Screen Scene: Primeval

“Primeval”

Director Michael Katleman

Buena Vista

Have you ever held your breath for 94 minutes? Well, prepare to
do exactly that with the unnecessarily graphic thriller
“Primeval,” directed by TV veteran Michael Katleman
(“Dark Angel,” “Tru Calling”).

The film takes place in Burundi, one of the poorest countries in
the world, where the American and British heroes often face dangers
greater than the threat of being devoured by a 9-meter crocodile.
As the small nation is also in the midst of a 40-year-long civil
war, the characters also live in fear of being shot, robbed, or
raped by soldiers, including those hired to protect them.

The characters in the film are undeveloped, stereotypical horror
film personalities: the brave jerk (Dominic Purcell of
“Prison Break” fame), the compassionate female
journalist (Brooke Langton, “The Hulk”) and, naturally,
the token black guy (played here by Orlando Jones), who utters such
memorable phrases as, “I feel like a pork chop on Queen
Latifah’s dinner plate!” There’s even a lovable
Benji dog thrown in.

As do most modern-day thrillers, the film poses a number of
impossible-to-answer questions. For example: Why were a journalist,
a pet psychic and a cameraman sent to capture the world’s
deadliest crocodile? How did the dog emerge from the ocean (after
being gone for days) just in time to avoid the wrath of the
crocodile? And ““ most importantly ““ how did the group
manage to get back to America, when it didn’t even know how
to get back to the village?

To its credit, the film is legitimately scary (which is more
than can be said for 95 percent of today’s horrors). The
tribal African music and sometimes-blurry camera angles keep you on
the edge of your seat, an effect so many thriller cinematographers
fail to create.

Just like so many horror films that came before it,
“Primeval” has a seemingly happy ending. The guy and
the girl head back to America together, their native African friend
and the dog get to come with them, and most importantly, the civil
war in Burundi comes to an end. However, the finale is not without
its final bite.

Even so, there is a message behind this low-budget flick.
Members of the Western world (particularly Americans) are bigger
monsters than even a man-eating crocodile. As the film points out,
Africans die every day, and Americans choose not to help them. Chew
on that.

E-mail Laird at hlaird@media.ucla.edu.

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