Shortfilm Review: PREDATOR: DARK AGES

It's been almost a year since filmmaker James Bushe launched crowdfunding for his own inspired take on the hugely successful sci-fi property, Predator. The film franchise itself remains ever more popular with a reboot on the way and clearly the fandom is still there, specifically from Bushe who is now on the verge of finally unleashing a world of pain and death all his own with the new short, Predator: Dark Ages.

The film takes off and lands viewers straight into Middle-Age madness as Thomas (Adrian Bouchet), a war-torn templar knight and his men arrive to a camp in England as ordered by the Archbishop to regroup and strategize against a possibly more dangerous force of evil. The camp's priest implures Marshall to bring Sied (Amed Hashimi), a middle-Eastern scholar, along as a consultant despite the two sharing different, warring religious ideologies, but all, except for Sied as a first hand witness, know nothing about the enemy they are hunting. Hidden in plain sight and heavily-armed, the Predator is ready to take them out one-by-one, until one is left standing.

As far as shortfilms ago, Bushe's installment tells a great story in perfect adherance to the formula so often used in most of the previous films - a group of people left to the elements with nothing but their weapons and their will to survive against a mysterious killer whose prowess extends far beyond that of normal men. For an independently-produced project, that's pretty much all anyone can ask for from directors who take interest in franchises of this nature, on top of great visual and practical effects, brutish action with broadswords clashing, and a ferocious costume that gets every inch of our title character just right from top-to-bottom, weapons, demeanor and then some.

The Dark Ages, said to be an era of unwritten history full of war, famine and suffering, was perfect setting for Bushe to tell his story with our alien hunter at the very center of the bloodshed. And frankly speaking, you have a right to be pissed that Hollywood hasn't completely taken notice - I guess this is why Predator: Dark Ages has gotten so much great press in the past year. Something this good should never be passed up.

On that note, lucky comic-con attendees in the U.K. will be wise not to pass this gem up upon their visit when the shortfilm premieres this weekend at the London Film & Comic-Con in London. In the meantime, the campaign is circulating some neat banner artwork to accompany its premiere before publicly releasing online this week.

Take a look below, and if it comes out on Monday, it would service you best to stay tuned for the weekly Hit List by then.