When “Prey” was released on Hulu in 2022, the prospect of another movie in the “Predator” franchise wasn’t all that enticing. Like many, I was skeptical that there could be anything new to explore in the concept of an alien hunter stalking humans like big game, especially given how well director John McTiernan’s original 1987 film still holds up. The most recent installment prior to “Prey,” Shane Black’s 2018 sequel “The Predator,” seemed like the last gasp of a franchise that had run out of ideas.
Yet director and co-writer Dan Trachtenberg proved me and everyone else wrong with “Prey,” which is easily the best “Predator” movie since the original and one of the best action movies of the 2020s. The prequel set among Comanche warriors in 18th-century North America offers an ingenious new take on the “Predator” formula, while also bringing the franchise back to basics following years of mythology-laden sequels and spin-offs.
