When a franchise has been around for nearly 40 years, you’d expect that the story would evolve in some way. That may be an understatement with the upcoming horror flick Predator: Badlands, which hits the 2025 movie calendar on Friday, November 7. Part road trip comedy, part coming-of-age story, Dan Trachtenberg focuses on the Predator, or Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), who sets out to prove himself after being outcast from his clan and forms an unlikely alliance with Elle Fanning’s synth Thia.
Critics have seen the film, and first reactions to Predator: Badlands were positive, if a bit apprehensive. Those who saw an early screening conveyed just how different this offering is from the Predator movies that came before. Now that critics are able to expand on those initial thoughts, does “different” translate to “good”? Peter Debruge of Variety thinks so, saying that other than Prey, this is the strongest film in the series since the 1987 original (and is plenty gory despite its PG-13 rating). The critic continues:
