DVD Review: Primeval

By Iloz Zoc

Director Michael Katleman's Primeval is a film filled with monsters. There's Gustave, the four-legged, very hungry kind, and Little Gustave, among the two-legged and also very hungry - for power - kind. But that doesn't make Primeval a good horror film. In fact, as both monsters vie for who's the baddest of the bad, the story's tension, and any hope of scary shocks, is lost as the film flip-flops between social commentary, which demands lingering, thoughtful scenes, and horror, which requires the exact opposite.

Based on the real-life crocodile that's been attacking people along the Rusizi River in Burundi, Africa, you'd think the story would pretty much write itself: the largest man-eating crocodile in history, born out of the genocidal civil war raging in Burundi. With so many bodies floating around in the river, it's no wonder Gustave developed a taste for human flesh. Yet, Katleman's film misses the real horror of this human tragedy, and instead focuses on characters and situations that neatly fall into the usual square pegs, square holes.

One reluctant news reporter (Dominic Purcell), and one determined to become more than just a fluff, cute story animal reporter (Brooke Langton), square off and head to Burundi. Along with them for the ride is the hip, inner-city camera man (Orlando Jones). And, not to miss out on any of the clichés, they meet up with the herpetologist who wants to capture the man-eater alive — so you know what's going to happen to him, right? — and the savvy African hunter (Jurgen Prochnow), whose vendetta with the crocodile makes him itching to blow it up with a grenade or two.

Complicating matters is the genocidal war raging in Burundi, and Little Gustave, the warlord who controls the part of the country our intrepid crocodile hunters must travel through. It's these two seemingly complementary themes of evil and monstrosity, from both Gustaves, that work badly together. When the hunt for Gustave becomes the struggle to run from Gustave and Little Gustave, the interweaving of both is handled with uninspired dialog and predictable events that fail to build or even sustain tension.

Article Author: hauntedreport

iamlegend is the full time chief editor and blogger for several blogs, but confesses that The Haunted Report is his favorite. It covers the haunted house/horror market. Basically, if it tries to scare the crap out of you... we cover it.

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