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Australia 2010
Director: Josh Reed
Cast: Krew Boylan, Zoe Tuckwell-Smith, Lindsay Farris, Rebekah Foord, Wil Traval, Damien Freeleagus
Rating: -
Release Date: 25 January 2011 (DVD)
Running Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
The Movie Review
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I know I shouldn't have a high hope over any kind of film which I didn't get informed about it, but this is a horror thriller movie coming from Australia, and that country used to deployed splendid thriller films especially since the era of Australian New Wave. For this evening, Primal is my choice to accompany me, sigh it's a very quiet night and not a single sound to be heard, not even the street hawker selling fried rice or enigmatic birds of the night. Is this the right time to see a horror movie?
Several college students are embarking on a journey to find the rare rock painting in the Australian Outback. Anja (Zoe Tuckwell-Smith), the comedic Warren (Damien Freeleagus), Chad (Lindsay Farris) and his lutsful playful girlfriend Mel (Krew Boylan), Kris (Rebekah Foord) and her boyfriend who's also the most nature-savvy Dace (Wil Traval). And the one who is most interested in this ancient Rock Painting from 12,000 years ago is Dace himself who is trying to make a Doctorate degree out of it. So they are driving to this very remote place where no human soul to be found, not surprising recalling the painting itself has never been seen again by anyone since 12 years ago.
Arriving there, Anja faces claustrophobic difficulty for having to enter a very dark cave that looks like a tunnel, due to she had been locked down in a basement for a week by her abusive ex-boyfriend. But other than that minor problem, basically they are having quite fun time surrounded by nothing but trees and rocks. Little do they know, that there is something ancient and dark residing in that place... What will happen to Anja and her friends?
The first 20 minutes, I was ready to close the night and hit the sack! Heck, I thought that Primal was just another run-of-the-mill slasher movie which I would gladly throw the disc to my neighbor's. Such lame acting, boring characters, and annoying predictable boo scares. But then... it all changes into one awesome thrill ride with enough suspense and surprises in many ways that it does a good job to take away the boredom. Primal changes its course by deploying shocking scenes involving leeches and other gnarly stuff. And this is where it hit me that Primal will deliver something different as it's an accustomed to Aussie cinema and Yes I was once again psyched! :) Hehehe, they often caught me by surprise these Aussie filmmakers!
-- Start of Spoiler Possibility Alert --
Primal is backed by such gripping premise, it's not about an serial killer offing the teenagers one by one, but some kind of virus or bacteria that turns one of the teenagers into one savage creature who has only primal instinct of eating, drinking and copulating! This is where the dilemma strikes the survivor, should they kill their own friend or what?!
By the way, there is one scene involving Killer Rabbit which should've been used many many years ago by the failed movie Night of the Lepus (1972).
-- End of Spoiler Possibility Alert --
The premise of Primal is quite a novelty and it manages to inject new kind of fear and dilemma in its plot. Although I've seen this before in a Smurf Comic book titled Smurf Hitam AKA The Black Smurfs, which was published in Indonesia around the late 80s. Anyhow, on the flip side some scenes sadly look corny and amateurish which probably the result of an over-eager directing. This is why probably Josh Reed should distribute his responsibilities from wearing the hats of Director, Writer, Producer and Editor all at once. It's a good thing he doesn't have an acting role in Primal ;-) Nevertheless, the visual and makeup effects are very good for an indie film, and there's so much about Primal that's pulled off brilliantly, especially concerning the all out performance of Krew Boylan! I would love to give this film more star but some aspects --camerawork and overly enthusiastic screenplay-- hinders Primal from being extraordinary. But even so, I definitely had a good time tonight with Primal and this is another entry from Australia which I truly enjoy.
> Ancient place where you shouldn't be around: The Ruins (2008).
> Australian teenagers in definitely-wrong places for vacation: Wolf Creek (2005) and Black Water (2007).
© iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com
Twitter: @movielogy
posted: Wednesday, 30 November 2011 02:01 am
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