Primal (2010)

Review by Sean Patterson



"We don't have rabies in Australia."
Three couples strike out into the outback in search of ancient cave paintings. They find the glyphs easily enough, but discover too late that they are a warning...
But a warning against what? I already find it hard to believe Australia's wildlife has failed to tank the country's tourist industry. But the twenty-somethings in Primal are not up against the deadly spiders and snakes that are all too frighteningly real. They've stumbled onto something even worse, something I, having seen the movie, can't even describe.
That's not to say I found the movie incomprehensible. Quite the opposite. Most of the film is a battle against a single fast-zombie with Nosferatu teeth. It's only at the end, when the real power behind the creepy forest is revealed, that things become weird.
Primal is a good example of solid movie making. Writer/director Josh Reed has done a wonderful job of pulling together many disparate threads into an enjoyable mash-up of horror sub-genres. I would definitely like to see more from him in the future.
Reed proves decisively that he can write a screenplay. Characters in slasher films are too often one-dimensional or incredibly cliche. The campers in Primal all have their quirks and are believable as a group of friends. Of course, they could simply be Australian cliches that I'm not familiar with. All I know of Australians is, admittedly, based on The Road Warrior and Young Einstein. I doubt it though, since the dialogue is both darkly humorous and natural. Even the ending one-liner is a nice callback to an early joke.
The good writing isn't limited to tight dialogue and characterization. The plotting and pacing in the film is excellent as well. The first half hour of the movie is a slow suspense build. What will usher in the horrors the unsubtle music portends? The spooky cave near the paintings? The tiny bugs that eat through tents and tires? The mutant rabbits? The leeches in the water? I won't tell, but it doesn't matter anyway, since the movie abruptly shifts gears near the middle, flooring the pedal and never letting up on the tension for the rest of the movie.
All of the actors do a very good job with their roles, even the ones who have to act like caveman zombies. They somehow walk that narrow edge that is so important for successful horror characters, taking their characters seriously while not letting the inherently ridiculous situations they are in make them look too ridiculous themselves.
The movie chooses suspense over special effects, making the CGI near the end seem very out of place. The lighting is beautiful in the way firelight and sunlight through a forest canopy usually are. The makeup is nice and bloody, and one of the characters near the end looks like she has actually been through the events in the movie. The zombie teeth look very nasty and the entrails are very intestiny.
Primal wasn't what I expected, but it was a fun movie that I enjoyed, all the way to the bizarre, yet satisfying ending.
6/10