The Predator franchise might be one of the most mutable in horror history. Take The Most Dangerous Game and make it a science fiction action bonanza. Alien hunters periodically come to Earth and make trophies of our strongest. Occasionally they’re bested. It’s a premise that holds infinite potential but it works best when it understands that basic concept. Even slightly tweaking this idea, Predator: Badlands once again shows why director Dan Trachtenberg and writer Patrick Aison fundamentally get this franchise
When Disney dumped Prey on Hulu in 2022, expectations were almost none existent. Here was a sequel no one asked for. Even worse it was a franchise, Predator, that no one seemed to understood after the original.
A funny thing happened on release though. Prey ended up being genuinely great. It was a lean mean action film in a way we don’t get these days with a brilliant premise. It’s already been established these creatures, Yautja, have visited Earth throughout history. Why not tell the story of these monsters in different historical eras?
Trachtenberg and Aison follow up that film by once again switching things up. An easy sequel would be another Predator in another historical setting (which this year’s animated Killer of Killers already did). Instead it’s a far future story about Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), the runt of his Yautja clan, as he decides the only way to prove his worth is to go on a hunt and kill the Kalisk, a supposedly unkillable beast. The catch here is that the planet this creature lives on is just as deadly. The apex killer is now the bottom of the rung on a planet designed to kill.
There’s a definite Heavy Metal magazine influence here, especially in terms of the look of the film. You can imagine someone like Enki Bilal, Philippe Druillet, or even Richard Corben drawing this world. There’s razor grass and giant bugs that hide in the canopy of the forests. Plants that are mostly carnivorous tendrils. The monster at the center of this film seemingly regenerates from any kind of attack. Each new landscape hides some new terror creature in each environment. All of this allows for our Predator to engage in some truly stunning action scenes with some genuinely bizarre wildlife.
Still the twist allows for a radical reinvention of the franchise. Not because of its far future setting, featuring a very familiar company from another franchise, on a killer planet. The idea to center this story around a predator and building out the culture of the Yautja gives the story something none of the other Predator films have had: an emotional core. This is a monster hunting another monster story. It’s also a story of someone finding their sense of worth and a family to share love with.
Under all of the prosthetics and motion captured CGI, Schuster-Koloamatangi conveys Dek’s emotional journey through his body language. There’s now an invented Yautja language, but so much is understood simply by the way the actor walks with swagger in one scene or brashly and angry in another. So much of this film is action sequences. Yet it’s in quiet moments at a campfire or scenes of betrayal where the seven foot tall actor expresses Dek’s emotional journey. Can’t have an underdog if they’re not worth rooting for and Schuster-Koloamatangi makes Dek one of them.
The star of the movie though is undeniably Elle Fanning who spends most of the movie as a torso. Fanning gets to play the dual role of Tessa and Thia, Weyland-Yutani androids also on the hunt for the Kalisk. Her Thia is as bubbly and inquisitive as her Tessa is cold and determined. Even if they’re synthetic creations, Fanning certainly makes them into fully realized characters. Her interactions as Thia with Schuster-Koloamatangi’s Dek shows the comic timing she developed over her time on the TV show The Great. Meanwhile anytime she shows up as Tessa, she’s utterly terrifying. In a year with multiple films featuring actors in multiple roles, her performance ranks as one of the best.
Predator might be one of the hardest to replicate monster movies of the last 40 years. The first film is such an exercise in barebones storytelling with maximalist action set pieces. But Dan Trachtenberg and Patrick Aison have certainly found their own way to add to the concept. Predator: Badlands creates a story with a rich emotional core, and sets it on a terrifying world. Who knew audiences could come to feel for one of these monsters?
Predator: Badlands is currently playing in theaters.
