Let’s Revisit the Fantastic Fan Film PREDATOR: DARK AGES
Jonathan Barkan
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The world of fan fiction never ceases to amaze me. It’s a place where the passion of a fanbase is married with the creativity of the individuals that reside within, allowing for fresh stories to emerge at will. While not everything is a winner, that doesn’t change the fact that people dedicate their time and efforts to adding to the lore of something they dearly love.
Enter Predator: Dark Ages, a <30 minute short film released in 2015 that sees a Yautja Predator face off against a group of Templar Knights in the forests of England. A crowdfunded venture that raised £5,525, the short doesn’t skimp on production, creating a believable world that turns its limitations into strengths. Packed full of gore but never shying away from offering a story (although Sied offers a bit too much exposition, in my opinion), what you’ve got is is a tight, taut film that honors the Predator franchise while giving it a breath of fresh air.
While comics surrounding this character have seen the Yautja appear all over Earth (Sibera, Chile, Kenya, Alaska), it appears that only a few comics have seen the creature in other time periods: Predator: 1718, Predator: Hell Come a Walkin’, and Predator: The Pride at Nghasa. Of those, the first two are United States-centric and the third is set in the early/mid-20th century, so it’s still relatively recent.
But having a Predator story take place hundreds of years ago raises a lot of questions: What is it about Earth that they keep coming back? What other cultures have been attacked by the Yautja and how has that influenced their mythology and folklore? And perhaps most exciting of all, what other time periods saw these extra-terrestrials land on Earth for a hunt?
Imagine for a moment if you will more fan films where we see a Yautja against feudal-era Japan. What if one met a group of Spartan warriors? Perhaps my favorite idea I thought up was imagining a Yautja landing on Earth hundreds of millions of years ago to square off against dinosaurs. A Predator against a flock of velociraptors? Hollywood, you can have that one for free.
Written and directed by James Bushe, Predator: Dark Ages stars Adrian Bouchet, Amed Hashimi, Sabine Crossen, Ben loyd-Holmes, Jon Campling, Joe Egan, and Philip Lane.
Also, make sure to stay connected with all things Predator with 20th Century Fox’s Official Fan App! Download it here.
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