Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem

Directors: Colin and Greg Strause

Staring: Steven Pasquale, Reiko Aylesworth, John Ortiz, Johnny Lewis

After a Predator ship crashes on Earth, its cargo of Alien face-huggers escapes along with the creature that massacred the ship’s crew, a deadly Alien / Predator hybrid. Enter a lone Predator warrior, sent in to clean up the mess, hunt down the Aliens, and leave no human witnesses alive.

Kicking off immediately after the end of the first Alien versus Predator, we get to see, in full, the Predalien hinted at at the end of the first film. Causing the Predator ship to crash outside a small town in Colorado, the creature escapes to terrorise the local people. Squaring off against this new foe is the lone Predator that arrives to take care of the infestation.

Of the two films to attempt to bring two of Hollywood’s most notorious film icons together, this is the one that gets the formula right. The film goes back to the basics with the mentality behind the creatures, especially with the Predator. It exhibits the tribal / hunter behaviour established by the original Predator film that was so noticeably absent from the first AVP. The Aliens also regain their notoriety, with dark claustrophobic settings that show off the original Alien design in its full glory.

Colin and Greg Strause, well known as visual effects supervisors in films such as 300 and X-Men 3, exercise their expertise to full advantage here. Relying mainly on full scale models and human actors rather than CGI, the Aliens and the Predator look as real and as terrifying as they did in their original films.

The film also establishes a reputation as the most violent Alien or Predator film, with no expense spared on the gore. The violence is brutal and direct, especially against the host of human characters. This is definitely one film that doesn’t follow any predictable horror movie formula for who lives and dies.

Full of references and homages to the original films, this is a must see for fans of either the Alien or Predator series. Forget its predecessor, this is the film that takes the Alien Vs Predator concept and does it justice.

Edward Harry