Primitives — Primitives (Blu Ray)
Appearing in 1980 Primitives (aka Primitif, Savage Terror, Horror caníbal 2, Mondo Cannibale - die Menschenfresser) was the directorial debut of Sisworo Gautama Putra(Sisworo Gautama)- who altogether helmed twenty-five features, which go from gory Indonesian Robin hood with magical powers caper( 1980’s The Warrior). Onto teen supernatural horror (1982’s Satan’s Slave), through to the duelling warlord fantasy horror of ( 1983's Perkawinan Nyi Blorong), onto the bizarre melodrama with touches of horror( 1986's The Hungry Snake Woman). As first films go Primitives is fairly competent- sure we get a fair bit of use of clear stock footage, & logic/ sense drifts a little- but on the whole, this isn’t a bad debut at all- by low-budget standards.
The films plot/ flow is extremely predictable by cannibal movie standards- we follow a group of Three anthropology students, Tommy( pebbled glasses, red dungarees, and rucksack), Rita( adventurous though petite Asian lady), and Robert( heroic & seemingly unfearing)- with their two guides into the jungle. First they meet a fairly civilised tribe, with later the group insisting they go deeper to the jungle to look for a true primitive tribe. And of course, after several animal encounters( mainly stock footage) some of the group find their ‘Primitives’ in a rather neat cave setting, as others have more jungle encounters. Along the way, we, of course, get decidedly unpleasant animal-on-animal attacks/ slaughter-many of these are stock, though there is one gruelling on-camera slaughter/ ripping of an alligator. Gore wise there is no real human gut ripping going on, though we do get folks bloody impaled on wooden spikes, limbs ripped off, and various taunting/ torture sessions- that switch between unsettling & amusing. Along the way we get some wonderful moments of trippy wooziness- the most memorable/ effective of these comes when the groups' geek Tommy is wondering in a deliriously hungry state - he comes across a branch full of green fruits- which he sees as red rosy apples- he munchers down on them, starts to vomit & trip-out with great spiralling & disorientating camera work.
Sure Primitives is clearly influenced/ trying to mimic the Italian cannibal films- but it does have it’s own twisted/quirky Indonesia feel, which makes it distinctive enough in its own right- and if you’re a fan of the genre you’ll most certainly be wanting to see this.
Moving onto this new region free release- and we get the longest print in the existence of the film, which is of german origin- with a highly tacky-at-points unintentionally amusing English dub track. The print is a little damaged & worn in places, and it doesn’t look like it’s been that cleaned/ balanced much- but it’s passable, with no real glaring issues. On the extras side we get two on-camera interviews- first is with the film's producer Gope T. Samtani & this runs around seven minutes, then the second is with Screenwriter Imam Tantowi- this runs at around ten minutes. Both interviews are good, and we get to talk about the location- the actors/ crew had to stay in the villages huts, though if they needed to do number twos they had to go to the nearby hotel. Moving onto discuss the cast, on set stories, the films production, and selling the film outside of Thailand. Next, we get alternative UK credits for the film and an original trailer.
If your either a fan of Indonesia horror in general, or of course cannibal genre you’ll be wanting to get your hands on this Blu Ray. Lets hope Severin have plans afoot to release more Indonesia horror in the near future, as there is no doubt they have their own distinctive and at points deranged flavour.