|
It’s a great time to be a Predator fan. After appearing to die a painful death with 2018’s The Predator, this franchise has done a complete 180. Prey breathed new life into the property in 2022, and this year, we’re getting not one but two more adventures with these alien hunters. Predator: Badlands is set to hit theaters in November, but before we return to this world on the big screen, the animated Hulu original Predator: Killer of Killers takes us back there from the comfort of our living rooms. This movie promises to expand the universe in exciting new ways, and now that I’ve finally seen it, I’m happy to report that it totally delivers.
Predator: Killer of Killers was directed by Dan Trachtenberg and Joshua Wassung, and it stars Lindsay LaVanchy, Louis Ozawa, Rick Gonzalez, and Michael Biehn. This is an anthology film, so it doesn’t tell a single, unified story. Rather, it tells three different stories from three different places and times, but they’re all set in the Predator universe. We visit 9th-century Scandinavia, feudal Japan, and the skies of World War II, and every time, we see the same basic formula play out: A group of warriors encounters a deadly Yautja hunter (a Predator) looking for the most dangerous prey it can find, and the humans have to do everything they can to escape with their lives. I’m going to tell you right now that Predator: Killer of Killers isn’t for everyone. Content-wise, this movie is pretty par for the course for the Predator franchise, so if you’re not a fan of these films, you’re almost certainly not going to enjoy this latest installment. But if you’re like me and you eat these movies up (well, the good ones, at least), you’re going to have a blast. Let’s start with the animation style. This film evokes the feel of old-school video game graphics from the Playstation and Playstation 2 eras, but it somehow manages to look (mostly) sleek and modern all the same. It’s an odd style that probably won’t win any awards, but it gets the job done. The real draw here, at least on a visual level, is the action. It’s just as good as anything this franchise has ever given us in its live-action efforts, and the anthology format allows Predator: Killer of Killers to showcase numerous different fighting styles. We get to see the more strength-based approach of the Vikings along with the lighter, more fluid touch of 17th-century ninjas and samurai, and the third story even puts us in the middle of a firefight between a Yautja spacecraft and the US Air Force! It’s a cornucopia of action that gives each segment its own unique feel, so despite the close similarities among the segments, the movie never gets stale. Along similar lines, the Predators themselves are also different each time around. Sure, they all have the typical traits we’ve come to associate with the Yautja, like the pronounced mandibles and the ability to cloak themselves with invisibility, but each one also has its own unique weapons and even some distinguishing physical features. Unlike in some other franchises, these otherworldly warriors are far from carbon copies of one another (or of the other Predators we’ve seen throughout the franchise), and once again, that variety helps the film feel fresh from beginning to end. On the complete other end of the spectrum, I have to say a few words about the human characters in Predator: Killer of Killers. Like most anthologies, this one can’t flesh out its protagonists the way a more traditional movie does, but don’t let that fool you. These segments manage to squeeze as much character development as possible out of their short runtimes, so even though we don’t know a ton about these people, the little bit we do learn is more than enough to get us on their side almost instantly. You’ll already be totally in their corner when things really go south for them, so these are more than just fun horror stories. They're grounded in a sense of genuine humanity, allowing the film’s message to hit you on a much deeper level than you might expect. Predator: Killer of Killers shows us that evil doesn’t have to get the last word, that we can overcome seemingly impossible odds if we stand firm, and since you're so attached to these wonderful characters, you actually believe it. It's a surprisingly uplifting message for a movie with this much death and destruction, and when you combine it with the top-notch action, you get another excellent entry in the Predator franchise. Predator: Killer of Killers proves that there are still many more stories to tell about the Yautja and their prey, and even more importantly, the film proves that those stories are well worth telling.
0 Comments
Horror movies often get a bad rap in Catholic circles. Many in the Church believe that the genre glorifies evil and demeans human dignity, and for a lot of people, few films embody those problematic elements more than The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. The name alone sounds like a sickening exercise in senseless violence, and when you sit down to watch the movie, it appears to live up to those gruesome expectations. To be fair, the film features very little on-screen blood or gore, but it so perfectly captures the essence of evil that it almost feels like it was made by the psychotic killers who inhabit the story.
However, despite that initial impression, I’d suggest that the movie actually holds a surprising amount of thematic depth behind its seemingly gratuitous brutality. This isn’t just evil for the sake of evil, so if we pay close attention to some key details, we’ll find that The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has quite a bit more to say than your average slasher flick. In fact, we can even interpret it in a way that dovetails quite nicely with our Catholic faith, so let’s take a deep dive into this horror classic and see what important themes it hides just below the surface. A Meat-Loving Family To truly understand The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, we first have to understand something about Leatherface and his kin. Unlike most slasher villains, these psychos don’t just kill for the heck of it. Rather, they’re a family of slaughterhouse workers who’ve become a bit too obsessed with their chosen profession, so somewhere along the line, they started killing and eating people just like they kill and eat animals. The first hint of this important fact comes in the opening scene, when the protagonists unknowingly pick up one of Leatherface’s brothers as a hitchhiker. The guy proudly tells his newfound friends that his family has “always been in meat,” and he giddily shows them some pictures he took at the slaughterhouse. It’s clear that he absolutely adores this line of work, and when we get to the third act, we learn that the rest of his family shares that odd fascination as well. After Leatherface knocks off most of the main characters, only one of the original five is left: a young woman named Sally Hardesty. She manages to run away from the masked killer, but she can’t escape his family. Another one of Leatherface’s brothers kidnaps the woman and brings her back to their house, and when the siblings are all together, they decide to let their grandfather have this last kill. They explain that the old man used to work in a slaughterhouse, and in his day, he was the best killer in the place. His grandsons seem to almost worship the guy, so of course they want to see him practice his craft one more time. Fortunately, the old timer is too weak to get much force behind his blow, so Sally is able to escape her cruel imprisonment and get away with her life. Like I said before, that scene shows us that Leatherface’s entire family shares the hitchhiker’s love of slaughterhouse work, but it does more than just that. It literally puts Sally in the place of an animal, and that tells us in no uncertain terms that these maniacs see the poor woman (and, by extension, the rest of her friends) as nothing more than cattle. They apparently don’t think human beings have any more dignity than the cows they kill at the slaughterhouse, so since they love that place and that industry so much, they take their work one step further and revel in killing people as well. Slaughterhouse Kills Those two scenes bookend Leatherface’s murderous rampage, but they’re not the only times The Texas Chain Saw Massacre keys us into its deeper themes. If we take a closer look at the way our villain disposes of his other victims, we’ll see that the rest of the film also draws a parallel between these people and the animals killed every day to feed us. Despite what the movie’s title might lead you to believe, Leatherface only kills one person with a chainsaw. He kills two of his other victims by bashing them over the head with a hammer, and he butchers the other one by hanging her on a meathook and stuffing her in a freezer. Those are all brutal ways to die, but more importantly, those non-chainsaw deaths are all tied to (you guessed it!) slaughterhouse work. The meathook and the freezer are pretty easy to understand, but the hammer might require a bit of explanation. Earlier in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, when the five main characters are traveling in a van together, they have a conversation about slaughterhouses, and one of the friends explains how these places carry out their grisly work. He says they kill their animals with bolt guns, but in the old days, they used to just smash the animals over the head with a hammer. They also talk about these various methods with the hitchhiker they soon pick up, and perhaps most importantly of all, when the grandfather tries to kill Sally later on, he also uses a hammer. Once again, this final scene is our smoking gun in more ways than one. It cements the fact that hammers are associated with slaughterhouses, and it hammers home (no pun intended!) the point that this brutal form of execution is supposed to evoke the family’s favorite line of work. The Difference Humanity Makes Once we understand the deeper meaning behind all this seemingly senseless violence, it’s not hard to see what a Catholic interpretation of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre would look like. When we watch the film, we shouldn’t enjoy seeing Leatherface mow these characters down the way we enjoy, say, a superhero defeating a villain or an underdog football team clawing their way to the top. In fact, in a very real sense, we shouldn’t enjoy these scenes at all. Rather, we should be shocked and appalled by the cruel way this man demeans and dehumanizes his victims, and that visceral reaction contains an important lesson for us. It shows us that human beings possess a unique dignity far beyond that of any animal, so even though it’s permissible to use animals for things like food and medical experimentation (with certain limits, cf. CCC 2417), human beings have an inalienable right to life that can never be taken away. But notice, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre doesn’t simply tell us about human dignity the way a textbook or an ivory-tower philosophical argument might. Instead, the movie brings us face to face with this reality by letting us see it so brutally violated, and that hits us much harder than mere words ever could. It reaches into the depths of our souls and makes the sacredness of human life just about impossible to deny no matter what mental gymnastics we may try to employ, and that deeply emotional messaging elevates the film far beyond its shallow slasher peers. I’m a huge John Wick fan. Other than maybe Mission: Impossible, I think it’s the best pure action franchise around. These films haven’t let me down yet, so of course I’ve been dying to see the new spinoff, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina. I was sure this movie would deliver all the mesmerizing action and fun world-building that have made the main series so successful, so when tickets went on sale, I booked a seat for opening night as soon as I got the chance.
From the World of John Wick: Ballerina was directed by Len Wiseman, and it stars Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Lance Reddick, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Norman Reedus, Ian McShane, and Keanu Reeves. In the film, Eve Macarro, the titular ballerina, was raised by the Ruska Roma, the same family that trained John Wick. But surprisingly, she’s not an assassin. Rather, she’s a protector, so instead of being assigned targets to kill, she has to keep her targets from being killed. During one of her missions, Eve comes across a member of the organization that murdered her father many years ago, and that encounter enkindles a thirst for vengeance in the woman. She sets out to learn more about these people and find their leader, and…well, I’m sure you can figure out for yourself how the rest of the story plays out. I’m not going to lie, Ballerina isn’t going to win any awards for its screenplay. The story is as shallow as it sounds, and while there’s a tiny bit more substance here than you might expect, it’s only a bit. Nobody is going to see this movie for the plot, so if you’re looking for something that will challenge you intellectually and force you to think more deeply about everything you hold dear, you’re going to be pretty disappointed. To the surprise of no one, the real draw here is the action, and on that count, Ballerina absolutely shines. In typical John Wick fashion, we get everything from guns to hand-to-hand-combat to improvised weapons, and it’s all choreographed and executed to perfection. In fact, I’d even say there’s a real beauty to all this violence. There’s a reason why martial arts are called martial arts, and I’m not just talking about unarmed combat styles like judo and karate. Even in weapons-based systems like kendo and fencing, well-executed moves can be genuine wonders to behold, and like all the other films in this franchise, Ballerina puts that beauty on full display. That being said, even the best action is only as good as the cinematography that captures it. Western movies often chop their fights up with so many cuts you can’t really tell what’s going on, and when that happens, it can completely ruin what would’ve otherwise been a great experience. It’s the bane of this entire genre, but thankfully, Ballerina avoids that all-too-common pitfall. You can see every stab, kick, and throw in all its glory, so fans are definitely going to get their money’s worth. Along somewhat similar lines, the action here is also much more intelligent than you might be expecting. Female-centric action films often get criticized for unrealistically depicting women tossing around big, strong men like ragdolls, but this one takes a different approach. It understands that Eve will always be at a physical disadvantage in almost any fight, so it portrays her as a cunning, smart fighter who will do whatever it takes to get the upper hand. She’ll use anything she can as a weapon, and when all else fails, she has no qualms about fighting dirty. There are even a number of times when her male opponents overpower her and gain a temporary advantage, so she’s way more than just John Wick with two X chromosomes. Eve has a style all her own, complete with her own set of strengths and weaknesses, so seeing her practice her craft is a very different experience from seeing the Baba Yaga show why he’s the most feared assassin on the planet. Last but not least, I want to say a few words about some of the characters in Ballerina. Most obviously, we have to talk about Eve, the titular ballerina herself. She’s played by Ana de Armas, and this woman is wonderful in the role. Not only does she prove herself to be a genuine action star, but she also has that intangible “it” factor that makes her character incredibly likable and super easy to root for. To be fair, part of that comes from Eve’s tragic backstory, and some of it is connected to a little girl Eve has to protect, but most of it is de Armas’s great performance. Even without much help from the script, she still manages to make the ballerina feel like a real person rather than a generic cardboard cutout, and that injects the story with a sense of humanity that most lesser action flicks only wish they could achieve. Ballerina also features a handful of John Wick staples, like Winston (the manager of the Continental), his faithful concierge Charon, and John Wick himself. None of those side characters have huge roles in the movie (although John has some great action scenes!), but for fans of the franchise, they add a sense of familiarity that makes the whole experience go down that much more smoothly. At the end of the day, I can’t quite say that Ballerina is one of the best films of the year. It just doesn’t have enough moral and thematic substance to stand alongside movies like There’s Still Tomorrow, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, and Bring Her Back. But the way I see it, that’s okay. Ballerina shines as a showcase for its gorgeous action, and with just enough storytelling substance to keep it afloat, fans of the genre are sure to eat this film up. |
Jp Nunezis a longtime film buff and theology nerd with master's degrees in theology and philosophy from Franciscan University of Steubenville. His favorite movie genres are horror, superheroes, and giant monsters. Archives
June 2025
Categories |
RSS Feed