Primevil (2010) Review

primevil lost tribe 2010 movie I picked up the Primevil box and looked at the artwork sticker on the front. The words “Predator Rip-Off” raced through my brain. Even the tag line confirmed it:  “Man is not the only Predator”. Optimistically I thought I could even be in Predator territory. How wrong could I have been?!

Directed by Roel Reine, Primevil tells the story of a group of friends onboard a yacht, who rescue a wounded man from the sea. With a hidden agenda, he then shipwrecks them during the night on an uncharted island. During the next day the friends discover a deserted military camp and they also start to hear strange noises and sense movements in the trees.
This causes tensions to flare within the group and any friendship between the group starts to dwindle as they become more and more anxious about their new surroundings – and what is in store for them. primevil lost tribe 2010 lance
Who is watching them from the trees? And why are members of the group disappearing one by one?

You also get to see the perpetrators eventually and it’s not impressive. Lots of chases follow, people get shot,  others get taken into the trees and there’s a bit of blood. That’s the film in a nutshell.

It transpires during the course of the film that a lost tribe has been discovered and that man was not created on the 6th day (I was confused by this as much as I think anyone else would be). But by this point in viewing Primevil think I’ve either lost the will to live at this point, or I haven’t got a clue what I am supposed to have been watching already.

The pace of the film slows down so much mid way that it’s easy to feel that you should never inserted the DVD into the player in the first place. A sense of boredom crossed with rigor mortis soon sets in. That’s how ‘dead’ the film becomes, if you pardon the pun.
Nearing the climax, I kind of gave up with the film as it wasn’t doing anything at all for me. The DVD was ejected and I fed it to my zombie dog. He spat it out in disgust! That says it all.

The problem with Primevil is that it never builds any momentum and the scare factor is minimal if virtually non existent. No kill scenes are even shown in their entirety as though there was a lack of budget for special effects. Primevil was very hard work to watch and was not captivating in any way which makes it hard to feel any affinity with any members of the cast. At times it felt that looking at time remaining on the DVD player was more interesting. I was just hoping that it would end!
Even the appearance of Lance Henriksen doesn’t save this film from being possibly one of the worst films I have ever watched.

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There was a severe lack of atmosphere, tension and gore in this film. And so much could have been done with the hints of church involvement in the discovery of the lost tribe. There
was even ample opportunities for the special effects team to be brought in to maximise the gore count.
It seems that the director liberally borrows elements from the original Predator film, to the extent that at times I almost felt that I was watching the original Predator! Albeit without Arnold Schwarzeneger of course!
The only element I did like about the film was the location. The island is quite beautiful.

If I’d rented this film from a video store I would have returned it and asked for a refund. It’s that bad!

Movie Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ 

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1 Comment

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  • Damn, damn and triple damn! I wish I had read your review before wasting 1hr 20 min of my life watching this rubbish. Couldn’t agree more with everything you’ve written.

    Blatant Predator rip off in several places, and I won’t even go into the obvious plot holes…

    And what’s with the ending of this film?! Would of been better off to kill off all the cast in the first 30 min and have done with it.

    Utter crap, well you’ve been warned by two people now… avoid like the plague.

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