Fantastic Fest 2010: PRIMAL Review

Razor-toothed rabbit? Check. Skinny dipping with leeches at night after seeing razor-toothed rabbit attack your friends? Check. Slowly realizing you might not survive the night because your friends are turning into monsters? Check.

It's no insult to call writer/director Josh Reed's PRIMAL a straightforward exploitation horror thriller. Set in the woods somewhere in Australia, the film doesn't spend much time soaking in the beauties of the rural landscape.

Neither do the characters; it's not that important to them, because they're heading off in support of their friend Dace (Wil Traval), who's seeking a doctorate in primal art (or something). He's intent on studying primal paintings; the prologue has already shown us that the paintings (on the outside of a cave) are linked with bloodshed and death, so we have a pretty good idea that something bad is going to happen.

The six friends are paired off neatly: the strong-minded Dace with the compliant Kris (Rebekah Ford), fun-loving Mel (Krew Boylan) with her quiet but jealous boyfriend Chad (Lindsay Ferris), guitar-playing and joking Warren (Damien Freeleagus) with the claustrophobic Anya (Zoe Tuckwell-Smith).

The relationships are thrown into turmoil after they encounter the razor-toothed rabbit, and things really start falling apart after one of them decides to go skinny dipping and discovers that leeches are not very nice playmates. Also, what's up with those tiny little insects?

Director Reed keeps the action hopping (no pun intended), which pulls the narrative quickly past any hiccups in logic. While the characterizations are not especially deep, we have the sense that these friendships have been solid, but maybe not lifelong. As much as they try to look out for one another, at a certain point, gut-level desperation sets in and it's every man -- and woman -- for themselves.

But it's not a grim descent into madness. Reed's script allows for the occasional release of tension through humor, and the film overcomes a couple of minutes of dodgy effects work to reach a satisfying conclusion.

PRIMAL is good fun in the woods.