Alien vs. Predator (2004) has a reputation for being "the cheesy crossover movie," but there's more going on beneath the surface than people often remember. Set inside an ancient Antarctic pyramid, the film expands Predator lore with ritual hunts, honor, and coming-of-age traditions while preserving the Alien franchise's relentless focus on survival. Through Lex, another capable woman forced to adapt against impossible odds, AVP explores what happens when two iconic species collide—and how humanity survives when caught between them. It's messy, over-the-top, undeniably a product of the early 2000s, but it's also one of the franchise's most interesting additions to the lore.

Prey (2022) is a return to form for the Predator franchise, stripping away the government conspiracies, secret labs, and over-the-top spectacle in favor of a simple but effective story about a hunter facing the ultimate prey. Set in the early 1700s, the film follows Naru, a young Comanche woman whose intelligence and observation skills lead her to uncover a mysterious threat moving through the food chain. As she pieces together clues about an invisible hunter stalking the wilderness, Prey becomes less about brute force and more about adaptation, strategy, and understanding your opponent. With a strong central performance, excellent thematic focus, and a finale that rewards every clue planted along the way, it's one of the most satisfying entries in the entire franchise.

The Predator (2018) is one of the strangest entries in the franchise—a movie that feels like five different films fighting for control of the same story. Part action-comedy, part conspiracy thriller, part family drama, and part Predator sequel, it follows a crash-landed Predator, a group of traumatized veterans, and a scientist trying to understand why two alien hunters are at war. Along the way, the movie introduces new Predator lore, questionable genetic upgrades, Predator dogs, government conspiracies, and even a Predator Iron Man suit. It's messy, baffling, surprisingly funny, and somehow still entertaining despite all the chaos.

The hunt gets a lot bigger in Predators (2010). What starts as a group of dangerous strangers waking up in an unfamiliar jungle quickly becomes something far stranger: an alien game preserve stocked with humanity's most lethal individuals. This week, we follow Royce, Isabelle, and an increasingly suspicious doctor as they uncover Predator factions, hunting rituals, surviving prey, and evidence that these hunts have been going on for a very long time.

We talk about the film's biggest lore additions, the concept of humans as "predators" being selected as prey, the preserve itself as part of the hunt, Hanzo's incredible honor-bound duel, Nikolai's sacrifice, and why this movie is far more interested in Predator civilization than many people remember.

If the first film was about surviving the hunt and Predator 2 was about discovering the hunters, Predators is about exploring the world they've built around it.

In this episode of Afterthought FM, I continue into Predator 2 (1990), a movie that somehow takes the jungle survival horror of the original Predator and turns it into a sweaty, neon-lit urban nightmare.

Los Angeles is collapsing under gang warfare, police militarization, heat waves, and nonstop violence when the Predator arrives and starts treating the city like a hunting ground. But this sequel does much more than repeat the first film — it expands the Predator mythology into something much bigger.

We get ritualized hunting rules, trophy imagery, government conspiracies, cloaking glitches, horrifying new weapons, and finally the reveal that there isn’t just one Predator… there’s an entire species with an ancient hunting culture.

Also: Gary Busey tries to contain an alien hunter, which goes about as well as you’d expect.

In this episode of Afterthought FM, I continue my sci-fi horror journey with Predator (1987), a movie that starts as pure 80s military action nonsense before slowly transforming into survival horror.

An elite team of heavily armed soldiers enters the jungle thinking they’re the hunters… until something starts hunting them back. Between the thermal vision, the clicking sounds, the ritualized hunting rules, and Dutch slowly turning into muddy jungle Batman, Predator ends up being way smarter and scarier than its opening lets on.

Also: the Predator’s self-destruct laugh is absolutely insane.

In this episode of Afterthought FM, I continue through the Alien franchise with Alien Resurrection, the strangest and most chaotic entry so far.

After Ripley’s sacrifice in Alien 3, scientists clone her centuries later in order to recover the alien queen inside her… except the cloning process also mixes Ripley’s DNA with the xenomorphs. What follows is a deeply weird blend of body horror, identity horror, scientific exploitation, mutant hybrid creatures, morally grey pirates, underwater xenomorphs, and one of the most upsetting creature designs in the franchise.

This movie is gross, fascinating, tragic, and fully committed to biohorror chaos.

In this episode of Afterthought FM, I continue through the Alien franchise with Alien 3 and talk about why this might be the bleakest film in the entire series.

After the emotional ending of Aliens gets ripped away almost immediately, Ripley finds herself trapped on a decaying prison labor colony while yet another xenomorph outbreak begins. Between institutional neglect, bodily autonomy horror, religious fanaticism, prison violence, and Weyland-Yutani once again trying to profit from catastrophe, Alien 3 becomes less about survival and more about sacrifice.

Messy, tragic, exhausting, and honestly kind of fascinating.

In this episode of Afterthought FM, I continue through the Alien franchise with Aliens and talk about how the sequel transforms the original film’s isolated labor horror into militarized trauma horror.

Ripley wakes up 57 years after the events of Alien only to discover the nightmare planet has been colonized, the company still refuses accountability, and once again nobody listens to the smart lady. Between corporate manipulation, collapsing military confidence, motherhood themes, and the emotional bond between Ripley and Newt, Aliens becomes about far more than just fighting monsters.

One of the best sci-fi sequels ever made, and somehow still emotionally devastating.

In this episode of Afterthought FM, I revisit Alien (1979) and talk about why it still works so well decades later.

Beneath the creature horror and claustrophobic atmosphere is a story about labor exploitation, institutional betrayal, and ordinary workers being treated as expendable by the systems they serve. The Nostromo crew feels grounded and human, which makes the slow collapse of safety and trust even more effective.

From Ripley being the only person following quarantine protocol, to the company prioritizing the alien over the crew, Alien ends up feeling less like simple monster horror and more like corporate horror in space.

A horror classic that still feels painfully relevant.