Latest news with #Predator:KillerofKillers'
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Two Lost Exploitation Films from Trash-Cult Favorite Andy Milligan Will ‘Re-Premiere' at Tribeca
'It's so funny to me that Andy Milligan has become this great cult figure,' Laura Shaine Cunningham told IndieWire. To Cunningham — an author and playwright who describes her stint in Z-grade movies as 'a totally aberrant episode in my life' — Milligan was a sadist with a reddish beard who did his best to ruin her good time while shooting a movie on a derelict farm outside Woodstock, New York, in 1965. 'He was prolific, but not talented,' she added, a common sentiment even among Milligan's most passionate defenders. And Andy Milligan does have a cult, a small but devoted subgroup fascinated by the contrast between the cracked auteurism of his films and the callous commercialism of their production. 'These are true independent movies, and if you really are inclusive and you really want to spotlight independent filmmaking voices, then Andy Milligan needs to be there,' said Jonathan Penner, programmer at Tribeca Festival, where two Milligan films will screen on Friday, June 13. More from IndieWire Zoe Saldaña Says Her 'Emilia Pérez' Oscar Is 'Trans': The Statue 'Goes by They/Them' The Beautiful, Brutal Action of 'Predator: Killer of Killers' Milligan's films 'will move you,' Penner added. '[They] may not move you in the most pleasant way, which is OK. Not all art is nice. Andy Milligan was not a nice guy, and he didn't make nice movies. But they are near and dear to my heart, because horror movies in general are about fear and suffering and mortality, and Andy made movies about the darkest shit in humanity.' A once-promising independent filmmaker and gay Off-Off-Broadway pioneer, Milligan sold his soul to 42nd Street in the mid-'60s. He did so by joining up with producer William Mishkin, who would provide Milligan with small sums of money to churn out one-take wonders — horror movies and sexploitation pictures, mostly — that ran continuously in grindhouses until the prints wore out. Then, they were thrown away. 'They were considered orphans that nobody cared about,' Jimmy McDonough, author of the Milligan biography 'The Ghastly One,' said. 'Mishkin in particular cared very little about his legacy,' McDonough added. 'He saw it as all very contemporary stuff that you worked to death at the time. Maybe a few more years passed [when] you could get it into a drive-in and fool people into thinking it was in color.' Then Mishkin's son, Lou, took over the business in the mid-'80s. So the story goes, after an interview with Fangoria, where Milligan complained about him, Lou destroyed the remaining films out of spite. 'Melted down for the silver content,' as Severin Films researcher Todd Wieneke put it. As a result, many of the films Milligan made for the Mishkins are now considered lost. But Wieneke kept looking, and after years of searching, he discovered two previously unseen Milligan films, 'The Degenerates' (1967) and 'Kiss Me! Kiss Me! Kiss Me!' (1968). Both were found in Europe, where it's common for unclaimed materials to be sent to national archives when a film company goes into receivership, a practice Wieneke credited to the 'deeply entrenched film cultures' in these countries. 'Kiss Me! Kiss Me! Kiss Me!' was originally shipped to the Netherlands as part of a package of Mishkin films. This particular title, a hysterical New York apartment melodrama in the style of Doris Wishman, was a poor fit for the all-night theaters in Amsterdam's red-light district. And so it 'sat on the shelf, unscreened, not a single blemish on it,' as Wieneke said, for decades. It was eventually sent to the Eye Filmmuseum and kept, unlabeled, in its archive until it was finally catalogued in 2023. McDonough said that 'Kiss Me! Kiss Me! Kiss Me!' is 'the most mainstream of [Milligan's] exploitation pictures, certainly, and perhaps all of his strange pictures.' McDonough credits this to the fact that Milligan didn't write the film — Josef Bush, best known for the cheeky 1968 gay guide 'The Homosexual Handbook', crafted the script from Mishkin's outline. 'Mishkin really felt like this was his 'Star Wars,'' McDonough laughed. The film was a hit on 42nd Street, possessing a certain tawdry entertainment value. It's also a valuable time capsule: 'Kiss Me! Kiss Me! Kiss Me!' contains some of the only known footage of the Caffe Cino, the bohemian West Village coffee shop that nurtured Sam Shepard, Al Pacino, and Andy Milligan. 'The Degenerates,' meanwhile, resurfaced at the Royal Belgian Film Archive. This print's origins are murkier — Wieneke believed it 'fell into private hands' between its initial theatrical run and its rediscovery at the archive. It comes subtitled in French and Flemish, and like 'Kiss Me! Kiss Me! Kiss Me!,' it was restored by Severin Films after being scanned at the archives. The restorations are clean, but not too clean: Citing 'defects that are native to the print,' Wieneke said, 'sometimes you can fix things, but it's not aesthetically correct to fix them.' 'The Degenerates' is technically science fiction, although it plays more like a feverish blend of 'The Beguiled' and 'Faster, Pussycat! Kill, Kill!' 'It's very much in character with Milligan,' McDonough said. 'There's ranting, there's raving, there's poisonous family dysfunction, and total destruction at the end.' Cunningham sounded amused recounting her scenes in the movie, about a band of six women 'surviving in the post-apocalypse' on a dirt farm in Woodstock. 'I do remember running through the rain with a pitchfork … the whole thing was absolutely ludicrous,' she said. 'Everyone said [Milligan's] films were ungettable. As if they didn't really exist,' Penner said. This is especially true of his sexploitation pictures: The eternal popularity of the genre has ensured that Milligan's horror movies — with colorful titles like 'The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here!' — have remained in circulation since the VHS era. But sexploitation is 'a pocket that's never going to be duplicated,' according to Wieneke. 'It's very much a product of its time and the carnivalesque characters who worked behind the scenes.' Penner will attempt to capture the atmosphere of old, gritty 42nd Street at 'That's TribecXploitation! The Andy Milligan Time Machine,' part of the festival's Escape from Tribeca sidebar. 'There's a secret history of the movies in New York, a really profound history on 42nd Street,' Penner said. 'These movies truly will take you back to a different time and place and filmgoing experience, which is very beautiful to me.' Both 'Kiss Me! Kiss Me! Kiss Me!' and 'The Degenerates' will 'world re-premiere' in the program, along with a selection of trailers and commercials meant to capture the look and feel of late-'60s New York. (The festival will also premiere a new documentary, 'The Degenerate: The Life and Films of Andy Milligan,' co-directed by Severin Films' Josh Johnson.) McDonough and Cunningham will make the pilgrimage, as well as Milligan players Natalie Rogers and Hope Stansbury. All will gather for a celebration of Milligan and the grindhouse film culture that made him — minus the street hustlers and discarded needles. 'The idea that we're showing his pictures at the Tribeca Film Festival … his ghost will be there cackling, madly, just laughing his ass off,'' Penner said. 'These movies sank below the bottom of the barrel, and we've fished them out.' For McDonough, who was close with Milligan in the years leading up to Milligan's death from AIDS complications in 1991, the homecoming is personal. 'I feel his presence on a regular basis,' he said. 'When I wrote ['The Ghastly One'], nobody wanted to hear about Andy Milligan … now Andy belongs to the world in a larger fashion. I'm just thrilled that he's finally being acknowledged as the idiosyncratic, unmatched talent that he was.' Asked if he thinks the ghost of Andy Milligan will be present at the screening, McDonough laughed: 'Wear your Kevlar vests is all I have to say. You never know how Andy might strike back — with a kiss, or something sharper.' 'That's TribecXploitation! The Andy Milligan Time Machine' will screen at the Village East by Angelika at 8 p.m. on Friday, June 13 as part of the Tribeca Festival. Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie Nicolas Winding Refn's Favorite Films: 37 Movies the Director Wants You to See
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘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
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Genndy Tartakovsky Knows ‘Fixed' Is a ‘Unicorn' of an Animated Movie
Having worked on the project for 15 years, Genndy Tartakovsky is fully aware that his latest film, 'Fixed,' is an anomaly. Here is a raunchy, capital R-rated 2D animated comedy about a dog having one last wild night out on the town before getting neutered in the morning and losing his precious family jewels. Despite having several acclaimed shows and a highly successful animated film trilogy in his resume, Tartakovsky's 'Fixed' could have easily not made it to the screen — and it almost didn't several times. 'I've always said this movie is a unicorn,' Tartakovsky told IndieWire ahead of the film's release at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. 'It's a dream come true to have a 2D animated, hand-drawn, R-rated movie that doesn't rely on pop culture humor. It's very rare.' More from IndieWire The Beautiful, Brutal Action of 'Predator: Killer of Killers' David Harbour Admits He's Ready for 'Stranger Things' to End: 'How Much More Story Is There?' He is not wrong. Though on the surface, it'd be easy to dismiss 'Fixed' as this year's 'Sausage Party,' another animated movie that used the medium's endless visual possibilities to give audiences extremely graphic imagery. For Tartakovsky, who has worked primarily in the all-ages space for the past 30 years, even when he's moved to R-rated animation, he's never written this kind of humor before. Sure, 'Samurai Jack' has humor, but it's never raunchy, and 'Primal' has plenty of graphic imagery, but it's kind of lacking in the buttholes and testicles department compared to this movie. For the director, it was a challenge to have to change his sensibilities and make sure exactly where he wanted the movie to go. 'It can't be just straight dialogue all the way through,' Tartakovsky explained. 'It's my sensibility, it has to have some physicality.' That physicality comes in the form of striking, exaggerated, and caricatured animation straight out of the golden age of Chuck Jones and Tex Avery cartoons. For Tartakovsky, who fell in love with that style of animation growing up, it was a dream. 'I've been studying it for so long,' he said. 'It's part of me and it's informed my style.' Whether it's the slapstick humor of 'Dexter's Laboratory,' or the use of silence in storytelling in 'Samurai Jack' or even the way he uses Bugs Bunny-type physicality in non-comedy projects like 'Clone Wars,' Tartakovsky has brought an old-school sensibility to every project he's worked on, but 'Fixed' feels like the culmination of it. Though there is no squash and stretch, exactly, there is a shared sense of physical humor and slapstick in Golden Age cartoons and a sight gag of a pack of dogs chasing a squirrel and cutting to them tearing the poor creature to bloody bits. Having worked with French studio La Cachette for his last two projects, 'Fixed' was also new territory for Tartakovsky in the form of a new team of animators working to bring that Avery and Jones vibe to 'Fixed.' Despite working in the industry for decades, the caliber of his collaborators intimidated the creator. 'I don't get to animate as much, so when all of a sudden I'm working with great animators, I get in my head and think they'll see that I'm a fake because I've only done my own stuff for so long,' Tartakovsky said. 'I had Disney animators on my team — one of our guys worked on 'Roger Rabbit,' and he's incredible, so am I really going to give him direction? He can out-animate me at any time.' According to Tartakovsky, it ended up not being an issue. 'It was the most minimal amount of notes we've ever done on a film. It was never about the technical side of animation, I'd just talk to them about the joke and they got it right away.' Behind the sex jokes lies a rather heartfelt story of a group of friends trying to cheer up one of their own, and even a sweet romantic story. Possibly the most surprisingly tender, yet still very funny, subplot in the film involves Lucky, a neurotic dog obsessed with weird smells and tastes, learning to love himself after an encounter with Frankie, an intersex dog voiced by River Gallo. 'Everyone was holding their breath, asking if I was sure I wanted to include that,' Tartakovsky said. 'I thought, why not? It's funny and we're not making fun of it. We want to be sincere about it and not mean.' Indeed, there's a sincerity in the way Gallo voices Frankie that makes the humor of their big scene also become a moment of personal triumph, of acceptance, and also funny dog sex. 'Hiring a voice actor who is part of that community added a lot to it. Sometimes I'd do something and they'd explain why it could be misinterpreted because I don't have that perspective, so they'd explain it to me, and then I'd change it up. We worked our way through the whole movie like that.' Preventing the raunchiness from drowning the heart, and the heart from mellowing out the humor, was a balance critical to crafting the film. 'We're trying to build characters that we really like and that are funny,' Tartakovsky said. 'That's really hard to do from scratch in an original story.' It doesn't help that it's a feature, as, unlike TV, you can't just build on happy accidents from one episode to the next. Cracking the right balance took years and several variations of the script. Part of the beauty, but also the problem, of writing for animation is that something that works well on the page, or even with a specific art style, doesn't necessarily translate to another visual style. At one point, Tartakovsky was pressured into trying out 3D animation to sell the film more easily, but that had an unexpected effect on the film. 'Animated balls look better in 2D.' Best of IndieWire The Best Thrillers Streaming on Netflix in June, from 'Vertigo' and 'Rear Window' to 'Emily the Criminal' All 12 Wes Anderson Movies, Ranked, from 'Bottle Rocket' to 'The Phoenician Scheme' Nightmare Film Shoots: The 38 Most Grueling Films Ever Made, from 'Deliverance' to 'The Wages of Fear'
Newsweek
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
'Predator: Killer of Killers' Is Now Available to Watch
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Entertainment gossip and news from Newsweek's network of contributors Last October, an interview with The Hollywood Reporter revealed that - along with the upcoming "Predator: Badlands" - there was a secret "Predator" project in the works that would release before "Badlands". That film turned out to be "Predator: Killer of Killers", and it's finally streaming. Co-helmed by Dan Trachtenberg, the same director who brought the "Predator" franchise to near universal acclaim with 2022's "Prey", "Predator: Killer of Killers" takes the Predators out of the 21st century and pits them against warriors from all across history. Read More: 'Predator', All Of The Movies Ranked From Worst To Best Here's everything you need to know about the new film "Predator: Killer of Killers". "Predator: Killer of Killers" "Predator: Killer of Killers" 20th Century Studios What Is 'Predator: Killer of Killers' About? "Predator: Killer of Killers" is unlike any of the films to come before it in the "Predator" franchise. Directed by Dan Trachtenberg and Joshua Wassung, "Killer of Killers" is an animated anthology film that takes the alien hunters from the "Predator" franchise and puts them in bloody action in three distinct historical settings. "Predator: Killer of Killers" sees the eponymous hunters stalking Vikings, ninja and samurai in Japan, and World War II pilots in the skies above Europe. When Does 'Predator: Killer of Killers' Come Out? "Predator: Killer of Killers" is out now. The animated anthology film began streaming on Friday, June 6, 2025. How to Watch 'Predator: Killer of Killers' Like 2022's runaway streaming hit "Prey", "Predator: Killer of Killers" is streaming exclusively on Hulu. What Do Reviews Say About 'Predator: Killers of Killers'? "Predator: Killer of Killers" debuted on Rotten Tomatoes with a 100% critics rating, and as of the time of this writing it has just barely dropped to a still impressive 97%. The critical consensus is that "Predator: Killer of Killers" is exactly what it should be: bloody, brutal, and action-packed, with a satisfying narrative. For example, Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting writes that the movie "boasts stunning Arcane-inspired animation and a commitment to gory action in its bid to explore lethal brawls with the Yautja throughout time, revealing a deep well of potential for the franchise in the process." Carlos Aguilar of Variety is particularly impressed with the animation, writing that "the gruesome anthology continues to assert animation as a versatile and viable storytelling vehicle for all genres." While the film is rated R, Bob Strauss of the San Francisco Chronicle calls it, "the best movie a 10-year-old boy could ever hope to see. That's because it's really a bunch of bloody, action-filled animated stories in one neat, 90-minute package." More Movies: 'Predator' Director Talks 'Killer of Killers' Inspiration Predator and Humans Team Up in 'Predator: Badlands' First Look Trailer
Tom's Guide
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
'Predator: Killer of Killers' on Hulu brings back the thrill of the hunt — and it's the most fun I've had in ages
'Predator' has always had a special place in my movie-loving heart. There's just something truly great about the idea of the galaxy's ultimate hunter going against some of the strongest humans throughout time. So when I heard Hulu was releasing a new animated entry in the franchise called 'Predator: Killer of Killers' (directed by Dan Trachtenberg, no less), I was immediately all in. I'll admit, I had high hopes. 'Prey' was a phenomenal surprise that reminded everyone just how good a 'Predator' movie could be. And while 'Killer of Killers' doesn't quite knock it out of the top spot, it absolutely earns the silver medal. And yes, that includes placing it above the original. This thing rules. From the opening minutes, it delivers exactly what I want from a 'Predator' story: brutal combat, clever kills and characters who don't go down easy. What really surprised me, though, was just how fun it all is. For a franchise that often leans gritty, 'Killer of Killers' finds a sweet spot between savagery and style. If you're a longtime fan like me or just someone who loves a well-crafted action thrill ride, this latest installment is some of the most fun I've had with 'Predator,' and it's now streaming on Hulu. Here's why this one's worth the hunt. 'Predator: Killer of Killers' is a Hulu-exclusive animated anthology movie that features three standalone stories set in wildly different time periods, each centered around a deadly clash between a skilled human warrior and a relentless Predator. The first chapter takes place in Viking-era Scandinavia, where a hardened raider, accompanied by her young son, goes on a brutal quest for vengeance after her village is decimated. Her path leads her into the wilderness, where she encounters something far more dangerous than any clan rival. The second story unfolds in feudal Japan, where two estranged brothers — one a disciplined samurai, the other a stealthy ninja — are forced into a confrontation over the future of their clan. Their final showdown is interrupted by a new kind of enemy. The final tale jumps to the skies of World War II, where an Allied fighter pilot begins noticing strange disappearances during missions over Europe. A routine investigation turns into a desperate fight for survival when he realizes an invisible enemy is stalking him from above. 'Killer of Killers' stands out from the rest of the franchise in two big ways: It's beautifully animated, and it tells three separate stories that ultimately converge. Right from the start, it's clear this is a 'Predator' movie that dares to do something different, and it succeeds on every level. The stories told are impactful and actually quite clever, using personal conversations and animated facial expressions to make us care about the characters. Not to mention the voice acting, which makes every scene feel that much heavier. Out of all three stories, the feudal Japan segment absolutely stole the show for me. It's the quietest of the trio (almost entirely free of dialogue), but that silence speaks volumes. What unfolds is a visually stunning, tension-soaked battle between a disciplined samurai and his estranged ninja brother. It's rare that a 'Predator' story feels this elegant. Like 'Prey,' which gave us a Predator perfectly matched to the time of the Comanche warriors, 'Killer of Killers' does something similar. Each Predator is tailored to its setting, both in design and behavior. The one in Viking-era Scandinavia is a hulking, primal force. The Japan segment gives us a fast, silent hunter who moves like a ghost. And in the World War II chapter, the Predator is almost machine-like as it flies a spacecraft. It shows that the creators put real care into adapting the Predator design and behavior to fit the culture and era. The animation style in 'Predator: Killer of Killers' really caught my eye, and it makes sense considering it took inspiration from 'Arcane' and 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.' It's a bold choice that gives the movie its own unique vibe while still staying true to the gritty, savage spirit of the iconic franchise. Honestly, it's one of the reasons I had such a great time watching it. Most of all, 'Killer of Killers' knows exactly how to be a standout 'Predator' movie. There's plenty of carnage and brutal deaths, including a Predator that wears multiple spines as a cape (yes, really). So, if you're a fan of the franchise, be prepared for the gory action you expect. 'Killer of Killers' is a really fun ride, and I'm glad to see the franchise keeping up its good streak after 'Prey.' Here's hoping 'Predator: Badlands,' coming later this year, can keep the momentum going. If you're even remotely a fan of the 'Predator' franchise or just love stylish action with serious bite, 'Killer of Killers' is absolutely worth your time. It's bold, beautifully animated, and packed with moments that'll leave your jaw on the floor. Each segment brings something new to the table, and together they create one of the most memorable entries in the franchise. So do yourself a favor: Fire up Hulu, hit play and enjoy one of the coolest surprises of the year so far. For even more streaming recommendations, see what else is new on Hulu in June 2025. Stream "Predator: Killer of Killers" on Hulu now.
