The New Movie of the Week: The Primevals

A group of Sherpa in Nepal kill a Yeti that has been terrorizing their villages.  The body of the creature somehow makes it to a college in the United States where it is dissected and studied and put on display.  A team of scientists travel with a safari hunter to Nepal to attempt to capture a live specimen and get answers to many of the questions about the creatures genetic coding and uncover who has purposely been performing surgery to increase the Yeti’s aggression.  The expedition is led by Dr. Claire Collier (Juliet Mills) with retired big game hunger Rondo Montana (Leon Russom) providing protection. The group also consists of Matthew Connor (Richard Joseph Paul), a past student of Dr. Collier, current student Kathleen Reidel (Walker Brandt), and Siku (Tai Thai) a Sherpa guide whose whole family has been killed by the Yeti and seeks revenge.  While exploring, the group find a strange structure, but the ground around it gives way and the expedition falls into a strange cavern leading them to an untouched primeval land populated by prehistoric creatures and ancient hominids.  After finding additional structures that were built using advanced technology, the group finally stumble upon the source of everything, leading to maybe the most important discovery of the century.

The Primevals is technically a 2023 American science fiction fantasy adventure film produced by Full Moon Entertainment.  It was co-written by David Allen and Randall William Cook, directed by David Allen, and produced by Charles Band who David had collaborated with many times before.  The film was the love child of David Allen and he worked on it for 50 years.  The original story was thought of in the 1960s and was originally going to be about an unevolved Viking society fighting a race of malevolent lizard men.  A promo reel was completed, and David and co-creators, Dennis Muren and Jim Danforth began shopping the project around.  Hammer Films was interested but negotiations failed.  In the 1970s, Allen fleshed out the project and with William Randall Cook who had found a financial backer for the film, but by the time the script was completed, the finances had dried up. The script that the two created, while being altered over time, remained the basis for the film that was eventually made. While David was working on the 1978 film Laserblast Allen became acquainted with Charles Band who was shown the original promotional reel and agreed to finance the film. The film stalled in pre-production and in the 1980s it was slated to be produced by Band’s Empire Pictures production company.  Allen also continued to try to get funding on his own, but the film remained in limbo during Empire Pictures four-year existence.  In the late 1980s Band created Full Moon Entertainment and The Primevals was one of their most ambitious projects with the film costing several million dollars.  In 1994 principal photography was shot in Romania and the Dolomites Mountain range in Northeastern Italy.  But Full Moon Entertainment suffered some financial problems and could not complete the film.  Allen continued to intermittingly work on the film in-between other projects until his death in 1999 from Cancer.  All of the film elements, storyboards and stop motion puppets were left to his colleague Chris Endicott. .  In 2018, an Indiegogo campaign raised $40,000 to help complete the film.  With the principal photography completed in 1994 and some of the stop-motion animation being done over the years, Chris, Band and a handful of artists many who were friends of Allen’s donated their services to get the film completed with the very meager funds available.  The film had its world premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival in Canada in June of 2023 and saw limited release in theatres in March and was available as video on demand in May of 2024.  A three-disc set that has an alternate cut to the film and a documentary of it came out in July and a single disc DVD and Blu Ray will be released in September of 2024.

The film feels like an old 1950s or 60s science fiction adventure in the vein of Journey to the Center of the Earth or Fantastic Island and the use of stop-motion animation instead of CGI is refreshing and adds to the nostalgic feel of the film.  I was not expecting much from this film but I what was delivered was an interesting, well written, well directed and well-acted films.  Every bit of this film is rooted in the past and it feels just so wonderful.  The script has the gravitas and poetic rhythm that those old movies had.  The film’s pacing is also similar and may feel a bit slow to today’s generation, but I felt moved along just fine. The acting, led by the great Juliet Mills is better than expected.  Mills performance has a tenderness and authenticity to it while still being able to be forceful and dramatic.  The production value feels rich and vibrant. I would have never guessed that the live-action filming was done in 1994. I am not sure if today’s audience who have become so accustomed to such realistic looking CGI will appreciate the artistic value of the stop motion animation, but I absolutely loved it.  Overall, this was a thoroughly enjoyable film.

In looking over the filmography of David Allen, this man had a huge impact on my childhood.  Starting with the 1970 movie Equinox, which is one of my favorite “B” movies and working through films like The Day Time Ended, The Howling, Caveman, Q, The Stuff, Young Sherlock Holmes (earning him an Academy Award Nomination), *batteris not included, Willow, Ghostbusters II, Honey I shrunk the Kids, Puppet Master franchise, Doctor Mordrid and so many more. These movies hold special places in my heart and take me back to fond memories of my childhood.  I am pleased that his friends and colleagues got a movie that he worked on throughout his entire career finally completed and released and more than that.  It’s Good!