WARNING: This article contains spoilers for PreyPrey director Dan Trachtenberg explains why filming the movie's mud pit scenes was even worse than many might have expected. Acting as the fifth movie in the Predator franchise (not including the two divisive Alien vs. Predator movies), Prey tells the story of a Comanche hunter who faces off against the first alien Predator to set foot on Earth. Starring Amber Midthunder as Naru, Prey has earned strong praise from both audiences and critics for its authentic portrayal of Comanche culture, epic action sequences, and impressive practical effects.

Prey's 18th-century setting is, in many ways, another star of the film. As Midthunder's Naru traverses the Northern Great Plains, audiences are treated to stunning vistas and dramatic natural landscapes. The environment plays an important role in the story, with Naru's fight against the Predator taking her from rivers, lush forests, fields, and, in two memorable sequences, a dangerous mud pit. After getting sucked into the pit earlier in the film and barely escaping with her life, Naru's final confrontation with the Predator in Prey sees her lure the alien creature into the thick muck before eventually killing it during their final battle.

Related: Shocking Prey 2 Theory Reveals Naru Joins A Predator Clan

In a new interview on The Big Picture podcast from The Ringer, Trachtenberg reveals that to film the scene, the crew actually built a real mud pit in nature. While the scene certainly looked unpleasant in the film, the director explains that shooting it was even more disgusting. As soon as a person entered the mud, the pit released "the most horrible stench you could ever smell." Trachtenberg goes on to say that it was very difficult to get clean after getting into the pit, and that both sequences were filmed over the course of five days, with Midthunder and various stunt double constantly covered in thick mud. Check out Trachtenberg's full comment below:

“It was so hard. We looked a lot at Neverending Story, which shot on giant sound stages that we did not have. We dug a ditch and built a mud pit in nature. I will say the interesting thing is that, you wouldn’t know it was there when we show up in the morning to shoot, you know just walking around, but as soon as a person entered it, as soon as human flesh interacted with whatever was in there, the most horrible stench you could ever smell erupted from it. I don’t know what that chemical interaction was but it was disgusting. And a number of actors had to go- we had doubles that had to go in there, stunt performers, Amber [Midthunder], others.

The other trick of it is, once you go in, you can’t be clean again for a while. So we actually shot it over the course of a week of shooting, or 5 days, where we would do like all the entrances. She gets clean, we regroup, and then we shoot some night stuff in that scenario, around that set. And then the next day we come back and we would do all of her leaving. You know we would just have to do it over the course of the day because once you’re in, that’s it, and then you don’t want to spend too much time in there anyway.”

Naru battles the Predator

Although Prey clearly benefits from some impressive CGI in a number of sequences, the film also seems to have leaned heavily into creating many scenes as practically as possible. The mud pit scenes, in particular, were some of the most visceral and tense moments in the film, something that seems to have come with a heavy price for the cast and crew. While it's easy to see why other, larger productions may have built the entire set on a soundstage, Prey's use of the natural environment does ultimately elevate the movie beyond a more straightforward Predator film.

Prey has a handful of memorable scenes and both sequences involving the mud pit are among them. Instead of just making the pit a one-off, a brief moment of tension for Midthunder's character, the film smartly pays off Naru's near-death experience by having her use it against the Predator during the climax. Now that Trachtenberg has revealed just how those scenes in Prey were brought to life, audiences can be thankful that smell isn't something that can be experienced through a screen.

Source: The Ringer