Primitif

An atrociously made, acted and dubbed cannibal movie that is also very tame in terms of violence (except for a scene where a crocodile is skinned alive) and nudity (it must have been on the female lead's contract not to have a single nude scene). The "highlights" of the film's stupidity include:

A: The poorly integrated stock footage of animals killing each other.

B: The lamest attempted-rape sequence you'll ever see.

C: A scene of the cannibals having circled around the hero and then attacking him one-at-a-time, and him defending himself with karate moves!

D: A silly conversation about whether the cannibals have any chances of "adapting to our civilization" ("Well, it's gonna take quite some time"!).

E: The already-mentioned axe-boomerang scene, and a terribly edited spear-throwing scene a few seconds earlier.

The on-location filming is the only thing that forces me to give this film one star, instead of none. Only for the desperately curious.

Primitives is an extremely rare cannibal film filmed in Indonesia, and although it is a blatant take on cannibal ferox, it is unique in odd ways. The soundtrack is stolen Kraftwerk! Yes, I kid ye not, the film actually opens to "We are the robots"!

The "heroes" are Scooby-doo esque students that venture into the jungle to gain some hands-on experience with primitive culture to aid them in writing their thesis, and decide to go for gold by venturing even deeper into savage territory, in order to bring back experience they can really write about, and that they do. They take a raft down river, and when it hits a rock, their guide is killed and they are separated. Lost, they encounter hostile savages, who capture two of the students, while the other wanders around looking for them. The rest writes itself.

Primitives is generally a dull watch, but has its moments. In one scene for instance, a kiddie savage pee's on a captive student (Robert) from a height of 20 feet while a laughs! In one combat scene, A savage throws an axe at Robert, and he misses. The axe then boomerangs and strikes the savage in the throat, killing him! There are also some interesting animal combat scenes, like a leopard versus two crocodiles, and a huge snake versus a huge reptile.

Like other cannibal films, it has some token animal killing scenes, although they are mostly faked I'd say (but still yuk). It is also pretty gory in spots, the most notable being a scene where a savage gives birth, and licks the bloody baby clean! (Eskimos do this too, by the way, and they don't use diapers...) There's also an excellent spike trap scene which will make you howl laughing.

Still, unless you can't get enough of cannibal films, you may not appreciate it, but it may act as a good introduction to cannibal film to the uninitiated. (Though poor nonetheless)

Cannibal holocaust lite!

The first we hear of Gatot Sudarto's music is a song over the opening credits that sounds like something Daft Punk might have composed; in addition to tribal percussion, some subsequent themes bring Tangerine Dream to mind, among others. (And don't miss a later theme that's simply lifted outright.) Leo Fioole's cinematography, often excitable, seems to indicate right off the bat that he's just here to have a good time. For as straightforward as the premise is I'm sure everyone had to find their own way to spice things up a bit. That includes scene writing that even within the first ten minutes or so shifts from arguably celebrating indigenous cultures (at least in a broad, amorphous sense), to definitely exploiting them for cheap kicks (i.e., "Gee golly, would you look at that!"). Thereafter it's not long before the adventure begins, and we know the horror won't be too far behind. Falling right in line with many other titles that have been made about cannibals, it's safe to say that 'Primitif' isn't breaking any new ground, and it's no exemplar of film-making or storytelling. It's still suitably well made and enjoyable on its own merits, though - whatever one may think of the dubious nature of the concept - and good enough for something relatively uninvolved to check out on a quiet day.

Reasonable questions abound. Did Sisworo Gautama Putra intend from the start to make total schlock, and gleefully embrace tropes in the process, or was the intent wholly earnest and the rest manifested naturally? What impact did the production have on the local environment and wildlife? What safety precautions, if any, were in place for the more dangerous scenes and stuntwork? More esoterically, what balance (if any) is there in this feature about cannibalistic indigenous people between tawdrily feeding into appalling prejudices and exploitation, and real-life mistreatment of such populations, versus just having violent cinematic fun that in no way reflects reality? I don't have the answers to these questions, nor others that may come to mind. Some things are certain, however, and chief among them is that it seems like the cast was having a blast, even the extras; especially in the more action-oriented moments they definitely went all-in. Those stunts that are employed look great, not to mention practical effects including blood and gore; everything from makeup, to art direction, to props is terrific, and the filming locations are gorgeous.

Some instances of dialogue, scene writing, acting, and direction come off better than others, both in terms of quality generally and, specifically, how the indigenous people are depicted - usually, not with anything remotely resembling respect or integrity. With that said, I absolutely think this would have been better had it been produced as a silent film, excising dialogue outright. Overall Putra's direction is fine, at least when it comes to fundamental arrangement of shots and scenes, and the filmmaker loved a spectacle. I plainly hate the animal cruelty, though in fairness, different cultures have different sensibilities about such matters; the use of some stock footage to pad out scenes is a little gauche. The story at large is workable, at least on paper; in practice there are issues here of pacing insofar there is notable lag between major beats, and some portions of the length just kind of trundle along. This probably could have been a smidgen shorter. Above all, despite the strength 'Primitif' bears at its best, and in some unexpected ways (that music is catchy!), it's not so striking as to be wholly riveting. It's appreciable, but never altogether thrilling, and given how highly questionable some of the writing is, there are major upper limits on the potential here.

You could do better, and you could do worse. It's very troubled, certainly, above all in regards to portraying the natives but even in the weaker parts of various aspects. One way or another, though, the movie only wanted to be a genre romp, and I can't say it didn't achieve its goal - and with more success than not, surely. There hardly any need to watch this, but it's passably worthwhile if you happen to come across it; I would just offer the caveat that you really should know what you're getting into before you give it a try.

Supposedly inspired by the Italian cannibal movies of the seventies "Primitives" is an Indonesian insult to the genre and should be avoided at all costs. Three dopey college students are interested in writing a thesis about primitive tribes so they venture deep into the jungle in search of one. The trio consists of the athletic Robert, annoying butterface Rita and nerdy Tommy whose rail thin face makes him look like a brown skeleton with long hair and glasses. The group dismiss the first tribe they encounter due to the lack of primitive street cred (aren't the college types always elitist snobs) convincing their river guide to take them deeper into the jungle. After crashing their boat Robert and Rita become captured by the primitives they were looking for and are subjected to the lamest "tortures" ever. The tribe all wear the same goofy wigs while yelling "oooh oooh oooh" for EVERYTHING! The funny thing is somehow the same grunts obviously convey information as the tribe seem to react like it's a distinct language. Anyhow, Robert and Rita are tied up and stripped down in tame Hallmark quality exploitation. Robert ends up in his briefs while Rita is basically given shorts and a cutoff t-shirt. Are you titillated yet? Let me inform you now that the prude who plays Rita obviously refused to do any hint of nudity which is a shame because all this screaming no-talent has going for her is her decent sized tits. The aforementioned torture? Gasp in horror as Robert is forced to give piggy back rides! Try to peel your eyes from the vicious rape that basically consists of a native flashing Rita! Be shocked at the extreme urination scene where a boy relieves himself on Robert's prison cell! There is some graphic scenes in this movie but of serious animal abuse that really is used as an excuse to seem edgy. Don't be mistaken. I enjoy a rare piece of red meat like most men however I find this kind of senseless killing of animals appalling. Now as for the director, well, that's another story. This is the cannibal movie equivalent of holding hands on a first date. No nudity, very little gore, stock footage stolen from other Italian cannibal movies, unappealing characters, lifeless storyline, plodding pace, and that's just for starters. How was this film inspired by anything other than sitting in a doctor's waiting room reading a twenty year old copy of "Highlights" magazine? What's worse is the quality of the film. First time I ever needed to adjust the tracking on a DVD. The font used for the subtitles which appear to be Greek are so large they take up the bottom third of the picture. It appears in some parts that the film was missing (lucky me) as the runtime on my DVD was only an hour and twenty four minutes. Packaged under the "Tales of Voodoo" label along with the dismal "Diamond Ninja Force" with neither one of these movies having anything to do with said voodoo. Perhaps there was voodoo practiced on me as I was dumb enough to buy this double doody waste of time. If you happen to come in contact with this movie burn it immediately.

When I first found this film at my local video store I thought it must have been a retitled version of one of the Lenzi or Deodato cannibal films as I had never heard of it before. After watching it I wish it had been.

There is something almost authentic about the Italian cannibal films, where as this comes across as exactly what it is, a cheapo jungle adventure. The natives in this one ham it up way to much in my opinion.

I have mentioned cannibals a few times already, but there is no actual cannibalism in this film(people are speared and taken by crocodiles), although it is mentioned by some characters in the film, it is however in the same vein as the Italian cannibal films. There is of course plenty of violence against animals and some hilariously badly inserted stock footage(very grainy) of a leopard attacking or being attacked by crocodiles and a snake killing a furry critter of some sort.

Some scenes are OK, such as the scenes set inside a cave, where two of the central characters are held captive, being urinated on while trapped in a cage and being forced on to all fours and ridden around like a horse, but in the main it is badly acted and pretty boring.

The version that I saw looked like it was cut, although I would not think that an uncut version would be all that gory anyway as there doesn't seem to be that much opportunity for extreme violence with the situations that are created.

Only seek this one out if you have to see every cannibal(?) movie ever made.