Review: Primal (2010)

Primal

IMDb rate: 4,9

Genre: Survival, Monster

This movie only has a 4,9 on IMDB but I actually quite liked it. I've watched it for the second time this week and it's really a decent movie. It's definitely better than I expected it to be. Most of the time these movies are about a few teenagers going camping while a murderer chases them, and tons of stupid actions are performed after that. First of all, Primal isn't necessarily about a murderer, it's about some sort of very old evil force that does something to the people.

It does have the typical characters in it though, a funny guy, slutty girl, studious type, alpha male and a girl who doesn't seem very interesting at first, or actually, there are two of those in this movie. It's actually exactly like Cabin in the Woods described. It isn't bothering though in this movie. The slutty girl seems true to her studious boyfriend (besides some flirting), the studious type isn't being to smart, the alpha male isn't very commanding and the funny guy is good at relieving some pressure of the movie when it's needed. There were a few annoying moments though, for example when the alpha male thought that his painting was far more important than a friend whose losing all her teeth. Or the studious type who was probably the biggest pussy ever.

A very noticeable thing about this movie is the camera work. It has a lot of speeding-up effects and cleverly leaving some parts away, but not in a way that you can't see what's happening. It's a good way to cover up difficult stunts and obviously keeps the budget low because stuntman aren't really necessary this way. The style in which it's filmed is comparable with Lesbian Vampire Killers I think.
I watched the extra's by the way, and they show how they created the wounds and how they trained the actors for the stunts. It was really interesting to watch.

Most of the movie is set while it's dark, but there's never a moment where you can't see what's happening. The lightning in this movie is very good, you don't miss out on anything this way. In most horror movies there is happening a lot of stuff, but it's too dark to see what's happening. So kudos to the lightning!

Primal was a low budget film, but not until the ending was it noticeable. The mutated bunny looked slightly fake, but it also gave a creepy effect to it. The blood parts looked very real in my opinion. The only thing that made this movie a bit terrible was the ending. One of the girl escapes the creature by going to a tunnel, here she finds one of her other girlfriends back who is all weird and is suddenly pregnant by some creature. Another creature also shows up and this one looks disappointingly fake. It's also a really strange monster and he seems a bit random to the story. But this is probably a continuation of the prelude.


Sometimes it felt like I was watching two different movies. One starting with the prelude, about the cave. It's the background story what everything was about but somehow it seemed unimportant. Then there's the middle story of a girl who is mutated by the water, she is becoming a treat. I felt like this was much more the main story of this film. The water is probably infected by what's in the cave, but still, surviving those weird creatures seemed much more important in most of the movie.

I thought Primal was a surprising movie. I liked it even thought I expected it to be shit. The acting is fairly good, the characters are a bit standard but it's not too annoying. The lightning is very good in this movie, as well is the camera work. The ending was highly disappointing though, that's quite a shame. Overall, I really recommend giving this low budget movie a go, it was definitely not bad!

My personal rate: 7/10

Review: Session 9 (2001)

Session 9

IMDB rate: 6,6

Genre: Possession

Second time watching Session 9. I'm not really sure what genre to put this in. It's a bit possession I think? But is that because of the institution of because of the person? I'm not too sure, but let's keep it with possession. But if you disagree with that, please let me know what would be a better fitting genre for Session 9.

Session 9 is quite a slow movie and I'm still not too sure what to think of it. It has great moments and great shots but what's the best about this movie is the location I think. 

An asbestos abatement crew wins the bid for an abandoned insane asylum. What should be a straightforward, if rather rushed, job, is complicated by the personal histories of the crew. In particular, Hank is dating Phil's old girlfriend, and Gordon's new baby seems to be unnerving him more than should be expected. Things get more complicated as would-be lawyer Mike plays the tapes from a former patient with multiple personalities, including the mysterious Simon who does not appear until session 9, and as Hank disappears after finding some old coins.

I think that abandoned buildings are the best places for horror movies, they have something mysterious and in the case of an insane asylum it's actually kinda frightening. I think it's fair to say that I have a small obsession with abandoned buildings and I think the location of this movie is what made me interested in watching this movie. The movie is particularly set during daylight so you don't have to be scared of scary faces showing up in the dark. Or well, that is if they're not going into the hallway under the building, where there is almost no light. 

It's very interesting to see that a movie in this location is set during daylight, because the night would give a much scarier vibe to it. But that's not necessarily the purpose of this movie, to scare people. If it was, the storyline would've been very different and they would have used this amazing location very differently (probably a bit like Grave Encounters). But it gives a nice vibe to the mysterious thing happening to them while it's still daylight. 

What's most scary about this movie is when Mike is playing the tapes of Mary Hobbes. It's not necessarily what she says, it's the way she says things. When she suddenly switches voices with one of her personalities it's very creepy sounding. A great touch to this movie.

What I did not like as much in this movie was the acting. And with that I mean David Caruso's acting, I think he's one of the worst actors out there. His face is pretty Kristen Stewart like, and the way he speaks is pretty annoying. What I hated most was when he said to back off or something, they dramatically zoomed in on his face. Not his fault of course, but he was in the shot so it's still a bit his fault. Actually, the acting wasn't too bad if we're just ignoring David.

It's well written and unpredictable, it's very different compared to usual horror movies. I think a lot is left to the imagination and that is a nice twist for a change. 

The first half may be a bit slow and perhaps slightly boring, but in the second half the movies fights his way back and gives us some action with it as well. 

Session 9 is an interesting movie but you do need to pay attention to it if you want to get the story. The acting is good with the exception of David Caruso's acting abilities. It needs imagination to like the storyline, but I think the location helps quite good with that. I did expect that there would've been more action though, and it would've been more interesting if the beginning wasn't this slow.

My personal rate: 6,5/10