User reviews

In 1978, the film magazine Cinefantastique ran a cover story on an upcoming SF movie, The Primevals, then in preproduction. The Primevals, an ambitious effort on a modest budget, was intended as a showcase for stop-motion animation.

I was in college at the time, and as an animation fan I was pretty excited about seeing this movie. As it turned out, I had to wait just a little longer than expected. Forty-six years, to be exact. It never occurred to me that I'd be nearly eligible for Social Security before The Primevals finally came out.

You see, the initial effort to make the movie fizzled. It was revived in 1994, when the live action and some of the effects were shot. Then the studio behind the project went bankrupt, and the movie, still in post-production, was shelved. It remained in limbo for decades until producer Charles Band and effects expert Chris Endicott worked out a plan to finish it. By that time, the film's guiding light, animator-writer-director David Allen, was long gone, having died of cancer in 1999.

With a new crew of animators, newly repaired or entirely refashioned models, and digital composites instead of back projection, The Primevals finally completed its remaining effects shots (or all the essential ones, anyway; the plot was slightly streamlined as a cost-cutting measure).

As of June, 2024, the movie has been released to streaming services. I watched it last night. As I expected, it often betrays its humble origins, with uneven performances and an overall "1980s TV" quality, which is especially noticeable in the overbright and rather flat lighting. Nevertheless, given the budget and the technology, it's an impressive piece of work - and obviously a labor of love for the creators. Allen and his colleagues made a real effort to elevate the stop-motion genre, eschewing dinosaurs and mythological creatures in favor of a more complex scenario involving alien contact and directed evolution. They also worked hard to integrate the stop-motion elements into the story in a natural way, rather than using them as standalone set pieces, as was too often the case.

The irony is that after all this time, The Primevals can no longer serve its intended purpose as proof of the viability of hand-crafted animation effects in a digital world. That ship has sailed. Instead, the movie will likely go down as the last live-action feature film to use stop-motion creatures in a big way. It's probably not the legacy Dave Allen wanted, but it does assure him of a small place in movie history. And it's a great gift for stop-motion fans like me.

Kudos to Endicott, Band, and their associates for making The Primevals a reality - finally!

Younger viewers need to understand that, however odd this film may seem, this was precisely and absolutely the way Sci-Fi was done 75 years ago. The stop motion animation in Harryhausen style speaks for itself. The name Rondo Montana (!) speaks for itself. The script seems an assembly of short, staccato, phrases totally lacking in emotion punched up by a soundtrack overflowing with gravitas -- exactly the sort of presentation most of us from that era remember. The only thing jarring to this reviewer was the use of color. Every synapse in my brain said this should have been in B&W. The only benefit color gave us was the needless awareness that, no matter how dirty their surroundings, the players always wore spanking clean outfits, as if right off the shelf from the local Target. Always been a fan of the Mills sisters, and nice to see Juliet once again commanding an entire film. For viewers of a certain age, a treat. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

Usually when a project has been shelved for a long time it's for a reason - either it's not that good to begin with or there's just not enough time or money to finish it properly. Thankfully The Primevals was the latter.

When I read the film's history I was fascinated by it - a movie almost fifty years in the making just couldn't be otherwise. David Allen had a distant vision of how it was going to be way back in the late sixties but only came as close as shooting it in the mid-nineties but still wasn't able to finish it before his death in 1999. Only twenty years later the movie was picked up to finally be finished and to pay proper respects to its original idea and the people behind the 1990s production. So, was it all worth waiting that long for? Absolutely.

First and foremost, The Primevals is a movie without CGI which is obscenely rare in the 21st century - instead it utilizes stop-motion, animatronics and puppetry to bring its creatures to life - a long forgotten art form since the rise of computers in the late 1970s, and it makes this movie truly stand out above all the recent ones. Sure, the creatures don't look realistic enough this way but this story is not about realism, it's about the soul.

Nowadays people tend to have completely forgotten what cinema is all about - originality, new ideas that give you food for thoughts, something you haven't seen or heard before, and not just a pretty picture with words. Don't get me wrong, The Primevals is no Citizen Kane, nor is it 2001: A space odyssey or even Star Wars - its story is far from being original even remotely as we've seen many alike examples in the 1950s and 1960s during the second Renaissance of stop motion movies but it's something that this work of art represents that makes it worthy being released now, in 2024. I'm sure would it have been released as soon as David Allen pitched his idea to the producers, or even in the 1990s when he shot the movie it would have been instantly lost among its contemporaries but today it ought to be remembered as a relic that's still more relevant and way better than most of its contemporaries.

The stop motion itself is nearly perfect and I was amazed at how well it's handled in the movie. The same was with the music score - simply beautiful, grandiose and is suitable for something more epic than what was on the screen but not less impressive in any way. The only downpoint is probably the actors and their wooden performances that hadn't given us the full spectrum of emotions when on a journey discovering a brand new world - it felt more like they've been doing this every other Sunday. The narrative moves itself here and the actors blindly follow it - it's not that uncommon in adventure flicks but still, it would have been nice to have at least one charismatic character among the bunch presented in The Primevals but there was none.

Overall I feel like no matter when the movie's released and what production hell it's been through The Primevals is a well-crafted picture hands down and I would have given it the same rating despite the circumstances.

Finally we have a Harryhausen´s movie in the 21ts century, in 2024. This is incredeible! The tribute they pay to films like Willis O´ Brian stop motion´s FX in King Kong is fantastic!

Against the CGI, we have animatronics, practical FX, some CGI, but low and a story like Harryhausen´s movies told us. Actors are in a second position in this movie; the really stars are the puppets in stop motion (there is one scene where we can see hundreds of them moving). I never thought we could see again something like this in big screen. The technique of stop motion is incredibly well done. The motion of the puppets and the realism in the mixing with real life caracters is incredibly well done!

The plot and the acting is a little bit hole, I mean we see woodden faces and a poor acting but, what the hell? For a fan of Harryhausen´s movie and a person that is bored with CGI, we have here a great achievement.

This is a movie that Joe Dante, John Landis, Guillermo del Toro, Tarantino and Christopher Nolan would like to see; so if you are one of those crazy people that love the old Sci fi B series or Z series cinema, this is yours! Don´t miss it!

Well done Charles Band, David Allen and company from FULL MOON Features!

7 stars out of 10.

Watching this movie I soon found it very familiar in it's production. It seemed to be the good old times of the 1980's when some very good movies were made. This one had very familiar music to what was produced in those times.

I have now seen the IMDb review of michaelprescott-00547 and he enlighted me that this project originated in the late 70's but never saw the light then.

A very nice movie was finally made and I can give this a sound 7 stars. I see that another movie is made or being made this year (2024) by David Allen, but on checking the information, it is a documentary on this movie and probably why it took so long to come to fruition.

A movie that is brand new and yet very dated.

I loved watching the original Jason and the Argonauts as a kid and this took me back in a good way to the stop motion genius of Ray Harryhausen.

It has be said that this is not of that quality. The plot is quite silly. The acting is generally weak from (apart from Judith Mills) a bunch of nobodies.

That being said, the film is rather light hearted, good natured and zips along without outstaying its welcome.

The film is worth seeing if only for the story attached to the making of it. Check out the trivia section.

Nice to see a movie that wasn't created for modern audiences again.

I don't know why this movie is rated so low. It's not great but it is entertaining. It feels like a 90's episode of The Lost World, but in a good way. Every ten minutes a new plot twist is implemented, and the action is fun. Cheesy, but fun. I can point out its flaws such as the cardboard acting, forgettable stereotypical characters, low budget sets, etc., but it all adds to the entertainment value. If you like conspiracy theories, movie making, and/or 90's style adventure this movie is for you. And, as others have surely harped on, the stop motion is great. It feels slow-mo in places, but it's something that can be overlooked. I enjoyed this movie.

Heavens where to start, from the wooden acting to the poor backdrops this film is destined for the bin. So bad I even stopped fast forwarding it to see if it got any better. It didn't. Regardless of the Ray H lovers out there the rest of the film, including the editing, is a disaster from start to finish. The acting, well where do I start, bad and more wooden than the stop motion figures. The scenery was put together by a blind person and if they had seen their efforts and the big screen I think they would quit the business and rightly so. So bad but not even in a funny way, the creatures keep changing size and the people die and come back again. Oh dear me no.

I really wish I could give this movie a ten rating for the amount of heart that was put into it. This was a nice nostalgic trip back into time for those of us who grew up with these fantastical, silly, yet still entertaining movies.

Ray Harryhausen was such an inspiration for so many people, and I think David Allen did a fantastic job and it's sad that he wasn't alive to see his last project come to fruition.

My thanks to all that helped pay for the completion of this film.

I would say this was better than half of all the Doug McClure movies I used to watch. Some acting was bad, some wasn't. Some of the writing was good, some wasn't. Still, I was entertained, and that was all I was hoping for.

Ignore the naysayers; of course this isn't going to appeal to modern filmgoers (young mostly, but older too) with no interest in film history or much of anything else, and likely it will really only appeal to fans of stop motion creature animation and people who remember old-fashioned fantasy-monster movies fondly...part of the charm is the clunkiness of it. But this is something bold and fulfilling for those who are in on the conceit of it, a passion project from a gifted stop-motion animator who left us too soon. If you saw the poster or trailers and said, "Hey, that looks like--" you're right, that's exactly what it is, no more and no less.

It is, of course, an adventure film about explorers who uncover a hidden world in the Himalayas, and lots of weird alien frog people and big furry King Kong-esque beasties. Maybe it's a good idea to go in with low expectations...it is definitely a low budget, frequently clunky little 90s film about a silly topic. But again, those who "get it" will actually find that a bonus.

Meanwhile, you get some gorgeous location photography, beautiful (updated) effects and animation work, some fun, retro-fantasy-film tropes and the whole thing is brisk and easy to digest. Remember when movies were just fun, maybe even goofy, and not all meta and stuffed with irony? If so, then you might like this.

Do a little research, go in with an understanding of what this film actually is and be delighted; watch with attention deficit and expectations of seeing a bloated fx video-game shoot-to-kill franchise film and be disappointed.

Also interesting, this film contains a great, smart leading character played by a chipper Juliet Mills who just happens to be a mature female leader without being a Mary-sue, femme fatale, castrator or a girl boss. Characters are generally educated and well-spoken and revered for what they are (strong, intelligent, compassionate, even regional natives) not forced into reversals of their natural qualities and abilities. There are also no annoying extended "emo" moments that stop the show so everyone can scream and cry, suffer, bleed on camera and victim-virtue for 90 minutes.

Then again, to the naysayers who have no patience for a cool, fun little updated 90s movie that was clearly a passion project made with a lot of love, and updated for a modern release as a tribute to the legacy of both a beloved artist and his beloved art form, this one wasn't for you, sorry.

After the discovery in the high Himalayas of what appears to be a Yeti specimen, he's been sent back to the United States for research. Leading the investigation is noted anthropologist Claire Colller (Juliet Mills of Billy Wilder's Avanti!) who decides to organize an expedition to the Himalayas. Collier teams up with Mat Connor (Richard Joseph Paul), a former student of her class and famous writer, Rondo Montana (Leon Russom) , an ex-big game hunter, and Kathleen Reidel (Walker Brandt) , another one of Collier's former students and the guide (Tai Thai) for their journey. Through dangerous paths, they suddenly arrive in a lost world in which they will discover an amazing and hidden crater inhabited by prehistoric creatures, primitive hominids and alien reptiles. They then are captured by aliens and are judged and condemned to death penalty. A Civilization Lost in Time... Invaded One Million Years Ago !. Journey to a hidden valley of incredible splendor and unbelievable terror... where the future and the past battle for the present !.

This fantasy picture gets action, adventures, derring-do, amusing images and breathtaking landscapes . Colorful atmosphere in this entertaining story in which with tension and adventure are maintained throughout. Splendid cinematography by cameraman Adolfo Bartoli showing marvellous outdoors and abound matte painting, including enjoyable special effects by specialist Dave Allen, and a nice production design too. Two decades after the death of the expert FX artist David Allen, this peculiar project was born; an imaginative story of adventure and science fiction in the purest style of the 60s and 70s. Allen, a Stop Motion specialist, responsible for the effects of films such as ¨Howling¨, ¨Young Sherlock Holmes¨ and ¨Willow¨attempted since the 1960s to make this film, to which he dedicated hours and hours of work until his premature death in 1999. After his death, the storyboards, puppets and other elements of the project passed to his work colleague Chris Endicott, who completed it, and finally almost 25 years later, ¨The Primevals¨ was released.

It contains traditional special effects by means of stop-motion, in the wake of Ray Harryhausen; in fact, there's a spectacular fight between Yeti and alien creatures. In addition, a rousing and spectacular musical score by Richard Band, 'Full Moon' and 'Empire' regular composer. The impressive and majestic soundtrack is one of the film's greatest assets. The motion picture was professionally directed by late Dave Allen and produced by Full Moon Features. The latter was a B-production company, owner Albert Band; he was one of Hollywood's most prolific directors who started his career in the early 50s and continuing the legacy, his son, the equally prolific producer/director Charles Band. Albert Band began financing a number of motion pictures through the sixties, seventies, and eighties decades and helped his son, Charles, to bring together his own production company, 'Empire Pictures', in the early eighties. Upon the collapse of Empire Pictures in the early nineties, Band continued to work with his son and help bring a number of low-budget and medium budget films to the Hollywood screen or direct to video releases. Albert Band directed some Westerns, such as : ¨She came to the Valley¨, ¨Massacre at Grand Canyon¨, ¨The Young Guns¨ and ¨The Tramplers ¨ at his best . Furthermore, he made terror and Sci-fi , such as : ¨Aliens Gone Wild , Prehisteria , Prehisteria 2 , Robot War , Ghoulies II , Satán's Dog¨ and all kind of genres. While his son Charles Band has written/produced/directed a lot of films, such as: ¨The Creeps, Hideous, Dollman vs demonic toys, Puppet master, Crash and burn, Trancers , Trancers II: the return of Jack Deth, Dungeonmaster, Metalstorm: the destruction of Jared Syn, Parasite, The alchemist¨. Rating The Primevals (2023) : 6/10, acceptable and passable fantasy/adventure movie.

This is a film made from a sci-fi story of the '50s, started in the '70s, finished in the '90s and released in 2023, 25 years after the death of the writer/director who was in fact a stop motion animation guy. The only real actor in the film is Juliet Mills, the script is bad, the story laughable, everything is really ridiculous.

As one other reviewer noticed, my brain couldn't understand how was this was not in black and white. But at the same moment, I had these flashes of recognition: the low tech, the stop motion, the particular type of dialog, the obsolete scientific ideas and so on. I can't imagine someone work 50 years on this film and not realize how ridiculous it was. So I choose to believe it was a throwback satire thing, a set up for Mist3k, a loving reminder of the ways old cinema was.

Unfortunately. The film seems to take itself seriously, so I can't really recommend it even for the drunken fun nights with your mates. It was a surreal experience for sure.

We still enjoy stop motion, both the old ones from the childhood of cinema and the new ones.

Personally, I like stop motion much more than computer special effects because it is more unreal and beautiful.

The most valuable part of the movie "the primevals" is the stop motion, followed by the story, and a bit of Leon Russom.

What bothers me is the cold, emotionless and clumsy performances of the actors (except Leon Russom).

Apparently, among the actors of the primevals, the only one who took the movie seriously was Leon Russom.

At the end of the movie, I wished that all the actors in the movie would be killed (it would be better if I killed them myself) so that the movie would have a pleasant ending.

And for a lovely and childish movie, in today's world of serious movies that hit the human brain like a hammer, I say: Thank you David Allen.

Needless to say that I had actually never heard about this 2023 movie titled "The Primevals" prior to sitting down to watch it. But I have to say that I actually found the movie's cover to be cheesy enough to catch my attention. And with it being a movie that I had never even heard about, of course I opted to sit down and watch it.

And with it being a Full Moon Features movie, I figured that chance would be that the movie wouldn't be a complete waste of time, as they regularly do put out something enjoyable and entertaining.

The storyline was actually fair, with some major nods towards the old classic adventures of the 1950s. I have to admit that I was actually enjoying "The Primevals". Writers David Allen and Randall William Cook put together something that proved to be entertaining and enjoyable, with elements of sci-fi and adventure mixed together.

I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list, which is something that I do actually enjoy when I sit down to watch a movie. It should be said, though, that the acting performances were fair.

The effects in the movie were fair, but keep in mind that the Yeti and the reptilian creatures are brought to life by stop-animation motion capture, so it looks somewhat out of place and awkward.

My rating of director David Allen's 2023 movie "The Primevals" lands on a six out of ten stars.

I remember purchasing the issue of Cinefantastique (sadly gone, but the best magazine of its time for fans looking for information on science fiction, fantasy and horror films. Unlike Starlog, an apologist magazine for Star Trek and Fangoria, an updated version of Famous Monsters without the charm, a truly great magazine) that had the Primevals on the cover. Having grown up on Ray Harryhausen, Willis O'Brien and the classic films of the Fifties like The Land Unknown and the 70's The Land Time Forgot, I've always loved lost civilizations movies. I waited years and years for this (like the never finished Conan animated film, Red Nails) and finally thought it would never come out. Kudo's to Charles Band for finally completing the long deceased Dave Allan's movie. Honestly, it was only partially worth the wait. The story really doesn't make sense, the aliens remind me of the ones from Laser Blast, and the acting could have been better. Still, the stop motion, beautiful and smooth (though, like all Stop Motion, clearly models moved by a human), is worth it. I liked the little homage to King Kong (recognized when it's seen), and I felt bad at one scene near the end (I won't give it away), but a little more effort would have turned this from a curiosity into one of the best Full Moon movies ever. Still, it was better than Snyders justice league abomination.