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.

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.

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

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.