Hollywood simply loves to exploit tried and tested properties, and you can look no further than ’80s classics like the Predator series. It is a business after all, and success means sequels. Although a bunch of followups and crossovers have been made to capitalize on the initial success, none have lived up to, let alone surpassed, the original 1987 film. But this time, director Dan Trachtenberg and screenwriter Patrick Aison have finally cracked the code to revitalizing this beloved franchise by going back 300 years in Prey.

Prey aims to bring a fresh slate by setting itself in the Northern Great Plains in 1719. This back-to-basics approach shoves off all the unwieldy sci-fi lore that’s bloated this franchise, and strips it down to its core elements. The Predator (Dane DiLiegro), an extraterrestrial species of trophy hunters, comes to Earth to look for prey but finds himself fighting against the native warriors of the Comanche tribe. How can an indigenous civilization with primitive weapons take down an alien with high-tech arsenal (though less advanced than previous Predators)? It’s a killer idea that only baffles me with how it’s taken this long for them to come up with it.

Opposite the Predator is Naru (Amber Midthunder), a female Comanche warrior who’s eager to prove herself capable of hunting for the tribe, so she often tags along in the hunting party of her brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers). As expected, she gets teased by the other men in the tribe, telling her hunting is not a woman’s role. But Naru is definitely more capable and much smarter than the rest of them. While tracking a lion, she proposes setting up bait to lure it in, instead of uselessly hunting for it all night. She’s also the first one to discover that an unknown creature is walking among them (perhaps the weird lights in the sky is a dead giveaway), to which others dismiss as just childhood stories. Meanwhile, the Predator makes his way up the food chain, killing known hunters in the animal kingdom and taking their skulls as trophies. There’s not much mystique to the Predator anymore after five movies, but Prey delivers a worthy introduction of this character for a new audience.

Dan Trachtenberg’s tight direction takes this film to a new level of violence never before seen in the series. The Predator fights and hunts a variety of creatures, with each kill getting more gnarly than the last. The fight scene with a grizzly bear is particularly awesome as it’s the first full look at how ruthless the Predator can be from Naru’s point of view, and him lifting up the bear afterwards to drink the outpouring of its blood from a fresh kill paints a memorable gory visual, much to the horror of our protagonist. But only when the the Predator starts fighting the humans that he truly becomes unleashed. Heads get smashed and limbs are chopped off as he downright slaughters his way around for sport, which is enjoyable to watch.

It’s mighty impressive to see such a genuinely refreshing take on a franchise that seems to have done everything. Seeing an entire cast of Native Americans be front and center in a high-profile franchise is a big win for representation, bucking the usual trend for this type of movies. Instead of the presenting the same tired macho commandos archetypes, a female native warrior using primitive weapons and her own ingenuity to take down the Predator surprisingly works well and offers so much potential for the series. Amber Midthunder’s Naru carries this film all the way, and deserves to be in the same spotlight of tough characters as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch from the original.

Prey is the worthy addition this franchise has been gunning for a long time. It’s a big shame that this film went straight to Hulu streaming, as the breathtaking landscapes of Alberta, the unrelenting brutality of its action sequences, and the overall striking visuals of cinematographer Jeff Cutter all demand a big screen viewing. But with the recent news of cancellations left and right of various properties, I’m just glad we got to see this one way or another.

Rating: ★★★½