In the late 1960s, stop-motion animator David Allen shot a short promo called Raiders of the Stone Ring. While the promo caught the attention of Hammer Films, the project fell through, and Allen continued working out the treatment. Allen recruited fellow effects artist Randall William Cook to co-write a first draft that became the basis for The Primevals. While working on 1978’s Laserblast, Allen showed his promo reel to producer Charles Band, who agreed to finance the project. Unfortunately, production stalled for another decade until Band started Full Moon Features and acquired funding from Paramount. Allen filmed the live-action sequences and started working on the stop-motion in 1994, but production halted after Paramount pulled out. The film was shelved after Allen’s passing in 1999 until Band and Chris Endicott decided to revive it decades later. After years of development hell, David Allen’s The Primevals was finally finished in 2023.
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Rating
Synopsis
A group of Nepalese natives fends off a Yeti when an avalanche crushes the creature and kills it. Months later, Dr. Claire Collier (Juliet Mills) displays the beast’s body at a university, which stuns the audience. After the presentation, fellow scientist Matthew Connor (Richard Joseph Paul) asks Collier to accompany her on an expedition to Nepal. They travel to Calcutta to recruit rugged tracker Rondo Montana (Leon Russom) to lead them through The Himalayas. Once in Nepal, Connor, Collier, and Montana meet with scientist Kathleen Reidel (Walker Brandt) and local Siku (Tai Thai). As they travel further into the mountains, they encounter a hidden world with primordial hominids and other secrets. Soon, they discover a race of alien/human hybrids who have enslaved a Yeti to do their bidding. Mysteries will be uncovered, and our world will never be the same when our heroes face off with The Primevals!
Review
Given its production history, it’s wild to think that The Primevals is available to watch, let alone review. Over almost half a century, this film went through financiers pulling out, companies going bankrupt, and its director dying. The efforts of Charles Band, Chris Endicott, the IndieGoGo backers, and the Full Moon team resurrected this nearly lost film. Thankfully, unlike Last Foxtrot in Burbank, which was a bit of a slog, David Allen’s dream project is fantastic. It’s nothing groundbreaking or innovative, but it’s a fun, old-school adventure film that’s cheesy in the best way. While the characters aren’t fully three-dimensional or nuanced, the actors play their roles well, and there are some standouts. Character actor Leon Russom shines as the rugged Rondo Montana, and classic actress Juliet Mills excels as Dr. Collier. Richard Joseph Paul from Oblivion is similarly bland, but he does a decent job.
Of course, this movie’s real star is the fantastic stop-motion animation, which is impressive and adds to the charm. It’s very striking, from the rampaging Yeti at the beginning to the lizard men in the climax. Though sparse, the stop-motion is jaw-dropping and on par with the best of Ray Harryhausen’s work. Also, I’m impressed at how Chris Endicott and his team seamlessly blended the new animation with the original effects. It helps that the stop-motion is integral to the plot rather than feeling like breaks in between the talking parts. Adding to the old-school charm is the rich score by composer Richard Band, which gives the film a majestic feel. The music has a similar flair to Bernard Hermann’s scores while including some of Richard’s trademark beats. In a world dominated by cartoonish-looking CGI, this movie is a time capsule of classic cinema.
Though some of the production designs look cheap, you can tell that Full Moon spent plenty of money back then. In 1994, this must’ve looked like something that could’ve played in theaters instead of getting a direct-to-video release. Sadly, the high quality of this early Full Moon effort highlights how much the company fell by the wayside. While there have been surprises like Subspecies V: Blood Rise, those are few and far between. I mean no disrespect to Charles Band and Full Moon, but I wish they’d make more movies like this. Then again, that might be a pipe dream, considering they don’t have nearly the budgets they had in the 90s. It’s impossible to say how David Allen would feel about what’s happened, but I’d like to think he’s happy. Overall, The Primevals is a testament to the power of perseverance and a damn good adventure movie to boot.
Watch The Primevals on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4clW31o.
Disclosure: The above link is an affiliate link, which means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.
