In recent years, the Predator has felt like one of the more forgotten movie ‘monsters’ in modern cinematic history.
Not that we haven’t seen pictures featuring the alien hunter, most recently Shane Black’s interesting but flawed 2018 effort The Predator, but rather this was a creature who simply hasn’t had the recurrent traction of other science-fiction creations on screen. Think of how many Alien films now exist. Consider the monsters of horror, be it Michael Myers or Freddy Krueger, who continue to find an afterlife again and again and again. The Predator’s appearances have been much fewer and further between, despite him being one of the more enigmatic and intriguing ‘monsters’ of the last thirty plus years.
The use of ‘monster’ is qualified by air quotes because the Predator doesn’t equate to me in the same vein as many of the aforementioned devils of cinema. The Predator, or the Predators as is probably the better moniker given no film yet has featured the same creature twice, is not by nature an evil creation. The Predator—or in deeper comic book lore a Yautija—is as the name defines him, a hunter of prey. He is a warrior who lives by a code. He seeks out the strongest and while his intent is to kill, he lives by a sense of honour. He is more Viking than demon. He is more Klingon than xenomorph.
This has perhaps never been better understood than in Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey, the latest movie in the franchise, which if we’re lucky will begin a whole new lease of life for Jim & John Thomas’ creature. It deserves to, because the Predator has a hell of a lot more to give.
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