Aliens Vs. Predator - Requiem (DVD, 2008, 2-Disc Set, Special Edition)

ALIEN VS. PREDATOR relegated its intergalactic grudge match to Antarctica, keeping most of humankind gleefully ignorant. This time around, though, the destruction takes place in suburban America, and those who have been waiting for it finally get to witness facehuggers, alien hybrids, and the dreadlocked Predator wreak some homeland havoc. Directors Colin and Greg Strause (billed as "The Brothers Strause") don't seem concerned with achieving the tension of the original ALIEN and PREDATOR films, instead using their visual effects backgrounds to create a steady stream of monsters, gore, and goo. Picking up where AVP ended, REQUIEM sees Predator on a homebound spacecraft when a baby alien/Predator hybrid bursts from his chest, causing the ship to crash in the Colorado woods. Several facehugger specimens escape, planting eggs down the throats of a hunter and his son. Soon, baby aliens emerge from their bodies and head for town, where ex-con Dallas (Steven Pasquale), Iraq War vet Kelly (Reiko Aylesworth), pizza delivery boy Ricky (Johnny Lewis), high school heartthrob Jesse (Kristen Hager), and sheriff Morales (John Ortiz) have their own separate encounters with the creatures. The dead Predator's home planet receives a transmission of the alien outbreak, and a fellow denizen of his world is dispatched to clean up the multiplying aliens, eventually causing enough death and destruction for government intervention. This is essentially a slasher film (or FREDDY VS. JASON with aliens), and the characters in REQUIEM are secondary to the creature effects. Fans of the comic books and videogames will appreciate the Strauses‘ adherence to the lore of the series, but others will probably just find thrills in the copious special effects, which are frequent and well-done (if often occurring in darkness). There is also a significant amount of indiscriminant gore in this rightfully R-rated film. A government conspiracy plot thread and an ambiguous ending ensure that this battle isn't over yet.