1987’s Predator set my imagination ablaze when I got to see it on an already well worn rental VHS tape in the late 80s. When Dark Horse started producing their own comic book sequels to the first film, I lapped up every issue as soon as I could get my hands on them.

And then the first movie sequel was released. Despite some intriguing, subtle world building,  for the most part 1990’s Predator 2 was a huge disappointment, and a wasted opportunity to build on the strength of its predecessor.

Dark Horse continued to produce mostly-decent Predator comics, and even built a robust mythology incorporating the Xenomorphs from the Alien saga (note to non-comic readers: Aliens vs Predator was a great concept, well-executed, with the movies falling short of, and unnecessarily contradicting, the foundations laid in comic form by miles).

In 2010, another movie sequel, produced (but not directed by) the generally dependable Robert Rodriguez hit the big screen, but despite some very strong elements and ideas, it still fell short. Definitely a step above Predator 2, but that’s not saying much.

I almost don’t even want to mention Shane Black’s utterly disastrous 2018 movie The Predator; I honestly think I prefer Predator 2 to Black’s confused mess of a movie.

When Disney acquired movie studio Fox, custodians of both the Aliens and Predator franchises, in 2019, the future of both series was uncertain. Yet the House of Mouse has proven to be an excellent home for the two gory, extra-terrestrial franchises. Dan Trachtenberg’s 2022 Prey saw a Native American tribe come up against the alien hunter, with a female Comanche warrior as the lead. It was easily the strongest entry in the Predator saga since the original, and is arguably the high point of the franchise overall.

So when Trachtenberg was announced as the main creator behind two new Predator movies, both to be released in 2025, it immediately piqued my interest. Predator: Badlands is a live action film that’ll be the first in the series to be released on the big screen since The Predator, but the other movie has been released directly to streaming.

There’s probably a few reasons for that, but I suspect the main one is that Predator: Killer of Killers may have been a hard sell for a theatrical release. An animated anthology film, the first non-live action movie in the series, it tells three short stories of humans encountering Predators throughout history, with a segment tying each tale together as the climax.

And it’s utterly glorious. The visual style is perfect, with an in-vogue, hand-painted feel to it’s CGI animation, and its soundtrack, along with the general sound design and voice acting, is fantastic.

The film kicks off its three stories with The Shield, a Viking-led tale, which turns from a crusade of revenge into a fight for survival, in a treacherously icy environment. The most brutal and gory story of the bunch, it sets the tone nicely for what is to follow.

Another tale of revenge follows, with The Sword, mostly dialogue free, set in Feudal Japan. Finally, The Bullet takes to the skies in World War II, and we get a first for the Predator series: a full on aerial hunt!

Finally, the climactic sequence takes us into even more unknown territory, but I won’t spoil where we go to bring the film to an end.

Though fairly light on plot, each story does a great job of setting its action in motion, and what phenomenal action it is too! The extended fight scenes are superbly choreographed and ‘shot’, with serious heft and dynamic action in each one. There’s absolutely no skimping on the gore, and each Predator has their own unique look and gadgetry, which helps to deliver the blood and guts in endlessly creative ways.

Shout out also to Michael Biehn, who makes an appearance in Killer of Killers, and now matches both Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen for having faced off against the big three 80s sci-fi horror villains: Aliens, Terminators and Predators (though Paxton remains the only actor to have been killed by all three of them onscreen!).

Killer of Killers marks the first time that the Predator’s species name, Yautja, has been used to properly refer to them in a film, which now (finally) makes it canonical. Though you can just about make the name out in dialogue spoken by the creatures in The Predator, it is easily missed and unconfirmed that the specific word is what’s being spoken; in Killer of Killers, it appears in text form, so there’s no denying that it’s now official.

There’s some really well handled Easter Eggs in Killer of Killers too, with a very brief mid-credits scene being particularly exciting for fans.

With Badlands on the way, and Trachtenberg (who co-directed Killer of Killers) directing that too, it seems that us long term, long suffering Predator fans are finally getting the stories we have been craving, outside of extended universe media such as comics, books and video games. Killer of Killers is another very strong entry in the series, and can easily stand alongside the original Predator and Prey as an excellent film in its own right.

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