Movies
Predators
“PREDATORS is a pretty awesome flick…[it’s] loaded with action, gore, and freakin’ cool Predators; this is what summer movies are made of.”
Editor’s Note: spoiler warning
Next to James Cameron’s ALIENS, John McTiernan‘s 1987 classic action-horror combo PREDATOR is one of my all-time favorite films. Over the past few years my obsession has grown from watching it annually to monthly, with the new Blu-ray probably forcing it to almost weekly. It has a flawless blend of action, humor and horror that has yet to be rivaled. When Robert Rodriguez brought his Troublemaker Studios on to produce PREDATORS for Twentieth Century Fox, he had one clear statement: PREDATORS would be to PREDATOR as James Cameron’s ALIENS was to ALIEN. I’ll give him this much, it’s close.
PREDATORS is sequel, straight up, and takes place even after PREDATOR 2. Director Nimrod Antal opens the film with a quick punch in the nose; the audience’s first shot is of Royce (Adrien Brody) unconscious and dropping like a rock out of the sky. He wakes and fights to get his parachute open (another tense moment) before bracing himself for a rough landing. On the ground, a “new” motley crew is quickly formed as everyone sort of stumbles into each other.
Royce is Special Ops, Isabelle (Alice Braga) the same(?), Stans (Walton Goggins) is a con who was two days from being executed, Hanzo (Louiz Ozawa ) is a Yakuza clan member who “talked too much”, Cuchillo (Danny Trejo), Nikolai (Oleg Taktarov), and Mombasa (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali) all serve their own countries. Topher Grace plays a wussy doctor named Edwin.
Rodriguez explained in early interviews that he wanted the movie to feel like any of these stars could be the lead, something that reflects the ‘87 PREDATOR. The only problem is they’re all technically criminals, which make it hard to love them as much as we did heroes Dutch, Dillon, Mac, Blain and the badass Billy.
Putting that aside, Antal crafts a collection of colorful individuals who are all very well defined, something that’s extremely important considering how much exposition poisons the first hour. The early course of the film, though trickled with action scenes (such as an alien dog attack), is very exposition heavy, which creates some pacing flaws. While not bad per se, it’s just not fun. The original film honed in on strong character moments like when Hawkins tells Billy a dirty joke, or when Mac kills a scorpion on his arm. The characters are lovable, and the fun bleeds from their very essence. I will say this though: the characters in PREDATORS are a beautiful reflection of the 80’s as they’re completely vulnerable. At no point do you honestly think they can defeat these alien creatures, so it adds an enormous amount of tension, suspense, and believability. I often look to Ripley and John McClane as reference points.
Unlike PREDATOR, PREDATORS is a very dark film. It’s bleak from the moment Royce crashes ass first on the alien planet. The tone is serious and the plot simple. As shocking as it sounds, the simplicity of PREDATORS is what makes it work. There’s nothing more vomit inducing when a sequel pushes the boundaries too far. Rodriguez and company took the Predator mythology and then crash-landed it on an alien planet. The Predators live to hunt, but why? There’s a brilliant addition to the mytho as they explain the Predators are “learning,” and becoming “better.” For what? Maybe an invasion? They even find a clever way of referencing the first film and Arnold’s infamous mud sequence (resulting in a brilliant pay-off). The finale is so simple, and yet so incredibly smart that it’s hard to not stand up and cheer a bit.
The big fight sequence also got me thinking about the violence, which is topnotch. It’s obvious nobody held back. You’ll see hanging corpses (even of other alien life forms), spines being ripped out and plenty of decapitations. It’s nice and violent; KNB loaded up on the practical effects (I couldn’t identify any CG in the gore) and delivered A+ craft.
It’s weird because, as I’m reading over this review, it sounds a bit negative; but in all honesty PREDATORS is a pretty awesome flick. There’s no question in my mind that Antal and Rodriguez are die-hard fans. While they missed the “tone” of the original, they captured everything else ranging from the colorful characters to the score and sound design (the gunfire gave me goose bumps). The score completely captured the spirit of the ’87 film and even took some inspiration from Cameron’s ALIENS. Sh*t, the end credits kick on with Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally”, a song from the amazing helicopter scene in the original (watch it below).
With a little trimming (they could have removed Laurence Fishburne’s entire scene) and the addition of some light humor, PREDATORS could have easily been a nearly perfect homage. Still, this will be a nice addition to anyone’s collection, completing a trilogy in my eyes. PREDATORS is loaded with action, gore, and freakin’ cool Predators; this is what summer movies are made of.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
You must be logged in to post a comment.