''Prophet's Prey'' is a 2015 American
documentary
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
directed and written by
Amy J. Berg. The film follows
Warren Jeffs
Warren Steed Jeffs (born December 3, 1955) is an American cult leader who is serving a life sentence in Texas for child sexual assault following two convictions in 2011. He is the president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter ...
, the
president
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
*'' Præsident ...
of the
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (abbreviated to FLDS Church or FLDS) is a Mormon fundamentalist group whose members practice polygamy. It is variously defined as a cult, a sect or a new religious movement. The ...
, who is now running the religion from the confines of the Texas state prison, serving out a life sentence, for the rape of young girls. The film is an adaptation of the 2011 book of the same name by Sam Brower, who also serves as a producer on the film.
Ron Howard
Ronald William Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American filmmaker and actor. Howard started his career as a child actor before transitioning to directing films. Over his six-decade career, Howard has received List of awards and nominations r ...
serves as an executive producer under his
Imagine Entertainment
Imagine Entertainment, formerly Imagine Films Entertainment, also known simply as Imagine (stylized in all caps as IMAGINE), is an American film and television production company founded in November 1985 by producer Brian Grazer and director Ron ...
banner.
The film had its world premiere at the
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023.
The festival has acted ...
on January 26, 2015. It was released in a
limited release
__FORCETOC__
Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few cinemas across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...
on September 18, 2015, followed by broadcast on
Showtime
Showtime or Show Time may refer to:
Film
* ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film
* ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur
Television Networks and channels
* Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...
on October 10, 2015.
Background
Berg was approached by Sam Brower and
Jon Krakauer
Jon Krakauer (born April 12, 1954) is an American writer and mountaineer. He is the author of bestselling nonfiction books—'' Into the Wild''; '' Into Thin Air''; '' Under the Banner of Heaven''; and '' Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pa ...
with the idea for the film.
Both Brower and Krakauer are heavily featured as witnesses—the film argues they played a major role in Jeffs' capture—and the men take consulting producer and executive producer credits respectively. The two make engaging if contrasting guides through the complex story, with Krakauer coming across as the wisecracking, cerebral counterpoint to Brower's burly man-of-action.
Release
The film had its world premiere at the
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023.
The festival has acted ...
on January 26, 2015. It also screened at
AFI Docs
The AFI Docs (formerly Silverdocs) documentary film festival was an American international film festival. Created by the American Film Institute and the Discovery Channel, it was held annually in Silver Spring, Maryland and Washington, D.C., fro ...
on June 18, 2015. The film was released in a
limited release
__FORCETOC__
Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few cinemas across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...
on September 18, 2015, followed by a broadcast on
Showtime
Showtime or Show Time may refer to:
Film
* ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film
* ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur
Television Networks and channels
* Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...
on October 10, 2015.
Reception
''Prophet's Prey'' received positive reviews from film critics. It holds a 93% approval rating on
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, based on 27 reviews, with a
weighted average
The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
of 7.00/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Prophet's Prey finds documentarian Amy Berg striking again at evil masquerading as righteousness -- and, as she did with Deliver Us from Evil, hitting her targets with impressive precision." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, the film holds a rating of 77 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Awards
*
Writers Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Screenplay
The Writers Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Screenplay is one of three screenwriting Writers Guild of America Awards focused specifically for film. The award is presented to the best screenplay of the year for a documentary feature. ...
- Nominated
See also
*
Sons of Perdition
References
External links
*
*
*
2015 documentary films
2015 films
American documentary films
Documentary films critical of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
Films directed by Amy J. Berg
Films scored by Nick Cave
Films scored by Warren Ellis (musician)
Showtime (TV network) documentary films
Imagine Entertainment films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films
English-language documentary films
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