Primal

I managed to watch this film on DVD last week and i found it to be a pretty good horror film actually. The story is about a girl called Anja and her five friends who join with this other student called Dace who happens to study anthropology. They decide to go on a journey to study a ancient type of rock painting. But soon after one of their friends called Mel wants to go swimming in this lake as it is nighttime, soon after getting out of the lake Mel finds herself covered in leaches she starts screaming for the others to try and get them off of her body. Eventually they manage to get her back to their tents and is given a bottle of water to drink. But suddenly she begins to bleed very badly. Soon after she begins to physically turn into to a vicious predatory look. So Mels lover and friends begin to realise that they are going to be the prey that she wants to attack, so she starts to begin to hunt them down. I found it to be a very gory film, but i enjoyed watching it very much 5/10

This movie is watchable but it has the typical character in horror movies that angers you more than the protagonist. If I had to kill a monster or Chad then Chad has got to go and when you watch this I am sure you are likely to feel the same. But overall, this movie is decent enough to sit through without getting bored and turning it off. It has many clichés that you would expect from this type of film, stranded in the middle of nowhere whilst being picked off one by one. If you are expecting a great, unforgettable flick then you'll be disappointed but let's be real, you aren't going to go in to watching this with high expectations.

In horror movie terms, Primal is nothing new or original. It follows a very predictable path of the whole "young people camping in the woods with a monster" story. The characters are fairly predictable, as is the ultimate ending.

What makes Primal stand out, though, is, aside from the Australian Outback setting, the monster itself. Sure, the general idea is pretty standard, but the actual character of the monster is one that, at least for me, is new and exciting. Definitely pulling from the name of the film, the monster is very animalistic in its movements and behavior, but what was most exciting is the bridge between man and beast that it creates. This is perhaps the most terrifying part of the entire movie; the hinting of ourselves from, relatively speaking, not that long ago.

Sadly, all of the tension, thrill, and the interest of our primal selves completely falls apart in the last twenty minutes or so, as it seems that the filmmakers blew their budget, in terms of both money and creativity, as we get a terrible and confusing climax full of horrible (especially by 2010 standards) CGI which hurls us through the wormhole (you'll see) to the expected, but not entirely bad, conclusion.

Oh, and one of the best, and most Aussie, ending lines to any movie.

Formulaic B-movie horror flick about a group of 20-somethings that venture into the Australian wilderness with their anthropologist friend, Dace (played the very buff and very sexy Wil Traval), to study an ancient cave painting. It's paced well and it's not too long into the movie that Chad's free-spirited girlfriend, Mel, begins a horrific transformation into a frenzied predator that stalks them one by one.

For the gorehounds, there are rocks bashing heads in, teeth falling out, flesh ripping, cannibalism, and much more. Veteran horror fans, it's nothing you haven't witnessed before. The film borders on cheesy but, I have to be honest, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie until the last 20 minutes or so, when the special effects department decided to throw in some hokey CGI and a bizarre attempted impregnation scene between Anja and a seven foot cave-dwelling slug.

Primal isn't so much scary as it is intense. There are quite a few white knuckle moments, as well as a couple of holy sh*t, what the hell was that scenes that will stun and amuse you. It's almost devoid of gratuitous nudity since Mel's transformation from cute blond chick to ravenous killer with three inch fangs happens fairly quickly (sorry, men).

Definitely not recommended to the squeamish type or the casual viewer. If you liked movies like Cabin Fever and The Ruins, you may get a kick out of this return to Ozploitation from writer/director, Josh Reed.

I mostly hate those so-called 'slasher flicks' which feature a group of witless, narcissistic and dim-witted teenagers (or vapid 20 somethings) who go out into the woods and are picked off one by one by either a madman seeking vengeance or some restless supernatural entity. This one pretty much follows the formula except it's a rather good example of the genre. The acting isn't that bad and the pacing is really good. The campers all have distinct characters. Once you accept the premise that some kind of supernatural virus is on the loose in an isolated part the Outback which turns people into carnivorous predators you can watch the group try to work together to survive. Sometimes they get hysterical, and sometimes they do really stupid things but sometimes they actually make intelligent moves. In any case I was entertained.