News

Late to the Party: Predator (1987)

Published

7 years ago

January 11, 2017

So there I was, flipping through the cable guide on New Year’s Day looking for something to watch. I came across the original 1987 Predator on one of the movie channels, and realized that I had never seen it. With the new reboot, or sequel, or whatever it’s going to be, coming soon, I figured now was as good a time as any to show up Late to the Party for this one.

Predator (1987), courtesy Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Of course, I knew plenty about Predator going in. As a huge fan of the Alien franchise, I had seen both Alien vs. Predator movies, so I was very aware of what the titular creature was capable of doing. I also knew that it starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, because who doesn’t know that? Other than that, I was going in blind…or so I thought.

As it turns out, I wasn’t. I recognized one of the first scenes from a unit on Machismo and Patriotism in a Race and Gender in American Cinema class I had in college. The scene from class was when Dutch, played by Arnie (I’m not going to keep typing Schwarzenegger over and over), first was brought in and sees his old chum Dillon, played by Carl Weathers. The two engage in an awkwardly extended faux-arm wrestling match, each waiting for the other to weaken and call uncle. That pretty much sets the tone for Predator.

Predator (1987), courtesy Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

The rest of the movie fit in perfectly with my initial impressions. It’s much more of an action movie than it is a horror movie, regardless of how badass the monster is. Heck, the audience doesn’t even see the alien until halfway through the movie, thanks to some awesome chameleonic special effects and a little of the old killer POV shot, so they’re as unsure of what the soldiers are up against as the soldiers themselves. The way the alien works its way through the members of Arnie’s platoon is slasher-worthy. So maybe Predator is a horror movie?

Predator is a complete product of the Reagan era. It very obviously was made in the same decade as movies like First Blood and Commando, with sweaty men flexing their biceps as they fire guns that they shouldn’t even be able to lift by themselves, let alone shoot with one hand. Predator is a whole lot of that. Except, instead of shooting at an invading Russian army or a storming band of Sandinistas , Arnie and his boys are shooting at an alien that they can’t see. Groovy.

Predator (1987), courtesy Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Predator actually has a very universal message. If it were made in the fifties, it would be a Rod Serling-esque commentary on the paranoia of the McCarthy-era, with a bunch of hearty, true red-white-and-blue Americans fighting something that blends in seamlessly with its surroundings. If it were made in the sixties, it could have been read as a statement about the conflict in Vietnam. As it stands, one could argue that it’s a reaction to the brinkmanship of the nuclear arms race of the eighties. But that may be overthinking it. Put all of that aside, and just enjoy the ride.

Maybe it’s because I was already familiar with both the alien and the leading man, but nothing about Predator surprised me. Predator is exactly the movie that I thought it would be, nothing more, nothing less.

Predator (1987), courtesy Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

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Movies

‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

Published

3 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Timothy Rawles

It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

^{High Desert Hell}

^{The Gemini Project}

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Movies

‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

Published

5 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

^{Happy Sad Confused}

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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News

Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

Published

7 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.