The Predator franchise is responsible for one of the most iconic monsters in the horror genre, but the 2010 sequel found a way to repurpose the creature’s original design for one of its best details.
Predators, directed by Nimrod Antal and produced by Robert Rodriguez, was an attempt to bring the series back to its roots. The Alien vs. Predator crossover films had diluted the franchise’s brand and while the extraterrestrial monster is still very popular, feature films have struggled to find the right tone and how to make this monster work. Predators functions as both a sequel to Predator 2 and also a reboot of sorts which doesn’t rely on the baggage of the previous movies as it attempts to forge its own way.
Predators didn’t make a huge impression on its release, but it has gained more of a cult reputation in recent years. The film excels with its strong ensemble cast that features Adrien Brody, Walton Goggins, and Laurence Fishburne. The team of characters is dropped onto a planet that’s used as an elaborate hunting ground and emphasizes the Yautja species are some of the best stalkers in the whole universe. It’s a creative spin on the standard Predator formula, but the movie is also able to repurpose a maligned piece of its past through the revelation that it’s not only humans that are being hunted on this planet.
The look of the Predator’s intimidating Yautja species is now iconic, but the original movie temporarily shot with a drastically different design that was built by Boss Film Studios before Stan Winston came up with the redesigned model. This original look has been the subject of a lot of mockery, even by Arnold Schwarzenegger himself—it’s a detail the franchise treats like it wants audiences to forget. Predators is made by people with a deep love for the Predator franchise, warts and all, and while the movie contains plenty of love letters to the past, the best example of this is with how it manages to work in the original look for the Yautja, but make it come across as cool and intimidating.
Predators is set on a Game Preserve Planet where the Super Predators indulge in hunting to their hearts’ content. It turns out that the planet doesn’t just feature humans as prey, but another alien species which are referred to as the River Ghost. The look for these creatures is based off of the original Boss Film Studios design, but then slowly changed and upgraded by brilliant KNB EFX head, Greg Nicotero. Nicotero drew further inspiration from the sculpture, “The Erosive Guyver”, as well as the 1955 film, This Island Earth. It’s pretty incredible how this embarrassing piece of Predator history can actually become a fascinating component of the film. It’s difficult to make a satisfying Predator sequel, but it’s even harder to canonically fix the franchise’s mistakes in such an effective way.
Predators doesn’t provide too many details on the River Ghost, but they’re shown to be fairly intelligent, as well as faster and more agile than humans, which makes them a greater challenge for the Super Predators. The River Ghost also seems to share an unusual symbiotic relationship with smaller insect-like creatures that may ward off infection and parasites. The River Ghost don’t act like a threat to the humans, but their look is still enough to inspire fear and throw them off their game. It’s unclear if the River Ghost will ever appear in a future Predator film, but hopefully what ever follows next for the series will carry the same amount of reverence and love towards the films’ history.