Primal Rage

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.

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!

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.

Puzzled at the 1 and 2 star reviews. What did you expect? This a good throw-back creature feature with some really decent gore. Yeah, its a guy in a gorilla suit and the ending resembles Predator 1&2....so what? Sit back and enjoy some mindless entertainment.

I'm not going to pretend this movie was exactly original, the formula has been done over and over for decades at this point. A couple finds themselves stranded and hunted by a dangerous predator, but there was a twist that's not normally seen in a creature feature like this. It's sort of a mash up of "Predator" meets Big Foot meets Native American folk lore.

The plot synopsis is exactly what you get in this movie, so there's no real point in going in to too much detail. A couple gets stranded in the woods, there's some dealings with weird redneck locals, and a monster. That's the movie. As others have stated, the acting isn't really all that great either.

Now why did I rate it a 6? Because it has some really good special effects gore. No CGI, real old fashioned special effects, which is always nice to see. Also I like the twist on the monster, it's not just a mindless beast, but a cunning, plotting, and motivated by pure hate and evil. Also the leading actress is really attractive so that's a plus, no nudity though.

If you're looking for a gore filled creature feature then this is for you.