Primitif

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.

I obtained this on the VideoAsia "Tales of Voodoo 2" label. No voodoo to be seen, although the eponymous natives were reasonably uncivilised.

What do you get from your average cannibal movie and how does it match up?

Well I would venture to list and suggest the following:

Soggy jungle scenes: present; Offensive animal cruelty: present; Woeful acting: present++; Poor camera-work: present+++ Nudity: not a jot; Gore: present; Plot: the usual.

Lawd! This film is desperate. A downmarket Cannibal Holocaust meets Cannibal God. The Indonesians haven't a clue. Watch something else....

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.

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.

In the era where Jungle/Cannibal movies are crowned, Indonesia filmmaker didn't waste the potential. The result is Primitive, a monetized thriller that supposed to be scary. The movie is about a group of college student to do some research upon some primitive tribes in the jungle. Unbeknown, they drifts to wrong site of the jungle and met this cannibalistic peoples. And this began the carnage toward them.

Due the budget, there's seem a limitation in creativity and vision. The movie meant to be serious, but unbelievable that there's a lot comedic situation, despite still left some good scare.

Primitive starred by Barry Prima, prior his Film-Silat (Period Action) era. He is very popular in the 80's. Unbelievable (again!) that he ever played a role in this kind of movies (actually, there's also has 'Serigala', a blatant copy of 'Friday The13th'), before he's got exploits in the 80's.

Even though look cheap in every aspects (f/x, gore, costumes, setting, etch), actually this movie is still an enjoyable flick. Watch this if you have chance, and you will believe everything I've said.

6/10