Opposite Pasquale is Reiko Aylesworth as Kelly O’Brien, a military veteran turned suburban mother. Aylesworth, famous for her role as Michelle Dessler on the real-time thriller 24 , brings a tactical intelligence and maternal ferocity to the role. The chemistry between Pasquale and Aylesworth is the film’s secret weapon; they share the weary rapport of two people who have seen violence and want only to shield the next generation from it. Aylesworth’s Kelly is not just a love interest but a capable strategist, and her military training provides the only credible threat to the Xenomorphs aside from the Predator itself. Her performance elevates what could have been a stock character into a believable portrait of a parent pushed to her absolute limit.
The film also benefits from a strong supporting cast of character actors who breathe life into Gunnison before the town is reduced to a slaughterhouse. John Ortiz, as Sheriff Eddie Morales, delivers a performance of tragic futility. Ortiz plays Eddie not as a macho lawman but as a decent, overwhelmed small-town official who is fatally out of his depth. His death scene—realizing the horror he faces—is one of the film’s most affecting moments, precisely because Ortiz sells the sheer, hopeless scale of the threat. Meanwhile, rising star Kristen Hager (later of Being Human fame) plays Jesse, a waitress caught in the crossfire, and she brings a vulnerability that avoids the cliché of the “scream queen.” Her scenes with her love interest, Ricky (Johnny Lewis), provide a slice of teenage normality that makes the subsequent carnage feel genuinely intrusive.
In the pantheon of science-fiction crossovers, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007) holds a peculiar, shadowed place. Directed by the special-effects duo Greg and Colin Strause, the film is often remembered for its notoriously dark cinematography and unrelenting violence. However, beneath the murky visuals and the carnage of its titular creatures lies a crucial, often overlooked element: a cast of human characters who, despite being written as archetypal “monster fodder,” inject a surprising degree of grounded realism into the chaos. The cast of AVP:R is a collection of familiar television faces and promising young actors who commit fully to the grim material, transforming a small-town slasher narrative into a somber elegy for lost innocence.
At the forefront of the human resistance is Steven Pasquale as Dallas Howard (a nod to Alien ’s Dallas, but no relation). Pasquale, best known for his comedic role in the television series Rescue Me , makes a compelling shift to action hero. As an ex-convict recently returned to the fictional town of Gunnison, Colorado, Dallas carries the weight of a man trying to outrun his past. Pasquale plays him with a weary, blue-collar authenticity; he is not a polished soldier but a desperate survivor whose protective instincts kick into overdrive when he discovers he has a young son, Timmy. His performance anchors the film, providing the emotional core that the script often forgets to write. Unlike the stoic marines of Aliens , Pasquale’s Dallas is vulnerable, frightened, and reactive—traits that make his eventual confrontation with the Predator feel earned rather than heroic.
In conclusion, the cast of Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem deserves re-evaluation. Working under the handicap of a script that prioritizes gore over dialogue and a visual style so dark it obscures their physical performances, the actors commit to the reality of their situation. Steven Pasquale, Reiko Aylesworth, and their ensemble do not play soldiers or superheroes; they play electricians, sheriffs, waitresses, and ex-cons—ordinary people for whom the arrival of the galaxy’s deadliest predators is an incomprehensible tragedy. Their genuine terror and stubborn courage provide the small, beating human heart that survives, just barely, in the cold, dark night of Gunnison, Colorado. They remind us that even in a film about dueling monsters, it is the human scream that we remember.
Where the cast truly excels is in its depiction of family dynamics. The character of Timmy (played with naturalistic anxiety by Ariel Gade) and the subplot involving Ricky’s troubled home life with his mother and brother (David Paetkau) ground the alien invasion in domestic reality. Paetkau, recognizable from Final Destination 2 , plays Dale, the bullied older brother whose petty resentments are brutally silenced by the Xenomorphs. This focus on family—flawed, fractured, but ultimately protective—is what separates AVP:R from its predecessor. The cast plays these relationships with complete sincerity, never winking at the camera. When the Predator (portrayed by veteran stuntman Ian Whyte) arrives to clean up the infestation, he becomes less of a hero and more of a grim, natural force colliding with the fragile human world.