‘Predator: Killer of Killers' Review: Hulu's Awesomely Violent Animated Death Match Highlights the Full Potential of the Franchise

An awesomely violent and artfully staged piece of animated pulp, 'Predator: Killer of Killers' feels like a movie that was dreamed up by a couple of stoned teenage boys in a suburban basement one night during the summer of 1987, but this is the rare case where that feels like a good thing. A very good thing, even.
Close your eyes and you can practically hear Dan Trachtenberg — whose impressive 'Prey' made him the de facto thought leader of the 'Predator' franchise — passing a miserable blunt to screenwriter and co-director Micho Robert Rutare as one of them asks 'Who would win in a fight: a Predator or a ninja? What about a Predator or a Viking?' These are some of the great questions of our time, and 'Killer of Killers' answers them with enough style and savagery to share a sweet little contact high with everyone who streams it.
More from IndieWire
Does 'Materialists' Satisfy as a Romance? Screen Talk Debates Celine Song's Film, Shares 'F1' First Reactions
'I Don't Understand You' Review: Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells Kill It in Grisly Destination Rom-Com
The project's charm lies in the fact that it doesn't try to do anything else. An anthology-like collection of death matches in which cinema's most toxically militaristic alien species hunts the greatest human warriors across our planet's history, 'Killer of Killers' is so mission-driven and self-possessed that it never feels the least bit like an elaborate teaser for Trachtenberg's forthcoming 'Badlands' (a theatrical release that will determine the continued viability of the 'Predator' franchise), even if it does a phenomenal job of convincing people to give a shit about the 'Yautja' again — or for the first time.
All red meat and no gristle, 'Killer of Killers' leapfrogs through the centuries — with occasional flash-forwards into sci-fi territory — as if it were using the 'Assassin's Creed' games like a treasure map. The action starts on the shores of Valhalla circa 841 A.D., where a vengeance-obsessed valkyrie named Ursa (voiced by Lindsay LaVanchy) leads her son Anders on a raid to kill the barbarian king who ransacked her village when she was a child. 'Why do we fight?,' she asks the boy. 'Because our enemy still lives,' he replies.
Locked into the siege like Timothée Chalamet at a Knicks playoff game in Indiana, the invisibility-cloaked Predator who's watching from the sidelines may have traveled hundreds of light years for a front-row seat to the carnage, but that sort of zero-sum ethos surely reminds him of home. The alien's plan is the same across the first three of the movie's four segments: Let the humans slaughter each other, and then ambush the last — and presumably strongest — warrior standing as a test of its own skill as a hunter. One second Ursa is standing triumphant over the corpse of her enemy, and the next her minions are screaming 'Grendel!' as the Predator starts ripping their spinal cords out of their backs and/or pulverizing their bodies into red mush.
While those combat tests have a tendency to be wildly unfair (I'm not sure what a Predator would prove to itself by using a space-age shockwave gun to obliterate a guy holding a wooden spear, but maybe a red-blooded American man who shoots forest animals for sport could explain it to me), the Yautja also have a tendency of failing them in spectacular fashion, as it quickly becomes clear that people are still the most dangerous game. Contextualized as a duel between two different breeds of 'monster' (one being Ursa's bloodlust, and the other a demon from outer space), the battle that comprises much of the opening chapter is nothing less than nerd-ass shit par excellence.
As in subsequent episodes, the movie's 'violence is unevolved' moral framing doesn't stop Rutare and Trachtenberg from choreographing the Viking vs. E.T. fight with fetishistic grace, particularly because the CG animation — stilted in its faux-rotoscoped movement, but soaked with the detail and lush ferity of a classic graphic novel — allows them to stage action that would be impossible to sell (or afford) in live-action. Moving away from green screen, the Volume, and other sources of sludgy-looking FX also gives the filmmakers license to make fantastic use of their characters' environments.
A good time for its gore alone, the Ursa brawl is made all the more satisfying because of how cleverly she weaponizes Viking ships against against the Predator, in much the same way as the Japan-set episode that comes next takes full advantage of Tokugawa period architecture as a shinobi hops around a 17th century fortress with a Yautja on his tail (no spoilers, but let's just say the Predators are ill-prepared to fight on the Kawara tiles that lined every 17th castle from Edo on out).
If 'The Sword' maxes out all of the cultural tenets you'd expect an American cartoon like this to exploit, Rutare and Trachtenberg solve the triteness of its story — two brothers, raised by their father as bitter rivals, fight to the death in order to prove their supremacy — by embracing its basicness. Almost entirely wordless from start to finish, the segment pares the sibling rivalry down to its purest level so that it can distill what its characters might be capable of achieving together if they ever fought as one… a theme that 'Killer of Killers' will return to with a vengeance in its out-of-this-world fourth segment.
But in order to reach those heights, the movie first has to take to the skies, which it does in a 1942-set chapter about a wide-eyed Navy mechanic (voiced by Rick Gonzalez) who steals a rickety old plane and flies into battle against the Nazi fleet after he becomes convinced that something else has been hiding in the clouds and shooting down all his friends. This episode is slow to take off, as it starts by doubling down on the film's recurring fixation with children proving themselves to their parents (a relevant motif in a franchise preoccupied with self-worth, but one that 'Killer of Killers' can only glance at between grudge matches), and its chatty protagonist grows tiresome in a hurry.
But once he's airborne, Rutare and Trachtenberg delight in orchestrating some ultra-graphic aerial mayhem, as our hero tries to outfox a heat-seeking alien jet from the cockpit of a busted tin can. Tom Cruise might have a slight edge when it comes to realism, but Rutare and Trachtenberg giddily compensate for that with stratospheric nose-dives and hailstorms full of disembodied limbs. The gore never quite reaches 'Ninja Scroll' levels or anything like that, but 'Killer of Killers' is able to maintain a rock-hard R without ever lowering itself to the level of empty titillation.
By that point in the movie, there's little mystery left as to what Rutare and Trachtenberg are building toward for a grand finale: A melee that will somehow blend Ursa's ambivalent revenge with the ninja's regretful lonerism and the flyboy's inextinguishable resourcefulness. This final segment is a bit sillier and more cartoonish than the ones before it, as 'Killer of Killers' is suddenly forced to juggle a variety of (very) different personalities on a hostile alien world whose rules and physics are as rooted in fiction as the film's previous settings were rooted in fact, but there's a satisfying concision to how the script pulls all of its various stories together, and — for a project that could have felt like nothing but fan service — I appreciated that Rutare and Trachtenberg save their movie's only explicit allusion to the rest of the 'Predator' franchise until the end credits.
Running a very tight 80 minutes or so between titles, 'Killer of Killers' doesn't pretend to be a blockbuster-sized entry in a series that has always struggled to find the right scale for itself, but it even more adamantly refuses to be the sort of throwaway junk that we've been conditioned to expect from straight-to-streaming spinoffs, remakes, sequels, and the like. Fantastic as this film would be to see on the big screen, I'd go so far as to say that this is what streaming should be for: Immaculately crafted bonus treats that stand on their own two feet and demand to be watched with both eyes at the same time as they serve to reinforce the primacy of the theatrical releases that prop them up. In a bottomless content abyss where only the strongest material survives, 'Killer of Killers' should have no trouble slaying the rest of its competition on your Hulu home page.
'Predator: Killer of Killers' will be available to stream on Hulu starting Friday, June 6.
Want to stay up to date on IndieWire's film and critical thoughts? to our newly launched newsletter, In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best new reviews and streaming picks along with some exclusive musings — all only available to subscribers.
Best of IndieWire
The 25 Best Alfred Hitchcock Movies, Ranked
Every IndieWire TV Review from 2020, Ranked by Grade from Best to Worst

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Hypebeast

an hour ago

• Hypebeast

Salehe Bembury 攜手 Mitchell & Ness 推出 New York Knicks 全新聯名系列

本文看點 Salehe Bembury與Mitchell & Ness攜手推出最新聯名企劃，此次合作聚焦於New York Knicks，將 Bembury 獨特的設計美學與 Knicks 豐厚歷史底蘊完美融合。 這項合作預計成為 Fanatics Fest NYC 2025（6 月 20 日至 22 日在 Javits Center 舉行）的焦點項目之一，Bembury 更在 Instagram 上發布了由知名演員 Luis Guzman 出鏡的宣傳預告，提前揭示此聯名系列的樣貌。 此系列為 Knicks 的經典裝備注入新意，特別是熱身外套和籃球球衣，預計將展現 Bembury 標誌性的深思熟慮的設計、獨特的材質運用以及對色彩的敏銳洞察力，並應用於 Mitchell & Ness 的頂級運動服飾上。這些單品不僅旨在吸引死忠 Knicks 球迷，也為追求時尚感的運動服飾愛好者所打造。 Salehe Bembury x Mitchell & Ness x New York Knicks 聯名系列將在 Fanatics Fest NYC 獨家首發，有興趣的讀者不妨多加留意。

Yahoo

2 days ago

• Yahoo

Kylie Jenner Packed Sexy Knicks-Themed Lingerie for Date Night With Timothée Chalamet

Kylie Jenner Packed Sexy Knicks-Themed Lingerie for Date Night With Timothée Chalamet originally appeared on Parade. Now that's dedication! Eagle-eyed fans on social media spotted Kylie Jenner's Knicks-themed lingerie in a suitcase full of blue-and-orange pieces that she packed for a date night with boyfriend Timothée Chalamet. The reality TV star, 27, and the Oscar nominee, 29, attended Game 6 of the NBA Conference Finals on Saturday, May 31, to watch the New York Knicks play against the Indiana Pacers. Chalamet, as millions of basketball viewers have come to learn, is a die-hard Knicks fan and showed up for pretty much every playoff game. Sadly, the Knicks' season ended that night, but we have no doubt Chalamet and Jenner had a memorable evening—and there's plenty of PDA-packed pictures to prove it. According to Page Six, Jenner's orange-and-blue bra and underwear set, pictured above, comes from luxury lingerie brand Fleur du Mal. The bra retails for $128, and the thong retails for $68. Also featured in Jenner's suitcase are two pairs of heels, a Hermès Birkin, a Christian Dior handbag, a Knicks friendship bracelet, various Knicks hats, and some vintage Knicks tees. The A-list lovebirds went public with their romance in September 2023, and though they had a slow start in the spotlight, Jenner and Chalamet seem to be out in full force. 🎬SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox🎬 Jenner even made an NSFW joke about the pair's sex life on TikTok! The makeup mogul reposted a classic scene from Sex and the City, wherein Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) is dating an obsessive Knicks fan, just like Chalamet. In the clip, Jones says, "I don't get laid unless the Knicks win." Before settling down with Chalamet, Jenner was in an on-again, off-again relationship with rapper Travis Scott. The exes share children Stormi and Aire Webster. Kylie Jenner Packed Sexy Knicks-Themed Lingerie for Date Night With Timothée Chalamet first appeared on Parade on Jun 3, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 3, 2025, where it first appeared.

Yahoo

2 days ago

• Yahoo

Tim Daly's N.Y.C. Apartment in Photos

More from Robb Report 'Wings' Star Tim Daly's Upper West Side Pied-à-Terre Just Listed for $1.6 Million A 1,000-Acre Private Island Steeped in Scottish History Hits the Market for the First Time in 80 Years A Contemporary Artist's Serene Retreat in Bel Air Can Be Yours for $16.5 Million Best of Robb Report The 10 Priciest Neighborhoods in America (And How They Got to Be That Way) In Pictures: Most Expensive Properties Click here to read the full article. An entry foyer with four oversized closets opens to seventh-floor residence, which has two bedrooms and 1.5 baths in 1,300 square feet. North-facing windows in the living/dining room provides city views and plenty of natural light. Ten-foot ceilings and a white-painted wood floor add to the room's cloud-like airiness. A copper light fixture hangs over the dining table. The kitchen is outfitted with Viking and Fisher & Paykel appliances. A compact office space and a powder room are tucked behind the kitchen. The primary bedroom includes a large walk-in closet. The primary shares a simple bath with the secondary bedroom. The secondary bedroom comes with built-in shelving. The floor plan.