Rachel Reeves

As the year winds down, the last gasp of potential drifting off into the ever encroaching night, moments of seasonal reflection inevitably creep in. For some, twinkling holiday lights and cozy crackling fireplaces provide comfort, and dare I say, joy. And for others, the familiar holiday rituals welcome old familiar friends like grief, gratitude, loneliness, and heartbreak to pull up a chair at the emotional table. In short, the holidays can be complicated.

With the musky essence of the Yautja hanging in the air, thanks to the recent release of Predator: Badlands, it is inevitable for the mind to wander toward some other cinematic alien hunter offerings. The most notable of the bunch is undoubtedly the Alien franchise, with its sleek, stealthy Xenomorph. Together, the two make an interesting pair.

Boldly going where no Predator film has gone before, Predator: Badlands flips the franchise script, putting the Predator (aka Yautja) front and center. Directed by Dan Trachtenberg, the same visionary who delivered Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers, Predator: Badlands follows Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), a young Predator cast out from his clan who crash-lands on the savage planet Genna.