Taking the risk to go back three hundred years and almost regress the Predator to a more primal and less advanced state worked wonders for the franchise, and is a lesson a lot of studio executives could learn from and apply to their own franchises, so here are five franchises that need the Prey treatment.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last few days, you might have seen the most recent release in the Predator franchise, Prey. Released straight to Hulu and Disney+, there wasn’t much buzz around it until the review embargo lifted, and everyone seemed to love it.
5. Alien
The first in the list of franchises that need the Prey treatment, is a storied franchise that’s been going for nearly fifty years at this point, the first Alien film terrified audiences, some walking out and others vomiting or fainting. Tame by today’s standards, at least in the graphic nature of what’s on screen, it still holds up as a particularly fantastic film. Its sequel Aliens amped everything up to ten, and then we unfortunately were subject to one poor sequel after another. Maybe this’ll change, maybe this won’t, but I for one want more of the original and less of the third or fourth.
4. Terminator
In another franchise involving James Cameron, the first and second films were both brilliant, however, it seemed to come off the rails with the third one, and only recently did Dark Fate somewhat bring it back a little. With considerably more complex lore than the Predator franchise, it would be difficult to make a smaller scale Terminator film, but the first worked, so why not try again?
3. Die Hard
The original Die Hard and its sequel Die Hard 2 will always be two of the best action films released. Set around the premise of one man in John McClane being the only one that can fight and kill his way through German thieves in the first one, and traitorous US Soldiers in the second, the films are full of action, blood, and endlessly quotable one-liners. The third sequel was good, but the fourth and fifth were terrible, and this is another one of the franchises that’ll desperately need the Prey treatment.
2. Hannibal Lecter Franchise
Less so a franchise with multiple poor entries, and more so a franchise that hasn’t had an entry for a while, we’re long overdue for another spectacle involving the polite cannibal. The last we saw of Hannibal Lecter was the recent television show Hannibal starring Mads Mikkelsen in the titular role. Unfortunately canceled before it had finished its story, I’d like a fresh take on the story, and hopefully, one that’ll stay as faithful as the excellent show did.
Related: Netflix: Best Serial Killer Shows According To IMDb
1. Friday the 13th/Nightmare on Elm Street
I’ve grouped these two together for obvious reasons, but it’s far to say these are definitely two franchises that need the Prey treatment. Recently we’ve had new entries in the horror franchises Scream, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Halloween, with mixed results. Back in 2009 both of these properties did get their own reboots, but both were laughably bad. Maybe it’s been long enough now that we can get another, smaller-scale attempt with them? Or maybe modern audiences just aren’t that scared of these imposing but campy serial killers.
So there we have it, those are my choices for five franchises that need the Prey treatment, what would you have added? What have I missed?
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