Don’t sleep on Hulu’s new addition to the Predator franchise. Prey, written by Patrick Aison and Dan Trachtenberg, is the origin story of the mammal hunting Predator as it exists 300 years ago in the natural dwellings of the Comanche Nation.
The Predator franchise started in 1987 with the epic John McTiernan directed feature film written by Jim Thomas and John Thomas. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers made for a dynamic duo in the original that followed a special force ops team into the raging trap of invisible opposition in the middle of a South American jungle.
The success of Predator spurned many sequels, including Predator 2 (1990), starring Danny Glover and Gary Busey, Predators (2010), starring Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne, and Topher Grace, The Predator (2018), and a couple of franchise mixing titles, Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem.
Besides the franchise mixing entries, never has the Predator films been led by a woman protagonist — that is, until Prey. Amber Midthunder, a Native American actress, takes her swing at the franchise as the courageous female warrior, Naru. Often underestimated by her male counterparts, Naru sets on a wild journey to become a skilled hunter when she encounters the extraterrestrial being.
There is a build up to the ultimate head-to-head battle that eventually occurs between Naru and the Predator. But first, her adversity comes in small challenges in which she must conquer nature, and later, savage settlers that complicate an otherwise straightforward story.
From hurdle to hurdle, the excruciating intensity has you on the edge of your seat not knowing whether Naru and her dutiful dog companion will be able to meet the challenge or if she’ll succumb to the urge to retreat.
Tastefully done, as the film creatives are said to have consulted the actual Comanche tribe in the making of the film, Prey thrives on heart-stopping moments that bring to light the real-life fragility of humans among wildlife while playing into the fantastical storytelling that made the Predator franchise compelling in the first place.
An added draw are the spectacular actors, Dakota Beavers, Stormee Kipp, and Dane DiLiegro, who plays the Predator — a role originally filled by the late Kevin Peter Hall in Predator and Predator 2.
The thrilling action pic was so on point that the implication in the rolling credits hinting at a possible sequel is a given. The green light on that sequel should be as green as the Predator’s blood on Naru’s face!
