I think it’ll be hard for me to say anything new about Predator because there’s been so much said about it. The last time I watched it was a couple of years ago and I ended up having to stop my initial watch because I was watching it with director’s commentary. I had to stop the commentary because the way John McTiernan spoke on it was so incredibly dry that I found myself dozing off. Which is weird with how tense and action-packed Predator is.
This is also my first watch since seeing Without Warning, which shares a lot of similarities with Predator. It doesn’t seem like Jim and John Thomas have said that they were inspired by it while writing Predator, but it feels like they were heavily inspired with both movies sharing some basic story elements. The main difference is that Without Warning is a straight horror movie while Predator shifts into a slasher after the first act. The other difference that I want to mention is that you get interesting character moments that offer hints at the characters having much deep backstories. That’s one of the things that make the movie so great, the characters have more going on than what is happening on screen.
The cast of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Elpidia Carillo, Bill Duke, Richard Chaves, Jesse Ventura, Sonny Landham, and Shane Black is pretty interesting. The fact that Black would eventually write and direct a film in the series is funny in retrospect. All of the interplay between the cast helps the eventual carnage have more of an impact.
Kevin Peter Hall’s performance as the titular creature is still amazing. His casting in Predator offers another comparison to Without Warning because he played the alien in both. He was able to do more in this film though his stature is used to full effect in both movies. He makes the practical creature effects feel even more menacing than they already would be. The early visual effects make the creature even more terrifying. Whoever was in charge of stunts were able to accomplish some crazy stunts, especially the huge falls that were done. The music by Alan Silvestri is iconic. The score is just so fantastic.
Predator is an iconic movie that has been talked about a lot. I decided to give this a rewatch because Prey was coming out. By the time this review comes out it’ll already be available to watch on Hulu. You can watch Predator on Hulu. I give Predator 10 giant knives out of 10.