Primal

I first saw this a decade ago on a dvd which I own. Revisited it recently.

I enjoyed this film as it is a fast paced horror with lots of gore, creepy moments n some truly good effects.

I found it to be better than Cabin Fever.

A group of friends travel to the Australian outback where one of em wants to study ancient symbols placed outside a mysterious cave. They come across n kill a mutated rabbit with pointed teeth.

At nite one of the girl goes skinny dipping into a pond and afterwards she starts mutating with pointed sharp teeth, enormous strength and hunger for flesh.

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.

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 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.

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.