Prey deserves more than just being the best Predator sequel, when it's actually the most intense creature feature in years
Remember how these are supposed to be horror films?
Synopsis: A skilled Comanche warrior protects her tribe from a highly evolved alien predator that hunts humans for sport, fighting against wilderness, dangerous colonizers and this mysterious creature to keep her people safe.
Where to watch: Streaming on Hulu
Few ‘80s film properties have had a harder time building a series than Predator has. For as iconic as the muscle-bound original is, subverting Schwarzenegger’s tough guy trope by creating a foe that actually struck some fear into his heart, most of the sequels have doubled down on the wrong details. Predator 2 let the creature loose in a more dynamic environment of Los Angeles, but surrounds it with ‘90s cop cliches that sporadically worked. Predators is a safe return that embraces the familiar, but excitingly twists the mythology in an adventure underappreciated by most. The Predator had the talent of Shane Black to make an easy slam dunk, but unraveled due to mind-boggling plot decisions and the most hindering studio interference since 2017’s Justice League. And the less said about the fan-fiction face-offs Alien vs. Predator, the better for both franchises.
Enter Prey, 20th Century Fox’s last-ditch attempt to squeeze one last memorable entry from a franchise that feels doomed to fall on its face. This one listened to the fans and took the creative direction back to the past, 300 years ago with a Native American tribe. Instead of attempting to up the ante in an alternate setting, the film transports the audience into a sticks-and-stones era that does the impossible and finally breathe new life into the worn series. At the best of the many continuations, few experimental risks were taken to live up to the debut film’s legacy. Director Dan Trachtenberg forms a sleek 100 minutes brimming with suspense, immediately posing an uneasiness in such an unfamiliar sandbox for the spine-ripping beast to play around in.
From the start, the atmosphere established captures a skin-crawling tension benefited from bringing the story back down to a smaller scale. Whereas John McTiernan’s starter was built upon the concept of hardened soldiers being outmatched by an unknown entity, Prey’s foundation is established from the simplicity of this battle of the wills and the raw ingenuity that the protagonists need to survive. No machine guns or Apollo Creed here; all that our tribe has are hatchets that the lead Naru (Amber Midthunder) has to fight, adding an unexplored layer of tension that has not been seen before as this primitive age has to desperately adapt to a rapid threat. What counters this (and makes most of it believable) is that the Predator is also less advanced, without the weaponry that allowed him to slaughter masses of people. As he can’t rely on a laser cannon, he must rely on vicious slashings that even lead him to get more reckless as the acts progress.
Unlike the prior follow-ups, the script returns to the mano a mano clash for territory instead of upping the spectacle with a denser mythology. Everything revolves around the journey to discover, adapt to, and outwit your opponent with strategy. This is the most imposing the Predator has been to date, his brutality on display through eerie stalkings or full sequences rife with blood. The rip-roaring kills, spraying severed limbs and arrows across the screen, are a wonderful payoff to the eerie stalking of the first two acts that makes it such an unpredictable threat. The cinematography is another highlight that also elevates the filmmaking above the others, the forests of the Northern Great Plains distinguishes itself through emptiness that the Predator can cloak itself within. Ash dribbling above a burned forest is also a purely beautiful image to spruce up the imagery from doing the bare minimum that creature features lean towards.
The screenplay is least resonant when dealing with its characters that are often stock, as so much screen time is devoted to Naru. Midthunder is a gifted performer that conveys her transformation largely via the sentiments shown in her nervous eyes. Naru will occasionally seem unappealing due to her constant reminders that she’s a better hunter than all of the men around her. The female narrative is organic when dealing with the gender politics of the time, but makes the one-note side characters flat when they’re all reduced to heavy-handed devices to move Naru’s arc forward. The problem stops as the film progresses, when she fails enough to learn some actual growth and adapt with clever methods similar to the ones used by Dutch, rather than manufacturing an unrealistic physicality.
The opening scenes are slightly duller than what it builds to, as the establishing dialogue and setup isn’t as revised as the rest of the execution. Luckily, the thrills in the well-staged action sequences give an inspired adrenaline rush that stands out when so many blockbusters don’t have that personality. Some will think the final confrontation abandons logic in favor of making Naru a strong hero, but the duel stuck to the rules first set up that defeating the Predator is dependent of finding the weakness. Avoiding many of the mistakes of those films, it trims down its length to a lean pace whose speed keeps the storytelling moving at a rapid rate. Though the score has a significant presence that adds to the dynamic momentum, the original music from Alan Silvestri is discarded again.
Isn’t it refreshing when a franchise that you thought had been run into the ground comes back from the dead? It’s rare that Hollywood can revive a corpse like this in the modern day, and that’s not to say Prey is aiming to be a knockout. What it’s targeting is the grit that has been washed away by the tendency to get even bigger rather than realizing that the stakes should be present with a firm grasp on an attention to detail. The dark tone that goes back to a confined, bloody experience that has no pretenses beyond a thrill ride that earns its fear. It understands what the audience wants and what the genre has missed, and keeps the journey tied to a visceral thrill ride of two hunters at war in a context that hasn’t been seen before. The sequels all thought that getting more insane meant more victory, but shrinking the ambition down to a purely tangible fervor meant the Predator franchise could reach way more.
Grade: A-
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