for dead after being mauled by a grizzly bear, and must fight his way back from the brink to survive in the wilderness alone. Shot with mostly natural light and featuring sequences of breathtaking, stomach-churning realism, "The Revenant" was one of the most celebrated films of 2016, and earned Academy Awards for both DiCaprio and Iñárritu. The harrowing film has also been named by "Prey" director Dan Trachtenberg as one of his influences for crafting the narrative (via Polygon).

Director Terrence Malick is known for his thoughtful, often slow-moving films that frequently serve as meditations on life with beautiful cinematography, so he might not be the first director you think of turning to after you watch "Prey." But according to director Dan Trachtenberg, Malick's films were among his key visual influences for the look of "Prey," particularly Malick's 2005 historical epic "The New World."

"Terrence Malick probably came up the most," Trachtenberg told Empire. "And not just 'The New World,' but 'Days Of Heaven,' and 'The Thin Red Line' also. We referenced images from those movies and cinematography, and wanted it to feel authentic. That's very much a part of the soul of this movie."

Malick's knack for capturing the beauty of natural environments is on full display in "The New World," which follows the founding of the Jamestown colony in early 17th century America, and basically serves as a more realistic version of the Pocahontas story than audiences are used to. The film was a box office disappointment, but has continued earning acclaim since its release in 2005 (via Criterion), so if you haven't seen it, consider this your chance.

"Prey" is set on the Northern Great Plains of North America in the early 1700s. "Gravity" is set in the 21st century, and takes place almost entirely in space. Despite those differences, though, the films share a lot of thematic meat, and both feature women enduring numerous trials and struggles in order to prove themselves in a harsh environment.

Sandra Bullock stars in Alfonso Cuaron's sci-fi film as an astronaut who's left stranded in space after a debris shower knocks out her shuttle and kills the rest of her crew. All alone in low Earth orbit, she's forced to scavenge for tools that will help her to survive, and use other spacecraft floating around up there to get home, even as the debris field keeps circling the planet and will come back to strike again. It's an intense, nonstop thriller film with a pure sci-fi bent, and yet it's rooted in a real, human struggle to live one more day, one more hour, one more minute. Dan Trachtenberg also named it as one of his influences when crafting the survival narrative at the heart of "Prey" (via Polygon).

At its core, even removed from the setting and time period, "Prey" is the story of a lone woman using her inner and outer strength to outlast and outwit a monster so she can live to fight another day. Throw in a science fiction-inspired creature, and it's hard not to connect this film with another sci-fi survival horror classic.

In Ridley Scott's 1979 film "Alien," Sigourney Weaver stars as Ellen Ripley, a working class woman aboard a commercial spaceship who is suddenly thrust into a terrifying scenario when an alien creature infiltrates the ship and begins hunting and killing the crew, one by one. With few resources and a monster that can seemingly find and kill the humans on board without any difficulty, Ripley is left to figure out for herself how to stay alive, and how to get the monster off the craft.

Like "Prey," "Alien" is a thrilling sci-fi horror film that centers on a great female character and how far she'll go in order to stay alive. It's also one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made, so there's a good chance you've seen it already. Still, after the thrill of "Prey," it'll be a great follow-up feature.

One of the best-reviewed horror films of 2019, Alexandre Aja's "Crawl" doesn't feature any sci-fi or supernatural elements like "Prey." But what it lacks in imaginary monsters, it more than makes up for in some very real ones, telling another story of a young woman fighting for survival against a stronger, more savage threat.

"Crawl" follows Haley (Kaya Scodelario), a competitive swimmer who heads out to her father's house in Florida to check on him as a Category 5 hurricane rolls into the state. When she gets to the house, it's already beginning to flood, and her efforts to rescue her father and get back to safety are thwarted by not just one, but several fierce alligators standing in her way. As the flood waters rise, Haley has to try and fight her way to safety, even as the gators seem bent on devouring anything that moves.

Like "Prey," it's a deeply intense experience in survival horror, and Scodelario shines in the leading role. So if you'd like a back-to-back creature feature marathon, "Crawl" is a great place to head next.

"Predator" and "Star Wars" are both major science fiction franchises, but they come at the genre with entirely different tones and intentions. "Star Wars" is hopeful, focused on large scale stories, while "Predator" is usually far more horrifying and often more intimate. They really don't share all that much in common, but according to director Dan Trachtenberg, one particular "Star Wars" film had a major impact on the way he thought about "Prey."

Speaking to The Wrap about the film, Trachtenberg explained that "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" was a major inspiration for the way he thought about "Prey" as a spin-off story within the larger "Predator" universe, as well as the way he thought about reshaping the design of the Predator itself. "I very much used 'Rogue One' as a reference point because 'Rogue One' felt like it was the 1977 designs of things but rendered through modern sensibilities," Trachtenberg explained.

Featuring an ensemble cast led by Felicity Jones and Diego Luna, "Rogue One" tells the story of the small band of Rebellion operatives who set out to steal the Death Star plans that prove so useful in the first "Star Wars" film. It's a great sci-fi adventure, and it does function as a really interesting re-contextualizing of what we already know about the franchise.

If you liked the way "Prey" told a story of a woman fighting a ferocious, inhuman monster and you'd like to continue that trend, there are a lot of films to choose from. But what if you're specifically looking for something that will dial up the horror in a major way? Look no further than "The Descent."

Neil Marshall's 2005 film follows a group of women led by Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) as they head out to spelunk into a cave system on the East coast of the United States. Sarah's still recovering from a major loss in her past, and her friends are hoping the spelunking trip will help get her out of the funk she's in. Once they get down there, though, the women find the cave is home to more than bats and albino insects. Something much more savage is lurking down in the dark, something that might eat them all alive before they have a chance to climb to safety.

Intense, frightening, and featuring some truly scary creature designs, "The Descent" is a great piece of survival horror that really dials in the terror of darkness and enclosed spaces when you're surrounded by monsters that want to eat you. If you like "Prey" but you wished it was scarier, this just might be the perfect place to go next.

We saved the best (and possibly most obvious) place to head after watching "Prey" for last. That "Prey" is a part of the "Predator" franchise was never a secret, and the film has been heavily marketed as a prequel to John McTiernan's 1987 film that launched the series. Despite all those connections, though, there are some people who are going to make "Prey" their very first Predator franchise film, and that's great. It's a self-contained story that you can totally enjoy without any prior knowledge of the film series.

But if you saw "Prey" and enjoyed it, there's a good chance that you'd now like to go back to where it all began, and "Predator" is certainly a worthy first installment for any sci-fi franchise. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as the leader of a group of elite mercenaries on a rescue mission in the jungle, the film makes excellent use of creature feature tension, as we see what the Predator does long before we see what it looks like. Arriving at the height of 1980s action cinema, the film also serves as a critique of overpowered machismo during that era, and delivers that same uprooting of expectations that makes "Prey" work so well.

So, if you've never seen "Predator," now's the time to go back to the beginning. And if you've seen "Predator" 100 times, well, there's never really a bad time to watch "Predator" again.