Aliens vs Predator: Requiem
Year: 2007
Director: The Brothers Strause
Starring: Reiko Aylesworth, Kristen Hager, Johnny Lewis, John Ortiz & Steven Pasquale
Runtime: 94 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 13/09/22
Director: The Brothers Strause
Starring: Reiko Aylesworth, Kristen Hager, Johnny Lewis, John Ortiz & Steven Pasquale
Runtime: 94 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 13/09/22
You ever get those film that just leave a bad taste in your mouth, might leave you feeling a little bit dirty after you watch them? Aliens vs Predator: Requiem is one of those films for me. I don’t mean this in a good way either, like I watch this film and it makes me kind of disturbed that people thought this was a good idea. What makes AVPR one of the most sickeningly bad films I’ve ever seen?
Following the events of Alien vs Predator, the Predator ship leaves Earth with a collection of xenomorph facehuggers and one deceased preadtor. A xenomorph chest-burster escapes from the body of the dead predator and rapidly grows into an adult predalien, killing the rest of the crew and causing the ship to crash land back on Earth. Receiving a distress signal from the destroyed ship, a veteran predator travels to Earth alone to control the outbreak.
Meanwhile in Colorado, ex-convict Dallas Howard (Steven Pasquale), his brother Ricky (Johnny Lewis), former soldier Kelly O’Brien (Reiko Aylesworth), Sherriff Eddie Morales (John Ortiz), and Ricky’s girlfriend Jesse Salinger (Kristen Hager) must try and survive as their town is rapidly overtaken by xenomorphs, and avoid getting in the crossfire of the predator.
Following the events of Alien vs Predator, the Predator ship leaves Earth with a collection of xenomorph facehuggers and one deceased preadtor. A xenomorph chest-burster escapes from the body of the dead predator and rapidly grows into an adult predalien, killing the rest of the crew and causing the ship to crash land back on Earth. Receiving a distress signal from the destroyed ship, a veteran predator travels to Earth alone to control the outbreak.
Meanwhile in Colorado, ex-convict Dallas Howard (Steven Pasquale), his brother Ricky (Johnny Lewis), former soldier Kelly O’Brien (Reiko Aylesworth), Sherriff Eddie Morales (John Ortiz), and Ricky’s girlfriend Jesse Salinger (Kristen Hager) must try and survive as their town is rapidly overtaken by xenomorphs, and avoid getting in the crossfire of the predator.
On paper Aliens vs Predator: Requiem sounds great. Xenomorphs on Earth attacking a town, a predator sent in to contain the situation, and humans just caught up in the middle. I’m here for the concept and it is just about enough to get me to stick around for the entire film as a result. What kills AVPR though is a strong of bad creative decisions to make the film difficult to watch in more ways than one.
Let me start off by saying I love violence, especially bloody and gory violence. But occasionally I’ll come across a film that does cross a line for me and AVPR is one of those films. I think what does it is directors Colin & Greg Strause being so disturbingly fixated on gory violence against children and pregnant women, and there’s two moments in particular. One of the first victims of a facehugger in this film is a young boy, maybe around ten or eleven years old. Seeing the facehugger latch on to him is one thing, because you know the consequences if you’ve ever seen an Alien film before, but then seeing this child suffer through the chestburster is something else, and the moment that xenomorph explode itself free from a child’s chest in a shower of blood is kind of the point of no return for this film.
The second moment I speak of is later in the film when a maternity ward is attacked by xenomorphs. Newborn babies are killed, and pregnant mothers are pumped with infant xenomorph’s that eat the mother’s unborn babies whilst they’re still inside them and then burst free from the mother’s swollen belly. It’s horrendous, and enough to make even the strongest stomached individuals recoil and grimace. It’s unnecessary and it went too far in my opinion.
The rest of the film is equally violent against all types of people, but the deaths do often border on sadistic and cruel which takes the fun out of blood and gore. Seeing people get melted away after the acidic blood of xenomorph’s get on them is a good time, but then seeing a xenomorph chow down on a teenage boys face so violently blood is spurting in every direction kind of puts a dampner on it all. The ending is also horrendously bleak, it makes sense to end the film that way, but after watching innocent townsfolk getting gruesomely massacred for an hour and twenty minutes to see it end like that really just hammered home how fucked the entire situation is.
AVPR is also unpleasant to watch from a technical perspective. The shots are lazy, the editing is choppy and difficult to follow…the whole film is so damn dark you can barely make out what’s happening most of the time, and all you’re hearing is screaming mixed with gunfire and squishy gore noises. It’s just an overall unpleasant experience to endure, if you can even make out what’s happening.
Aliens vs Predator: Requiem had the right script to be an awesome film. But it’s a perfect example of how to ruin a great action-horror with excessive and bleak violence. Not only that but there as so many technical issues standing in the way of allowing this to be any kind of enjoyable that even if you like senseless bloody violence you’ll likely get irked by the crappy editing or the horrendous lighting. Just don’t bother, forget it exists.
Let me start off by saying I love violence, especially bloody and gory violence. But occasionally I’ll come across a film that does cross a line for me and AVPR is one of those films. I think what does it is directors Colin & Greg Strause being so disturbingly fixated on gory violence against children and pregnant women, and there’s two moments in particular. One of the first victims of a facehugger in this film is a young boy, maybe around ten or eleven years old. Seeing the facehugger latch on to him is one thing, because you know the consequences if you’ve ever seen an Alien film before, but then seeing this child suffer through the chestburster is something else, and the moment that xenomorph explode itself free from a child’s chest in a shower of blood is kind of the point of no return for this film.
The second moment I speak of is later in the film when a maternity ward is attacked by xenomorphs. Newborn babies are killed, and pregnant mothers are pumped with infant xenomorph’s that eat the mother’s unborn babies whilst they’re still inside them and then burst free from the mother’s swollen belly. It’s horrendous, and enough to make even the strongest stomached individuals recoil and grimace. It’s unnecessary and it went too far in my opinion.
The rest of the film is equally violent against all types of people, but the deaths do often border on sadistic and cruel which takes the fun out of blood and gore. Seeing people get melted away after the acidic blood of xenomorph’s get on them is a good time, but then seeing a xenomorph chow down on a teenage boys face so violently blood is spurting in every direction kind of puts a dampner on it all. The ending is also horrendously bleak, it makes sense to end the film that way, but after watching innocent townsfolk getting gruesomely massacred for an hour and twenty minutes to see it end like that really just hammered home how fucked the entire situation is.
AVPR is also unpleasant to watch from a technical perspective. The shots are lazy, the editing is choppy and difficult to follow…the whole film is so damn dark you can barely make out what’s happening most of the time, and all you’re hearing is screaming mixed with gunfire and squishy gore noises. It’s just an overall unpleasant experience to endure, if you can even make out what’s happening.
Aliens vs Predator: Requiem had the right script to be an awesome film. But it’s a perfect example of how to ruin a great action-horror with excessive and bleak violence. Not only that but there as so many technical issues standing in the way of allowing this to be any kind of enjoyable that even if you like senseless bloody violence you’ll likely get irked by the crappy editing or the horrendous lighting. Just don’t bother, forget it exists.