08/11/25

Cineworld, Edinburgh

2022 was a pretty grim year for obvious reasons but one of its few bright spots was the opportunity to watch Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey on streaming. Those with long memories will remember the original Predator film, an Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle from 1987. It introduced us to the titular alien hunter, a creature with a face like a crab doing press-ups on a mirror – and most definitely the villain of the piece. While the film was no masterpiece, it was a fun sci-fi / horror / shoot-‘em-up and it made a big splash at the box office. Inevitably there would be sequels.

Which is where the problems began. A whole barrage of them were released over the years, all inferior to the original. An attempt to combine them with the Alien franchise led to the most disappointing examples of a sorry bunch, turgid retreads of the same-old, same-old.

So when Prey was announced, my expectations were pretty low. However, Trachtenberg did something unexpectedly different with the premise, sending the whole thing back in time and pitting the villainous hunter against a bunch of Native Americans, armed only with bows and arrows, adding a compelling layer of social commentary. It worked big time. Now the pressing question is: can the director pull it off a second time?

And the answer is, yes, he can. The latest twist on the concept comes in the form of an unspoken question. What if the predator were more sympathetic?

Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is a bit of a disappointment to his father, Njohrr (Reuben de Jong). For one thing, Dek is noticeably smaller than the average Yautja warrior and nowhere near as ruthless as Dad would like him to be. In a fight with his big brother, Kwei, Dek can’t even bring himself to kill his bruv. Oh, the shame! His dad is determined to have him eradicated for this weakness but instead Dek heads off to the planet Genna with the intention of defeating the ‘unkillable’ Kalisk, thus proving himself to the old man beyond all reasonable doubt.

Once on Genna, Dek discovers that the place is a total death trap, featuring more predatory creatures than you could shake a plasma sword at. But then he bumps into Thia (Elle Fanning), a Weyland Yutani synthetic. Or rather, he bumps into half of her because, thanks to the Kalisk, she is now missing her lower body, though she’s determined to stay cheerful about the situation. Dek grudgingly takes her along with him, thinking that he will use her knowledge of the planet to locate the creature he is seeking. But as they travel, something unexpected occurs. He begins to care about her…

Hardcore Predator fans (apparently that’s a thing) have argued vociferously that this film has ‘softened’ the concept, but that’s fine in my book, because the interplay between Dek and Thia does make me feel for the characters in a way that even the original never managed. And for those who come to this series for the weird creatures and the rampant bloodshed, there’s still plenty of that thrown into the mix. (Weirdly, the fact that none of them is human has resulted in a 12A certificate, but the amount of carnage that goes on here feels, to my mind, more in the vicinity of a 15.)

My only real quibble is that the first fifteen minutes or so, set on Dek’s home planet, are so poorly lit that it’s sometimes hard to follow the action, but that issue is resolved the moment Dek blasts off Into space and things continue to improve as his friendship with Thia develops. I even liked Bud, a cute little alien that the duo encounter on their travels.

There are just enough elements from the Alien films here to show how blending two franchises can work seamlessly – one reference in the film’s latter stages is a particular delight (fans of Aliens will recognise it when they see it). Okay, so Predator Badlands won’t be picking up any awards at the Oscars but, for my money, this is is up there with the best films of the Predator cannon and, while you could argue that it’s a pretty low bar, it’s nonetheless a testament to Trachtenberg’s abilities that, once again, he has managed to breathe life into a dead Yautja.

4.2 stars

Philip Caveney