Prey director Dan Trachtenberg explains one major flaw that many of the previous Predator films have exhibited. The franchise began with the 1987 film Predator, directed by Die Hard's John McTiernan and starring an ensemble that included future governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura, who play soldiers faced with an unknown, powerful enemy that turns out to be an alien menace uniquely suited to violent destruction. That film was quickly followed by Predator 2 in 1990, bringing in star Danny Glover and transporting the Predator from the jungle to the city. The franchise went dormant for over a decade before being brought into the orbit of the Alien franchise with the crossover film AvP: Alien vs. Predator in 2004 and its sequel, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, in 2007.
Those films renewed interest in the franchise, leading to the film Predators in 2010, starring Adrien Brody and taking place on the Predators' home planet. After another long break, Shane Black brought the more comic adventure film The Predator to the screen in 2018. Prey, which was helmed by 10 Cloverfield Lane director Trachtenberg, will be released on Hulu on August 5, 2022. Although the franchise has taken the Predators to many unique places over the years (including Antarctica and suburbia), this film stakes its claim as a period piece, set in Comanche Nation territory in 1719 as the warrior Naru (Amber Midthunder) defends her tribe against the onslaught of a Predator.
While speaking with Digital Spy about Prey, Trachtenberg reveals the flaw with the previous Predator films he attempted to correct. He says that, when approaching this film, he "wanted to make this version of the Predator so much more feral and ferocious and animalistic." He notes that one of the flaws of many of the previous Predator films is the way they present their villain, who usually looks like "a professional wrestler who's lumbering around." Read his full quote below:
For this one, I really wanted to make this version of the Predator so much more feral and ferocious and animalistic, from its movements to its silhouette and its design. That was something that we looked at the other iterations and tried to zig where they zagged a little bit.
The thing that I really wanted to do was, on the one hand, embrace the suit because I love the design of the creature and that it is a practical suit, but also, really try to make sure we weren't limited by the limitations of a physically-built suit with a man inside operating it.
I sometimes feel in watching some of the Predator films that it feels very much like a professional wrestler, not literally, but a professional wrestler who's lumbering around. I feel like it's driven by a person and I never have really gotten swept away by feeling like it's an alien creature.
While the original Predator performer Kevin Peter Hall, who played the alien in both Predator and Predator 2, was instrumental in creating the iconic character, this complaint can certainly be leveled against the way the films chose to use him. Predator is meant to mimic the macho action films of Schwarzenegger's oeuvre more than it is meant to depict a truly biological sci-fi monster. However, this sensibility was only amplified when Hall was replaced by other actors with less of a grip on the role.
If Prey can live up to the promise made by Trachtenberg, it will certainly breathe new life into the franchise. Although the films have expanded the universe of the Predators considerably, they have been frequently humanized, to the point that a Predator befriends the lead of AvP. Making the menace more animalistic and truly alien could certainly be the direction the franchise needs to return to its horror-inflected roots.
Source: Digital Spy
