Primal Rage

Lets start with the bad. I really don't see why writers seem to think making key and peripheral characters, mostly unlikable, is a good thing in the context of a survivalist horror? After all if you can't empathise with the characters predicament, how can you genuinely feel afraid for them when things turn sour? Its a mistake I see again and again.

I think too, the decision to introduce the creature stalking them so early in the piece, in its entirety, wasn't well considered either. The sense of the unknown, the half seen or glimpsed adds to the creeping sense of mystery and menace in a poorly lit forest setting.

On the upside the pacing of this film is decent. It builds well as a group of suspect hunters and an unfortunate couple make their way through the woods. The gun ho antics and at times menacing attitudes of the hunters is gradually eroded as they come to realise there is something else lurking in the woods and its by no means friendly.

It leads into some fairly intense action which includes more than its share of blood soaked horror, that reminded me, in a low tech, cave man kind of way, of films like Predator .

In short Primal Rage is a moderately watchable B grade horror flick that's acceptable fare for a slow wet weekend. A 6/10 from me.

Primal Rage: Directed by Patrick Magee and written by Jay Lee and Patrick Magee

It has been a while since my last review. I had to take a bit of a break to recharge my batteries to bring more thoughts on movies that doesn't include the phrase it wasn't the best movie but it wasn't the worst in every single review. I'm so tired of seeing this. You don't have to use this phrase to describe a middle of the road but enjoyable movie. You can say you enjoy the film without justifying it's place in the pantheon of movie placement. I hope that made sense.

This brings us to the movie Primal Rage: The Legend of Oh-Mah or Primal Rage: Bigfoot reborn. This played for one night only in theatres as a Fathom Event. I always find that fascinating when Fathom Events does this with movies that no one has heard of and there are no trailers for it. How does that even work exactly? I understand when they did it with Rob Zombie's 31 and Kevin Smith's Yoga Hosers, both terrible movies with some good qualities. This one though was a very odd what the hell so naturally I set about trying to track it down, trying to track down any reviews for it. Nothing.

But finally I found it and got the chance to watch and what I got was Bigfoot Predator with the witch from Sleepy Hollow thrown in for good measure to add some mystical qualities to the narrative. This movie felt like a hodge podge of elements thrown in there to maximumize the one chance this filmmaker might have to make a movie. It does draw you in a bit but it takes too long to get to the point where the Oh-Mah is hunting them. They run across a large group of hunters with rapey tendencies and they lose their clothes along the way(The main characters that is) in a vain attempt to draw out some vulnerability. Like being hunted by Bigfoot Voorhees wasn't enough.

The performances were okay. I thought the actor who played Max was really one note and nothing felt genuine with him. The actors playing the native Americans fared a bit better but still suffered with dialogue that was forced and robotic from them. That witch character though was straight out of a cartoon and really out of place in this movie. I understood what they were trying to do. They were trying to add more to the story than just surviving the monster in the woods. It would be a better film if they had streamlined everything into what worked.

What worked were the effects. They were top notch. Those deaths are grisly and gory and just excellent stuff. The bigfoot creature is also beautiful and really well done. The effects work are the highlight of this film which makes sense since the director comes from an effects background.

This movie is okay. It is definitely a middle of the road film with too much fat around the edges but it is an enjoyable creature feature. I can't recommend it but if you decide to check it out, it's enjoyable.

This is as good as it gets for the Sasquatch/bigfoot genre with absolutely brilliant practical effects focusing on the bigfoot/witch makeup/design, and very realistic gore detail. The story is somewhat interesting with the native folklore mythology, however isn't totally engrossing overall with some cliche tropes scattered throughout and a dialogue that is truly awful. However what this film focuses on perfectly are the ominous visuals and the unrelenting brutality, and it honestly looks better and more believable than most big budget horror films doused in oversaturated cgi, which makes this even more of an accomplishment due to its low budget. There are several Predator homages/influences but i don't see them as being ripoffs like some have stated. The acting is pretty mediocre on all fronts but thats kind of to be expected as a secondary aspect of a film of this nature. Overall if you enjoy bigfoot/sasqautch material at all, and appreciate practical make up/effects, this is a must see. I also recommend a 2014 bigfoot film called Exists which is also pretty solid though not as good as this.

The director is the man behind the special effects of Spiderman, Jurassic Park, Death Sentence, Alien vs Predator.

So obviously there gonna be some good kills n yes the kill scenes are the dominating factor. The Sasquatch when it opens up its jaw looks more like Predator.

The character development is good n the cinematography is striking. The wide shots of the forest, the road n the river, are all striking. Thankfully none of the kill scenes r shot in the dark.

Coming to the bad things, initially when the couple is standing out of the car to see the injured man, the lead actor is hit by some stones n he falls into the river. After being rescued by his wife, our guy forgets everything about the pelting stones. Maybe temporary amnesia. Lol.

During the kill scenes, the big foot spares or misses killing the lead guy n he is being rescued n healed by some witch doctor who looks more scarier.

No background story about the witch.

The sheriff n the guy goes to the forest to rescue our heroine n it takes hell lottuva time for the big foot to fight our guy.

The final confrontation is laughable, our guy fighting the big foot. Lol.

The ending was predictable for me.

I have to disagree with the two reviewers who think this is rubbish , its actually quite a well made film and the special effects / makeup is pretty damn good for a low budget movie - easily Stan Winston level of 80's makeup and monster effects.

Patrick Magee is a name to watch out for as he wrote, produced, directed and did the special effects - usually I would cringe at that as no one ever can do all these things well and it usually means the film is going to be utter pants but i was wrong on this occasion - You can clearly see that the guy is actually interested in making horror and seems to like the werewolf genre - well done sir!

Hollywood should give this guy a blockbuster to direct and I bet he would make a better movie than any of the big names are doing now having just watched the awful Jurassic World and the rest of the duff movies coming out of Hollywood this year!

The problem the film has though is the poor acting and it is just not very scary.

I did like the addition of the old mediaeval hag/witch - very unusual and seemingly out of place as was the Indian hunter lol but it gave us a few laughs which is not a bad thing these days.

If you are into your horror in a big way then this will pass an evening but its just not very scary even though the gore quotient is quite high and well done - loved the chin ripping move; only seen that once or twice before and quite gory but as I said its just not scary and that's what kills the film and leaves it in the 5/10 average shelf! Its such a shame as Patrick Magee seems to have a high level of talent judging by his first movie!