Post by Mr.HoRrOr on Aug 10, 2011 12:41:20 GMT -5
Plot:12,000 years ago, the surviving members of a decimated aboriginal tribe perform a sacred ritual to bind an ancient evil that has infiltrated their tribal land. As the carnage ensues, an artist paints the story of their demise on a nearby rock face, warning of the dangers interred within.
The Present: Anja, a young university student, and four friends accompany Dace, an anthropology major, on a journey in search of the now legendary rock painting. The only evidence of its existence is the diary of a pioneer who saw the painting over one hundred years ago, before going mad and murdering his family.
Their excitement on finding the painting is soon undercut by disquiet as one of them, Mel, becomes delirious after skinny-dipping in the nearby billabong. Her condition rapidly worsens, and she regresses to a predatory, primal state and viciously attacks her friends.
The group is strained to breaking point as their trip fast becomes a desperate fight for survival. When Anja discovers that a nearby tunnel may harbour their only hope for escape she inadvertently draws closer to a final confrontation with the evil deep within the mountain.
Cast:
Krew Boylan
Zoe Tuckwell-Smith
Wil Traval
Lindsay Farris
My Thoughts:Good blood and gore flick!
Review:"Primal", an Aussie horror movie, follows a group of friends who head off on a journey to find an aborigine rock painting. The journey, is an attempt to gather intelligence for the character Dace's anthropology major project. The movies opening scene though, shows us that something beasty and evil roams this area. And when the group of friends arrive there, their nightmare is set to begin! One of the things I liked about "Primal" was it's lack of predictability and clichedness.
The film doesn't unfold at all like one would think it would or should. At the same time, it presents a story that is intriguing and creepy in some areas. While filling in the gaps with blood, gore, graphic attacks, and some black humor too. Basically, the group comes under attack from an ancient evil that resides near the rocks where the aborigine paintings sit. But this isn't a movie where strange voices call out to people from the woods. And they wrecklessly and stupidly follow them to their death.
Or some creepy guy manages to infiltrate the group, and turns out later on...he's a serial killer. No, this movie tries to be a whole lot more original than that. And succeeds with flying colors. The trouble begins when a mutant rabbit attacks one member of the group. Short work is made of the killer-cannibal-bunny, but this is just a taste of what's to come. Soon afterwards...one of the girls of the group, goes skinny dipping in a nearby pond. Once she's out, and the group retires for the night...the skinny-dip girl falls ill. Which is the coolest part of the movie in fact.
The ancient evil works as a sort of viral infection. But the film makes sure to avoid the old American horror film trick of having the infected person slowly, and gradually undergo physical, emotional, and mental as well as personality changes. Until around act 3, they've fully morphed into something..."else". Something terrifying. This girls change happens very quickly. She starts oozing blood from her mouth, breaking into a sweat, and her teeth begin to fall out. Why the teeth?
Well, that's because she's growing NEW TEETH! Sharp, long, razor-like teeth! Before you know it, the change is complete, and by morning...she's become some sort of raging, primal-like flesh-craving jungle beast. But not a zombie persay, instead...a cannibalistic killer of sorts! The friends of course, are terrified by this turn of events. Especially when she takes a huge bite out of one of them. But to make matters worse, skinny-dip girls change has also given her incredible agility, strength, and speed!
So not only is she deadly with her new teeth, but she is quick as lightning, can leap trees and mountains in a single bound, and can take an incredible amount of punishment. Which is put to the test when Dace bashes her in the face with a huge tree branch atleast 8 times. And she doesn't even go down once. At this point, the group is royally screwed. Especially because their now ex-friend is highly persistent. To the point of which when chased away by a lit-torch, which seems to be the only thing that works...she runs off, and just circles back around for the next opportunity to attack!
At this point, the group of friends have only one option, to kill their friend before she kills them. But unfortunately, they get wrapped up in the mystery of things, and soon...this task becomes easier said than done. And that's when their only hope lies in exploring the cave where the mysterious writings reside. And figuring out what connection they share with whatever has possessed their friend. What I liked about this movie, along with the crazy yet funny attack scenes, and the blood and gore that come along with them, was also how a very dark and intriguing mystery was crafted around all of this.
The mysterious force, which has tainted the area...doesn't just possess people. But it affects the nature around the area as well. This instance comes to light when the girl who takes a dip in the pond, is set upon by a plethora of leeches. And remember before that, the rabbit attack. But once their friend falls ill from the contaminated pond, they try to drive to the nearest hospital to get her some help. Only to find their car covered in ants. Ants which too have been driven mad by the mysterious evil residing in the area. So it seems this force uses nature as it's tool of death as well. Or, it's tool of keeping people trapped within that one area, so it can figure out how to get at them.
On top of all of this, there's the mysterious cave which apparently is the source of the evil. And it's stomping grounds. So when the group of friends are dwindled down to just a few, they try and come up with a plan of action. But after they are constantly set upon by their possessed female friend, the movies lead female eventually figures out that the key to stopping all of this might lie within the cave. The directing in this movie is really well done also. The daytime scenes are filmed really well.
And the nighttime scenes too. In fact, the director really manages to capture the loneliness and haunting quiet of the jungle area which heightens the films overall horror elements. The movies final act is very weird and really takes a few comical, yet workable liberties with events that occur. We get some creepy cave time, but also killer tentacles, gross pregnancies, and a later even more disgusting and gross abortion of sorts. As well as some boulder-face and skull-smashing.
At any rate, the third act is pretty wild, but is great fodder for horror and genre fans. As it doesn't skimp on the blood or gross out factor. And it's entertaining, fun, and jovial as well. A great finish to a great horror flick! "Primal" is definitely worth seeing, and should keep any horror fan entertained by it's dark story, good story, and wild horror film moments.
Positives:An excellent story, and the way the ancient evil is crafted into the story is very smart. Great blood and gore, many entertaining and fun moments. And an awesome finish.
Negatives:Slight negative, on leaving the audience unclear or a bit foggy on what this entity exactly was.
Overall:Three and a half stars out of four.