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Indonesia 1978
Director: Sisworo Gautama Putra
Cast: Barry Prima, Enny Haryono, Johan Mardjono, Rukman Herman, Jaffar Free York, Boy Anzai
Rating: Dewasa (Adult)
Language: Bahasa Indonesia
VCD Quality: Poor/Decent/Excellent
Release Date: 1978; 12 December 2007 (Censorhip)
Running Length: 1 hour 15 minutes 38 seconds
The Movie Review
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PRIMITIF
( Primitives ) |
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Have you ever had one of those moments when you're still a cute little kid while going through the allies in a video store and bumped into one ugly nasty freakin' lookin' video? No? Well mine was pretty daunting and unforgettable, instead bumped into some gorgeous girl lost in the chick-flick section, I found one movie that's particularly despicable and unbelievably produced for its own sake..., Cannibal Holocaust. One movie that's up until my adult life, I still need to take a deep breath before finally watching it. Surprise, surprise! There is actually one movie from Indonesia that shares the same theme of cannibalistic but it even preceded Cannibal Holocaust by 2 years, yup it's Primitif or in its alternative titles are "Primitives", "Savage Terror", "L'île de l'enfer cannibales", "Der Todesschrei der Kannibalen" and "Les Primitifs".
Primitif was released during the Cannibal Boom in the late 70s and early 80s after the world saw how shocking (and entertaining?) cannibal-exploitation movies could be with the advent of Man of Deep River Savages in 1972, and consecutively followed by Last Cannibal World in 1977, the famously infamous Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals in 1977 which was headlined by Exploitation queen from Indonesia Laura Gemser, The Mountain of the Cannibal God in 1978 and Papaya dei Caraibi or Papaya Love Goddess of the Cannibals (which also featured Laura Gemser). This cannibal boom era were also ornamented by other loosely-related cannibal horror movies such as Cannibal Girls (1973), Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977). And speaking about Laura Gemser who's from Indonesia? Yes that's true, and if you are curious about this famous Black Emanuelle, a bit more on her later on the trivia section below.
Primitif, however although skips the title as 'The Copycat' of Cannibal Holocaust, Cannibal Ferox and Natura Conto, still most of the storyline and side story are closely resembled to those in Last Cannibal World or The Mountain of the Cannibal God. But probably to the filmmakers' defense, who's best to portray the natives in their country besides the fellow countrymen, as oppose to other cannibal-filmmakers who exploited the natives of other countries.
Primitif starts with a scene of several college students on a boat on their way to Pangayan, in Indonesia. They are Amri (Barry Prima), the hot Rika (Enny Haryono) and the geek Tommy (Johan Mardjono). Accompanied by a tough guide named Bisma (Rukman Herman) and a native named Lahang (Jaffar Free York) they are on a mission to develop their knowledge in antrophology. When they finally arrive at their initially-planned destination, the village of Pangayan, these hot-blooded young people are dissatisfied with the lacks of adventure in their journey and challenge Bisma to take them further to the more isolated region where it's verbally forbidden to enter, especially for the city folks.
No pain, no gain, that's what they probably think and hop they go. Alas their raft (rakit) is capsized and leaves them separated with Bisma and Tommy are on their own and Rika is lucky enough to be able to team up again with Amri and Lahang. Amri and the group then starts to seek for a shelter, walking through the dense forests facing and avoiding many carnivorous creatures it houses, until they finally finds the remnants of what seemingly a professor who was searching for the lost gold. Blinded by the dream of gold, Amri changes his mission to finding this lost gold and he forces the group to go even deeper. Bad decision he makes, for Amri, Rika and Lahang finally encounters the missing stone-age Cannibal Tribe who are more than wickedly curious to find people entirely unique to their perspective. Amri and Rika are now in their hands, helpless to be the subjects to the cannibals' curiosity...What will befall upon them? And what happens to Bisma and Tommy? Will they ever get back to the civilization alive?
Fans of Exploitation movies are getting what they are hoping for, if and only if the year is 1978 and not 2009. Thanks to (yeah right) LSF (Censorship Film Board) who butchered the exploitative ingredients scattered in respective scenes of Primitif, just so that we could get a decent horror film which I have to cynically add that Primitif is more like a Tarzan movie instead of a Cannibal one. But I have mentioned before on the front page of Movielogy.com that LSF should have reconsidered their decision, why? Because strangely enough that we could still watch several things that are truly heartless and cruel such as Animal slayings of snakes and crocodiles with full close ups shots devoid of any censorship and on the other hand, no nudity could be found anywhere? I'm not a prude, but I'll say, nudity is better (much better) than real animal slayings right? Especially if the animals managed to stay alive during the unnecessary ordeal for the sake of Entertainment.
And back to the ingredients, well we got almost nude Enny Haryono, the aforementioned gutted crocodile, real snake munching, laboring process with a baby covered in blood, raw meat eating, video footages of animal carnivorous acts which are inserted to spice up the story and it won't be complete without the punishment a la native cannibal which is castration. And back to the gutted crocodile, the reason why I hate this particular scene is that I highly doubt that the Indonesian prosthetic and visual effects technique at that time were able to make those things up, but if I'm wrong, my apologies.
What makes me wonder, is that Primitives or Savage Terror was written by a prominent and admittedly talented screenwriter/director mr. Imam Tantowi. The man who would later directed epic movies such as Pasukan Berani Mati and of course Saur Sepuh the series, even though you could still see some gory scenes in Saur Sepuh similar to the one we find in Primitif.
And technically speaking, the picture quality of Primitif is simply awful, especially compared to Cannibal Holocaust or Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals where the video is crystal-clear, too bad a classic film like this should be released poorly. The sound though is almost unblemished, but since Cannibal movies are relying much on shocking graphic elements, then the sound doesn't add much to the pleasure of watching this horror film.
And so to conclude this article, Primitif in a nutshell is one part jungle adventure and one part cannibalistic-themed exploitation. It's been 31 years now, a long time span that we moviegoers should have seen several successors (aka sequels/spin-offs) but until now, all we could see from Indonesian movies are the same old Long-haired-pale-face-white-dressed supernaturally-unnatural-anymore female ghosts. I must say that I'm not proud with the presence of Primitif, but at the same time knowing that Primitif even preceded the big names such Cannibal Holocaust intrigue my emotion to announce this movie to the world. If you're wondering how classic Indonesian horror movie (which doesn't involve supernatural or the late legend Suzanna in it) would be like, better check this one out.
* Page 2 : Primitif Complete Credits
* Page 3 : Primitif Fun Movielogy GIFs & International Posters and Covers
* Page 4 : Primitif Mini Trivia
* Page 5 : Primitif Memorable Quotes
© iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com
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