Wednesday 11 January 2012

Primal (2010) Dir: Josh Reed


Australian horror, here, from debut feature director Josh Reed.

The plot:
Six friends head into a remote region of The Outback, one of them preparing a thesis on Aboriginal cave paintings, the site selected as it features a cave with some early examples of the art form which, so the story goes, have not been see for several hundred years.
Arriving and setting camp, it's not long before things start to go awry.
Mel, the liveliest of the bunch, goes skinny dipping, only to emerge covered in leeches. Soon after, she is a-fevered, and the group assume an allergic reaction to the leeches' anti-coagulants.
Wrong.
Before the night is out, Mel's normal teeth have fallen out, and fangs have grown in their place and, more disturbingly still, she appears to have a taste for raw flesh.
And what's with all the insects eating everything in sight?

Haven't seen many Australian horrors, but the ones I have tend to be pretty bloodthirsty and pretty low budget, and both factors are true here, also.
With a reasonably competent set of actors, the implausibility of the scenario is easily overlooked and, with some stylish directorial flourishes, the action bounces along at a fair old clip.
True, it only just has the legs to sustain the relatively brief run time - about 80 minutes - but I'm never one to complain about brevity as far too many movies outstay their welcome.
If a bit of gory, shrieky, Aussie mayhem sounds like it might float your boat check this out.
At the very least, you'll probably enjoy the script because, let's face it, no-one swears as well as an Australian.
Entertaining, then.

4 out of 5

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