Ozploitation at it's finest (Primal, 2010)

There's no place like home, (ya cunts!)

I spent the last weekend horse riding in the blue mountains. The sights were absolutely amazing; Australian bush land is a stunning mix of lush ground cover and tall white gum trees which reach endlessly upwards. it is also eerie as hell, riding through it I instantly understand the concept of ancient spirits of Aboriginal dreamtime mythology.

The perfect film I can think of which displays this perfectly and exquisitely is picnic at hanging rock (1975, Peter Weir).  Watching this story of a girl’s disappearance on a sleepy day in the bushland is like watching a dream. It is beautiful and haunting piece of stunning cinematography. Picnic at hanging rock however, is not a horror film.

Often, I think of how good the Australian bush is as a horror setting; however, Australia doesn’t churn out as many (decent) ‘cabin in the bush’ themed movies as I would like. 

While films can make foreign woods look beautiful and terrifying, there’s something about having the familiar landscape to be lost in, that hits harder for me. The whole cabin in the woods trope is a favourite of mine and having been lost in the bush before, getting turned around on hikes. I really can relate to the terror of being stranded in the middle of the bush, where everything looks exactly the same; one big twisting expanse of sandstone, dry leaf litter and tall, ghostly gums. 

Decided to check out a little Aussie film from 2010, ‘Primal’ (directed by Josh Reed). 

This film is good schlocky fun and doesn’t pretend otherwise. Sometimes its refreshing to watch films which know what they are and are completely fine with it- embrace the b movie within!

6 friend’s go into the Australian bush to camp out and study some newly discovered Aboriginal rock paintings from a thousand years ago. This plan is interrupted however when, after swimming in the nearby billabong, Mel becomes a cannibalistic animal who proceeds to attack the rest of the campers and seemingly give them as offerings to a mysterious cave

This film has everything I want in a fun horror film- loads of bright red blood, gorgeous scenery, and an amusing script. Mel’s ‘Cabin fever’ like transformation is gruesome and she makes a good monster but it’s funny to see her sharp- toothed, covered in blood but running around in pink pyjamas. The action in the movie is well paced with hardly any of it dragging on, it is a well-timed movie that uses its hour and a half effectively.

As said above it is a good script with fairly believable and normal Aussie vernacular. The c-bomb is dropped with in the first scene of the film and again used effectively in a final showdown. I appreciate its use as I’m quite partial to the word.  One scene in particular I liked was the showdown between the ‘alpha males’ of the group, which ends satisfyingly and amusingly as throughout the film the two and been annoyingly fighting for title of manliest man. I thought it was great way to note on how sexism and gender expectations don’t benefit anyone, even men.

All in all this movie was great, I had such a good time watching it that is was easy to excuse some badly delivered lines and a couple scenes of shitty CGI. This is a really entertaining movie and isn’t that the point?
As a fun Ozploitation Flick, I give ‘Primal’ a 6/10.