We are all beasts at heart. No matter how we may try to subvert our basest instincts, whether trough intellectualism or spirituality or simple self-awareness, we cannot deny that simple part of the brain. We still "see red," the moment when pure anger clouds our senses, we are still subject to sexual urges that rule us. It is with that notion in mind that I approached Primal, the Australian horror film that deals with these ideas - a film about how we cannot escape our animalism, that we are forever subject to an evolutionary lingering. Sign me up!
Primal begins in the past as we get a glimpse of a primitive man creating cave paintings to warn others against the area, only to be murdered by something with very sharp teeth. Flash-forward to the modern day and we find ourselves in the company of six young, pretty friends on their way to explore and document the cave paintings and surrounding area. Anja (Zoe Truckwell-Smith) is the timid one, afraid to cut through a tunnel to get to the cave paintings due to her neuroses. She drives around while the rest take their shortcut, leaving a little blood behind in the tunnel due to a minor accident.
Mel (Krew Boylan) takes the opportunity later that night to do a little skinny-dipping, a whim that results in sickness. See, the water had gone all dark and icky, and now Mel is having fever dreams and losing teeth. Never a good sign. When she begins to grow all new ones and munch on the dead rabbit near the camp, the rest of the crew gets a little nervous. It seems Mel has been infected by a malady that causes her to get all shark-faced and start hunting the rest of the gang, usually by jumping high off of something onto them and getting all bite-y.While the rest of the group holds Mel off with torches and the like, others get infected, or become food for the new hunters, culminating in a desperate dash into the tunnel to avoid a similar, or worse fate. Anja must learn the secret of this infection while not succumbing to it, lest she wind up getting all cannibalistic, too.
Did I say I was into the idea of this one? It all smacks of horror at its best, using the medium and genre to describe an aspect of the human condition we either choose to deny or find, at worst, unspeakable. Primal doesn't appear to have such lofty aims, however. Writer and director Josh Reed prefers to approach the film from more of a hunter/hunted angle, trying to wring some suspense from the notion of having something in the dark hunting you rather than from the premise, which I find to be very disappointing. There is so much to say about our less-civilized tendencies, but Primal insists on being a film about monsters trying to eat us, and it succeeds reasonably well on that front.
The make-up effects are passable, and Reed has a keen eye for shot composition, with no fear of negative space. Primal is, at least, pretty to look at. The pacing is also quite good, kicking into gear in a hurry and keeping the action, and occasional eviscerations, rolling for most of its run time, and even manages a nasty little surprise in the third act that recalls one of the more disturbing moments from the original Evil Dead. The movie can't shake the what-might-have-been however. as it takes the path of the monster chiller rather than the allegory. That's not to say it isn't an enjoyable time, but it also feels like an opportunity wasted. if the premise of the film appeals to you, by all means check it out. And may you come away with it a little more satisfied than I did.
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