Primale

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.

This had good written all over it and then the characters started to interact. Unfortunately these morons had to speak and ruin the movie. First there is the "Sensitive" guy. God, I hate Sensitive Guy. The "Group of Friends" movie genre is a hit or miss proposition. This one swung and missed, not because of the story or the horror effects and not even the acting itself, no, it lost its way simply because of dialogue and character. Take for instance the "Sensitive Guy". This moron was so far out of touch with reality that it made me think he was some Hollywood stereotype of a chick. Trust me, listen to this guy when the crap hits the fan and a decision has to be made. Sure, sensitive people will say that he was just heartbroken, therefor his decisions were off. Bullcrap! He goes from delusional to self righteous in zero point five seconds. I don't know which one was worse. Fightine, bickering, back stabbing and overly sensitive adults. The ultimate failure of a group movie. I've never understood the whole idea of packing five or six people in an SUV and then have them fight for the better part of an hour. It pisses me off. I understand human nature and people packed into an SUV for hours, yeah, someone is going to get cranky and some bickering will ensue. But petty squabbling the entire movie? Yuck. If it weren't for the characters I would have put this in the 7 range for horror and bloodshed.

This is a classic 'take your friends to the woods and kill them' first-time horror movie, but it's so much better than other similar movies that it deserves a watch.

First, I want to commend the outstanding lighting. I can't remember a better lighted movie. Every scene is just as dark or as bright as it needs to be, you're never confused about who is where or what is what. If you're a student of lighting or cinematography, especially if you want to make horror, this is a mandatory watch.

The cinematography is also very good throughout, never betraying a budget, as are the effects. The director holds his cast through what must have been a fairly frustrating shoot for some of the actors (you get to wear blood makeup for 3/4's of the movie! We're nowhere near a shower!). This is a professional movie, and I couldn't tell if it was made for 1 million or 10.

The writing is well above par for this type of movie. There is a character who makes decisions that are very frustrating for the viewer and freezes more than you want him to, but that is good writing, not bad as some reviewers have complained. You get a feeling from the script that these people know each other and have relationships deeper than what you see. The plot moves along at a nice clip, and the comedy comes at the right moments to relieve tension and is genuinely funny. The last line works in a special kind of way where it's predictable, you want it said, and yet it brings a smile to your lips when it is said.

One more thing, the gore is pretty normal for the whole movie, but the ending turns to a couple of concepts that definitely pushed me past my comfort zone and made me feel very squeamish. While most of the movie is horror of the jump-scare sort or the tension sort, the last few minutes get to some psychological horror that is genuinely disturbing. It felt scary and squidgy at the time, but it was appropriate and elevated the movie past a basic type of horror movie.

Hokay, so I'm giving this a 10 because it seems horribly low-rated to me. I think the movie did everything it set out to do, is scary, funny, and fun in parts, and feels like a complete piece. It gets a lot of average ratings but it doesn't feel like an average film. I see that a lot of people dislike the ending, but I'm not sure what they wanted/expected. The script went where it wanted to go. The ending ramps up the gore and is all but certain to shock you. Definitely worth a watch for yourself to see if you agree with them or me.

Written, directed and produced by Josh Reed, Primal may seem like your typical violent monster / slasher flick, but in following formula the film did turn out to be rather enjoyable, if not cliché, but it worked. The opening scene some 12000 years ago gives us the premise where a caveman tries to communicate the presence of an unknown beast, only to be devoured very quickly before fast forwarding to today, with 6 travelling friends on a road trip to that exact same location for a camp and a hike.

The film takes the first 30 minutes to cue us in on the characters, given that with an ensemble, we expect certain molds to be adopted. For instance, there's always the ditzy, loud mouthed and slutty blonde (Krew Boylan) who's in the trip for some forest romp with studious looking boyfriend Chad (Lindsay Farris), who had enough when she starts to openly flirt with the alpha male of the group, Dace (Wil Traval), who's take away from the trip is the mysterious painting seen in the opening shot. Throw in the others like the group joker Warren (Damien Freeleagus), simple follower Kris (Rebekah Foord) and the one whom you know is more than meets the eye given the token phobia she must overcome at some point (Anja, played by Zoe Tuckwell-Smith), you have the requisite group for one heck of a monster attack.

I would liken the genre as an opportunity to study character dynamics and behaviours when placed under extremely stressful situations, such as the tendency for some to talk a lot without action, or to arrow others to perform various dirty-work What more, it gets interesting because the great unknown happens to be manifested into one of their own, so existential questions get called into the picture, especially when one gets transformed into a blood lusting beast with plenty of fang-like teeth replacing the human ones, extreme dexterity (an ability that varies its effectiveness from time to time) and a nasty violent temper, coupled with some nasty makeup to complete the revolting look set to strike fear.

There's the decision to play who lives and who dies, and as the audience you get roped in, based on past experience in similar genre films, to play guess who's next, as we listen in on all the bickering and disagreements, plus the warning signs that the characters themselves fail to heed. Of course these disagreements get chopped down to manageable size when the body count increases, and part of the guilty fun is to identify and apply genre clichés over the film and see if they still hold water. Most do.

For those into bloody gore, there are enough moments in Primal that are graphic enough to make you squirm, since the acts of violence are unflinching. The story gets built up quite nicely into the last hurrah, where unfortunately some really raw looking special effects set in a cave drew unnecessary attention to itself, and marred the experience of the crescendo carefully crafted.

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.