The Primevals

Needless to say that I had actually never heard about this 2023 movie titled "The Primevals" prior to sitting down to watch it. But I have to say that I actually found the movie's cover to be cheesy enough to catch my attention. And with it being a movie that I had never even heard about, of course I opted to sit down and watch it.

And with it being a Full Moon Features movie, I figured that chance would be that the movie wouldn't be a complete waste of time, as they regularly do put out something enjoyable and entertaining.

The storyline was actually fair, with some major nods towards the old classic adventures of the 1950s. I have to admit that I was actually enjoying "The Primevals". Writers David Allen and Randall William Cook put together something that proved to be entertaining and enjoyable, with elements of sci-fi and adventure mixed together.

I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list, which is something that I do actually enjoy when I sit down to watch a movie. It should be said, though, that the acting performances were fair.

The effects in the movie were fair, but keep in mind that the Yeti and the reptilian creatures are brought to life by stop-animation motion capture, so it looks somewhat out of place and awkward.

My rating of director David Allen's 2023 movie "The Primevals" lands on a six out of ten stars.

In 1978, the film magazine Cinefantastique ran a cover story on an upcoming SF movie, The Primevals, then in preproduction. The Primevals, an ambitious effort on a modest budget, was intended as a showcase for stop-motion animation.

I was in college at the time, and as an animation fan I was pretty excited about seeing this movie. As it turned out, I had to wait just a little longer than expected. Forty-six years, to be exact. It never occurred to me that I'd be nearly eligible for Social Security before The Primevals finally came out.

You see, the initial effort to make the movie fizzled. It was revived in 1994, when the live action and some of the effects were shot. Then the studio behind the project went bankrupt, and the movie, still in post-production, was shelved. It remained in limbo for decades until producer Charles Band and effects expert Chris Endicott worked out a plan to finish it. By that time, the film's guiding light, animator-writer-director David Allen, was long gone, having died of cancer in 1999.

With a new crew of animators, newly repaired or entirely refashioned models, and digital composites instead of back projection, The Primevals finally completed its remaining effects shots (or all the essential ones, anyway; the plot was slightly streamlined as a cost-cutting measure).

As of June, 2024, the movie has been released to streaming services. I watched it last night. As I expected, it often betrays its humble origins, with uneven performances and an overall "1980s TV" quality, which is especially noticeable in the overbright and rather flat lighting. Nevertheless, given the budget and the technology, it's an impressive piece of work - and obviously a labor of love for the creators. Allen and his colleagues made a real effort to elevate the stop-motion genre, eschewing dinosaurs and mythological creatures in favor of a more complex scenario involving alien contact and directed evolution. They also worked hard to integrate the stop-motion elements into the story in a natural way, rather than using them as standalone set pieces, as was too often the case.

The irony is that after all this time, The Primevals can no longer serve its intended purpose as proof of the viability of hand-crafted animation effects in a digital world. That ship has sailed. Instead, the movie will likely go down as the last live-action feature film to use stop-motion creatures in a big way. It's probably not the legacy Dave Allen wanted, but it does assure him of a small place in movie history. And it's a great gift for stop-motion fans like me.

Kudos to Endicott, Band, and their associates for making The Primevals a reality - finally!

After the discovery in the high Himalayas of what appears to be a Yeti specimen, he's been sent back to the United States for research. Leading the investigation is noted anthropologist Claire Colller (Juliet Mills of Billy Wilder's Avanti!) who decides to organize an expedition to the Himalayas. Collier teams up with Mat Connor (Richard Joseph Paul), a former student of her class and famous writer, Rondo Montana (Leon Russom) , an ex-big game hunter, and Kathleen Reidel (Walker Brandt) , another one of Collier's former students and the guide (Tai Thai) for their journey. Through dangerous paths, they suddenly arrive in a lost world in which they will discover an amazing and hidden crater inhabited by prehistoric creatures, primitive hominids and alien reptiles. They then are captured by aliens and are judged and condemned to death penalty. A Civilization Lost in Time... Invaded One Million Years Ago !. Journey to a hidden valley of incredible splendor and unbelievable terror... where the future and the past battle for the present !.

This fantasy picture gets action, adventures, derring-do, amusing images and breathtaking landscapes . Colorful atmosphere in this entertaining story in which with tension and adventure are maintained throughout. Splendid cinematography by cameraman Adolfo Bartoli showing marvellous outdoors and abound matte painting, including enjoyable special effects by specialist Dave Allen, and a nice production design too. Two decades after the death of the expert FX artist David Allen, this peculiar project was born; an imaginative story of adventure and science fiction in the purest style of the 60s and 70s. Allen, a Stop Motion specialist, responsible for the effects of films such as ¨Howling¨, ¨Young Sherlock Holmes¨ and ¨Willow¨attempted since the 1960s to make this film, to which he dedicated hours and hours of work until his premature death in 1999. After his death, the storyboards, puppets and other elements of the project passed to his work colleague Chris Endicott, who completed it, and finally almost 25 years later, ¨The Primevals¨ was released.

It contains traditional special effects by means of stop-motion, in the wake of Ray Harryhausen; in fact, there's a spectacular fight between Yeti and alien creatures. In addition, a rousing and spectacular musical score by Richard Band, 'Full Moon' and 'Empire' regular composer. The impressive and majestic soundtrack is one of the film's greatest assets. The motion picture was professionally directed by late Dave Allen and produced by Full Moon Features. The latter was a B-production company, owner Albert Band; he was one of Hollywood's most prolific directors who started his career in the early 50s and continuing the legacy, his son, the equally prolific producer/director Charles Band. Albert Band began financing a number of motion pictures through the sixties, seventies, and eighties decades and helped his son, Charles, to bring together his own production company, 'Empire Pictures', in the early eighties. Upon the collapse of Empire Pictures in the early nineties, Band continued to work with his son and help bring a number of low-budget and medium budget films to the Hollywood screen or direct to video releases. Albert Band directed some Westerns, such as : ¨She came to the Valley¨, ¨Massacre at Grand Canyon¨, ¨The Young Guns¨ and ¨The Tramplers ¨ at his best . Furthermore, he made terror and Sci-fi , such as : ¨Aliens Gone Wild , Prehisteria , Prehisteria 2 , Robot War , Ghoulies II , Satán's Dog¨ and all kind of genres. While his son Charles Band has written/produced/directed a lot of films, such as: ¨The Creeps, Hideous, Dollman vs demonic toys, Puppet master, Crash and burn, Trancers , Trancers II: the return of Jack Deth, Dungeonmaster, Metalstorm: the destruction of Jared Syn, Parasite, The alchemist¨. Rating The Primevals (2023) : 6/10, acceptable and passable fantasy/adventure movie.

Finally we have a Harryhausen´s movie in the 21ts century, in 2024. This is incredeible! The tribute they pay to films like Willis O´ Brian stop motion´s FX in King Kong is fantastic!

Against the CGI, we have animatronics, practical FX, some CGI, but low and a story like Harryhausen´s movies told us. Actors are in a second position in this movie; the really stars are the puppets in stop motion (there is one scene where we can see hundreds of them moving). I never thought we could see again something like this in big screen. The technique of stop motion is incredibly well done. The motion of the puppets and the realism in the mixing with real life caracters is incredibly well done!

The plot and the acting is a little bit hole, I mean we see woodden faces and a poor acting but, what the hell? For a fan of Harryhausen´s movie and a person that is bored with CGI, we have here a great achievement.

This is a movie that Joe Dante, John Landis, Guillermo del Toro, Tarantino and Christopher Nolan would like to see; so if you are one of those crazy people that love the old Sci fi B series or Z series cinema, this is yours! Don´t miss it!

Well done Charles Band, David Allen and company from FULL MOON Features!

7 stars out of 10.

We still enjoy stop motion, both the old ones from the childhood of cinema and the new ones.

Personally, I like stop motion much more than computer special effects because it is more unreal and beautiful.

The most valuable part of the movie "the primevals" is the stop motion, followed by the story, and a bit of Leon Russom.

What bothers me is the cold, emotionless and clumsy performances of the actors (except Leon Russom).

Apparently, among the actors of the primevals, the only one who took the movie seriously was Leon Russom.

At the end of the movie, I wished that all the actors in the movie would be killed (it would be better if I killed them myself) so that the movie would have a pleasant ending.

And for a lovely and childish movie, in today's world of serious movies that hit the human brain like a hammer, I say: Thank you David Allen.