Editorials
Why ‘Alien vs. Predator’ Deserves All Your Love
Almost exactly one year after Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees finally clashed up on the big screen, director Paul W.S. Anderson brought together the two heavyweights of sci-fi/horror for a similar battle to the death. Like Freddy vs. Jason, Alien vs. Predator was foretold by clues that dated back many years prior, namely a comic book mash-up, an action figure two-pack, and of course, an Easter egg in Predator 2 that made a truly awesome promise: these two ugly motherfuckers exist in the same universe, y’all!
Released in 2004, Alien vs. Predator made a killing at the box office but didn’t quite do so well with critics or even hardcore fans of the two franchises. Most felt at the time that both franchises deserved better, and even all these years later, Alien vs. Predator is looked back on as a disappointing misfire that did no favors to either the Xenomorphs or the Predators. Mind you, it’s not nearly as hated by fans as follow-up film Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, but you’d be hard pressed to find too many glowing reviews out there on the internet.
My personal opinion? I revisited Alien vs. Predator last night for the first time in 13 years. And it was way better than I remembered it being. Hell, I feel no guilt in saying that I kind of love it.
How do you bring together the villains from two entirely different franchises? Many different writers attempted to crack the code over the years, but it was Paul W.S. Anderson (along with Shane Salerno) who came up with a pitch that won 20th Century Fox over. Anderson’s concept, which managed to make sense of the aforementioned Predator 2 Easter egg, was actually quite inspired.
Anderson’s story, which plays out like a big budget fan film, imagines that the Aliens and Predators have been locked in battle for centuries. Every 100 years, young Predators hunt the Xenomorphs for sport as a means to prove themselves worthy to their elders, with the battle highlighted in Alien vs. Predator taking place in 2004. Set deep beneath an island off the coast of Antarctica, the fight is kick-started when the Predators trick a group of lowly humans (including Lance Henriksen, brilliantly cast as the man the Alien franchise’s Bishop android was based on!) into entering the battleground so that they can be impregnated by the Face Huggers they’re literally forcing the Alien Queen to give birth to. After all, you need to first create Xenomorphs before you can hunt them.
It’s a bonkers premise, and one could argue that a franchise vs. franchise fight flick requires one of those. The film paints the Predators as weirdly benevolent Gods that humans used to worship, while it presents the Xenomorphs as so-called “serpents” that must never make their way into the general populace – in a stunning flashback sequence set atop a pyramid, we learn that the Predators have been trained to literally level entire civilizations in the event that the Xenomorphs start winning any given fight. They don’t want to destroy humanity, you see. They just need to use us as a means to carry out their ritualistic battle. The Xenomorphs, however, want to kill us and they want to kill us all.
When you buy a ticket to see a movie titled Alien vs. Predator, you’re dropping that money to see two horror icons fight rather than watch a group of boring characters talk, and AvP no doubt suffers from a setup that can best be described as lackluster. Before we get to the good stuff, Anderson sets the stage in a way that makes you feel like you’re watching a Syfy original picture rather than a $60 million collision between two mega popular horror franchises – but have no fear, because it soon becomes evident that Anderson was smartly ensuring he’d have money to spend on the good stuff.
And oh boy is the good stuff, well, good!
Once we get deep underground, the production values increase significantly; even those who hated Alien vs. Predator back in 2004 couldn’t help but praise the lavish sets and the decidedly incredible practical effects work. The film’s wrestling ring, so to speak, is an ancient pyramid with an internal structure that completely changes every 10 minutes, making for some fun sequences that evolve the environment in increasingly threatening ways. Ornate artwork depicting the various iconic figures in both the Alien and Predator franchises gives the sets a nice sense of history, effectively conveying the core idea of the mash-up film: these two species have a long history we sure as hell never knew about.
And then there’s the effects, which I was shocked to discover on my re-watch last night are almost entirely practical – according to Wikipedia, the dudes behind Amalgamated Dynamics Incorporated practically created an impressive 70% of the monster action on screen. Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr. and the ADI team created suits, miniatures and puppets to bring the various Xenomorphs to life (Woodruff Jr. himself played the film’s standout “Grid Alien”), while actor Ian Whyte was tasked with playing all of the Predators. And it all looks damn good, both for the time and still to this day.
But where AvP really excels in the effects department is in the inclusion of the Queen Alien, introduced in James Cameron’s Aliens prior to being prominently featured in Paul W.S. Anderson’s monster mash. A blend of practical effects and CGI, the visually stunning Queen is initially shackled up in the underground pyramid like a slave, but eventually breaks free (with a little help from her babies) to go on a rampage that takes AvP to a whole new level of cool. Watching the Queen run after the film’s final girl, smashing through a massive whale skeleton along the way, is one hell of a visual that makes a pretty good case for Anderson being the right guy to have helmed this particular ship. And goddamn did ADI go above and beyond on this one, bucking effects trends of the time in favor of old school-style work that did both franchises prouder than anything else on display in their big budget team-up film.
Of course, Alien vs. Predator has its downsides. For starters, the well documented PG-13 rating makes zero sense when you consider that every film in both franchises had been rated R up to that point, and the rating rears its ugly head a handful of times throughout – much of the monster-on-human carnage takes place off screen, robbing us of the “money shots” that would’ve really put the film over the top. But even with a PG-13 rating, the fight sequences between the warring species’ are a total delight to watch, if not a bit too over-edited – and since both monsters bleed colors other than red, the MPAA thankfully let a whole lot slide.
There’s a part of me that hates, or at least wants to hate Alien vs. Predator for reducing the Xenomorphs to Predator fodder and also for making the Predators out to be the heroes (the final act’s teamwork between the Scar Predator and final girl Alexa is as silly as anything you’ll ever see in the horror genre), but there’s just so much more to love about AvP than there is to hate. With expectations in check and properly calibrated, my 13-years-later revisit made me realize that it was every bit the fun spectacle everyone in their right mind should’ve gone into the theater expecting in the summer of 2004.
There’s just something great about a movie that fully embraces its own absurdity.
We’re now officially in the back half of 2026 now that July is here, but what a year it’s been for horror so far. The sequels and reboots are still holding strong at the box office with films like Scream 7 and Scary Movie, but it’s also been a year where new voices are shattering records in unexpected ways.
Markiplier eschewed conventional production and distribution channels with his feature adaptation of Iron Lung, for example. We’re also still in the midst of Backrooms and Obsession-mania, with the former back in theaters with bonus footage and the latter extending its box office reign. Liminal horror has exploded, and low-budget indie horror is seeing just as much, and sometimes even more, success as big studio-backed fare.
All of which to say that 2026 has been a hell of a year so far for the genre, and it’s only getting warmed up. Still on the way are Evil Dead Burn, Insidious: Out of the Further, Resident Evil, Clayface, Whalefall, and Werwulf, just to name a few.
Also catch up with the Best Horror Books and Best Horror Games of the year so far.
Here are the ten best horror movies of the year (so far).
10) Chime
Horror master Kiyoshi Kurosawa is back with one of his most haunting yet, though one that’d likely be higher on this list if it were more accessible. The 45-minute feature was initially produced and distributed as an NFT before receiving a theatrical run earlier this year, with no plans to distribute digitally or on home media. It spins a somewhat cryptic tale, introducing a culinary teacher, Takuji Matsuoka (Mutsuo Yoshioka, Never After Dark), whose classroom becomes disrupted by a strange sound that leads to violence. It’s a quiet but haunting unraveling, one that leaves no aspect of Matsuoka’s life untouched, in true Kiyoshi Kurosawa style. That it defies any easy explanation also ensures Chime embeds itself under your skin.
9) Send Help
Sam Raimi’s splatstick return to form is a delightfully deranged two-hander that doubles as infectious catharsis for anyone who’s ever had a bad boss. Rachel McAdams (Doctor Strange) and Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner) face off when their characters are shipwrecked on an island, prompting a bid for survival in more ways than one. While O’Brien often matches her, It’s McAdams who shines as she deftly handles everything that Raimi, working from a script by Damian Shannon & Mark Swift (Freddy vs. Jason), throws at her. Send Help is full of vibrant personality, packed with all of Raimi’s signatures, making for one of the most entertaining films of the year.
8) Mārama
New Zealand filmmaker Taratoa Stappard’s gothic tale begins in familiar fashion, with Mary Stevens (Ariāna Osborne) arriving in Yorkshire upon invitation to learn more about her parents, only to find the remote manor haunted. Just when Stappard’s period horror story feels doomed to succumb to familiar gothic trappings and jump scares, though, its true horror emerges. The more Mary uncovers about her heritage and her Māori culture, the clearer it becomes that this grim home is built on violence and exploitation. Stappard’s vision comes into its own when it leaves behind its gothic influences and embraces its Māori identity; few scenes are as powerful as when Osborne’s Mary performs a haka in response to her vile oppressors, heralding in a righteous bloodbath.
7) Touch Me
Writer/Director Addison Heimann draws from retro Japanese horror, exploitation cinema, and perhaps even hentai for his campy, psychosexual sophomore feature. A toxic friendship plagued by trauma, codependency, and addiction gets tested to the extreme when Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci), a hip-hop-loving, tracksuit-sporting alien, gets between them. Olivia Taylor Dudley and Jordan Gavaris have an easy rapport and play off each other well as directionless, depressed Millennial besties prone to ignoring their problems until they become insurmountable. But it’s Pucci’s inspired, childlike take on the chicken nugget-loving extraterrestrial with tentacled secrets of his own that steals the show. Heimann has a lot on his mind with his sophomore feature and neatly condenses it all into a quirky, eccentric psychosexual camp odyssey that leans heavily into humor.
6) Backrooms
Director Kane Parsons translates the vast liminal labyrinth of his web series to the big screen in his feature debut, one that instills existential dread with its atmospheric horror and narrative. The ‘ 90s-set horror movie introduces a protagonist with a serious chip on his shoulder over life’s many disappointments, who then discovers his furniture store harbors a hidden door that leads to an endless labyrinth. It’s not just the incredible production design that instills a disorienting sense of doom and terror, but the lead characters’ palpable and profound sense of loneliness and isolation. Parsons exudes impressive confidence and control as he methodically entrusts his quiet worldbuilding and talented leads to carry the dramatic weight. While Backrooms does deflate by the film’s cryptic, cliffhanger-y end, it’s arguably the most effective and scariest yet at capturing the uncanny valley of generative AI.
5) Leviticus
Writer/Director Adrian Chiarella uses an It Follows-like supernatural entity that relentlessly stalks its prey as a launchpad to immerse audiences in the horror of constantly living in fear for simply existing. A conversion therapy ritual among a deeply conservative community plunges a pair of erstwhile lovers into a nightmarish bid for survival when it summons a force that takes the shape of those whom the afflicted desires most. Chiarella refines the horror mechanics and metaphor with much sharper precision, ensuring that the scares and emotional gravity of the young couple’s terrifying predicament reach their intended impact. It’s the central layered performances by Joe Bird (Talk to Me) and Stacy Clausen (Thrash) that clinch emotional investment in their heartbreaking plight, ensuring that the social horror cuts deep.
4) Redux Redux
The McManus Brothers, writer/director duo Matthew and Kevin McManus (The Block Island Sound), dials up the intensity of a classic revenge story by setting it within a multiverse, where Irene Kelly (Michaela McManus) seeks to snuff out every single iteration of her daughter’s murderer, Neville (Jeremy Holm). The more she stalks and slays every world’s Neville, the more she risks losing her humanity entirely. Through a narrative foil in Mia (Stella Marcus), Redux Redux smartly bypasses repetition as it explores the moral complexities and vulnerabilities of Irene’s extremely violent quest. Holm becomes utterly terrifying in the climax, ensuring that no matter whether Irene loses herself to vengeance for good or not, it’s justified if it means ridding the world of this sick maniac.
3) 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Director Nia DaCosta takes the reins in the second entry in writer Alex Garland and original director Danny Boyle’s trilogy, picking up from the previous conclusion that saw Spike (Alfie Williams) fleeing from the infected straight into the welcoming arms of Sir Jimmy Crystal (Sinners’ Jack O’Connell). From here, DaCosta presents a stark contrast between humanity’s best and worst. The former sees the tender studies of Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) make poignant strides toward humankind’s future, while the latter unleashes more pain and bloodshed courtesy of the Jimmies. The dual paths of light and dark collide in one epic conclusion, an inspired confrontation between good and evil on a stunning set piece of heavy metal insanity. Yet it’s DaCosta’s handling of both extremes that impresses most, teeing up one epic conclusion to this trilogy.
2) Obsession
Sketch comedian turned horror filmmaker Curry Barker (Milk & Serial) wrings blood-curdling terror from a classic Monkey’s Paw wish fulfillment scenario in a way that no one could have ever anticipated. To say that it’s taken the box office by storm would be a massive understatement; Obsession is the top horror movie of the year in terms of gross. It’s not hard to see why, either. While Monkey’s Paw scenarios often yield predictable outcomes, and this outcome is practically telegraphed from the start, Barker manages to surprise with the journey itself. And it’s one insane journey paved with blood-soaked violence and no shortage of nightmare fuel. What truly sets it apart, though, is leads Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette as the central pair undone by one vicious wish. Expect to see a lot more from breakout Navarette.
1) Hokum
A surly, traumatized writer must break free from his self-imposed shackles of guilt when confronted by a wicked witch haunting a quaint Irish inn in the latest by writer/director Damian McCarthy (Oddity). Adam Scott’s Ohm makes for an atypical but rewarding protagonist, and his complicated emotional journey gives way to a deeply moving story of a man so thoroughly broken by personal trauma that he constantly dwells in darkness. In true McCarthy style, expect the creepy as hell witch to dole out some supernatural retribution for crimes committed, but never in the way you’d expect. The filmmaker has a way of making whimsy pure nightmare fuel; Hokum distorts a kids’ show into eerie, uncanny valley-induced terror in its torment of Ohm. Channeling Stephen King, this creeper plays like a traditional campfire tale in mood and style, infusing genuine scares with a sense of magic and heart.
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