Trailer—Primitif

Primitif(480P)

source: Primitif

source: Primitif

This film is called Primitif (a direct Indonesian translation of the English word, primitive). The alternative title is 'Tales of Voodoo 2', the title written on the VCD box. The storyline was (supposedly) about a group of students going into the deep jungle of Indonesian forest (possibly Kalimantan area, in which it borders Malaysia's Sabah & Sarawak) to do research about the indigenous people living there. The guide were reluctant about the whole idea, but finally agreed when he was shown the ever worshiped greenback. D'uh. Some things never change, ain't it ? So into the deep jungle they went. And things turned to worse when they were separated because of the raft incident. Many bad things ensued after that. But, lo and behold, they survived it all and they got back safely. In the whole an hour and a half film, there wasn't a single scene of voodoo rituals. And there were many cannibalistic scenes involving animals killing each other, but rest assured, they were all fake. Just like the film poster, made to look gory (and erotic), but trust me, it was entirely bad advertisement. But should I watched this film during the era, I may have different view about it. Those were the days when cannibals were craze, so perhaps this film could quench the thirst for the genre. All in all, a 2 out 10, because giving it a 1 may seem like all the work (and my time watching it) have gone down the drain.

Well, I bought Primitives before having seen it, and it was just okay. The acting was terrible (but that's par for the course, I'd say) and it was pretty gory in spots, but I couldn't help laughing myself silly at the part where a cannibal's thrown STONE axe boomerangs and hits him. Now, don't let that confuse you, this is a serious film, but I really have to wonder why they didn't edit that ridiculous part. Also, near the end, it takes the main characters about 20 seconds to build a very complicated raft without tools. On the plus side, there are some gutsy cannibals (one scene where they're messing around with a snake) and some surprising underwater photography, which is probably expensive, especially when the film's obviously ultra-low budget is considered. As a whole, this films is like a cheesy combo of Jungle Holocaust and Make Them Die Slowly. In the end I wouldn't recommend this to anyone except die-hard jungle cannibal movie fans, like me.

Rugged Robert (hunky Barry Prima), snippy Rita (homely eyesore Enny Haryono), and nerdy Tommy (bespectacled beanpole dweeb Johann Mardjono) are a trio of eager young college students who along with their macho guide Bisma (chunky bearded wonder Rukman Herman) find themselves in deep trouble when they encounter a lethal tribe of primitive cannibals deep in the jungle. Man, does this extremely cheap and crummy clunker strike out something rotten in every conceivable department: Sisworo Guatama Putra's flat, fumbling (mis)direction, the poky pace, Imam Tantowi's by-the-numbers hackneyed and predictable cookie cutter script, the slipshod editing, the bland acting, Lee Fioole's sub-par cinematography, the dreadful dubbing, precious little nudity, several poorly staged action scenes (in one especially unimpressive scene a native feebly wrestles with a python), the mild gore, Gatot Sudarto's mostly insipid, only sporadically lively score, a pitifully dumb and nonexplicit attempted rape that's followed by an equally lousy off-screen castration, and the colorless, unappealing main characters (Rita in particular is insufferably whiny) all leave a great deal to be desired. The fact that the DVD source print is clearly taken a beat-up VHS tape complete with drop-outs and occasional faulty tracking doesn't help matters in the least. This stinker quite simply lacks the essential sleaze and vigor that it needs in order to qualify as an entertaining piece of trash. Only the beautiful jungle scenery and the inspired use of Kraftwork's insanely funky "We Are the Robots" as the opening credits theme song offer some relief from the overall stupefying tedium. A dismally dull and dissatisfying dud.

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.

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.

I watched this movie under the title "Primitif" with Holland subtitles. It was not interesting at all, the plot (if any) was obvious and the gore effects was not very good. Need I say that the acting was ham? The only positive thing is the intro soundtrack which was "We are the robots" by Kraftwerk, accompanied by some "stylish" jungle-footage. Bah! Unless you're a REAL jungle-exploitation/cannibal-movie fan, this is not worth the 90 minutes.