Primitif

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.

Playing like a low rent version of an Italian cannibal movie, but with little nudity, some gore and bad fright wigs this is the story of a group of students who travel deep into the jungle to get material for their thesis. Stopping first with a tribe that has had contact with the modern world, they then move on to find an undiscovered group. While traveling down stream their boasts flip in the rapids and they are separated into groups. One group is captured by an unknown tribe while the others try to find them and stay alive.

This is half a good film. Most of the stuff up until they meet the unknown tribe is okay in a low rent sort of way. Once they meet the tribe things get very silly as everyone seems to be wearing the same bad wig and carrying professionally made by the prop department stone weapons. The tribe often seems to be engaging in too much "ooga booga" behavior. There are flashes of good stuff in these scenes but mostly it comes off as a gory Caveman (The movie with Ringo Starr).

The film seems to want to be on par with the Italian cannibal films but its done on the cheap and with no conviction like the films they are seeking to copy. There is almost zero nudity which is odd for a primitive culture. They strip one guy down to his bvds and then stop as if for modesty reasons. The female lead never loses her shirt even though everyone else ends up with torn clothes. The violence against animals is quite graphic (and some of the animal against animal stuff is from another mismatched film), but some of the violence against people is shown slightly obscured manner. Its a great disappointment.

This isn't to say the movie is awful. Its not. There are some good things here, basically anything not involving the natives (which I know defeats the purpose since this is film about them). This is going to appeal more to people with a love for or high tolerance of bad movies since a good half of this is very silly.

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....

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!

Primitives (1978)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Three college kids and their professor travel to Indonesia where they go into the jungles in search of cannibals. They find them but soon learn the cannibals are rather hungry. Here's a rare jungle/cannibal film from Indonesia, which tries hard to recapture the Italian cannibal genre but pretty much fails. The biggest problem is that there are so many cliffhanger moments that you really can't take the film too seriously. The worst thing is that none of the characters are all that likable so you have a hard time wanting to see them live. Be forewarned that there are a lot of real animals slaughtered (and eaten) on screen.