The Primevals was a strange choice for Perth's Revelation Film Festival. Rev has previously hosted films such as The American Astronaut, The Fall, and Atmo Horrox. I was anticipating something in that rather offbeat vein.

What I got instead was a Saturday morning kids' movie. Ironic, since Rev is strictly 18+.

It caught my attention because of the story behind it. And there's respect due to David Allen, RIP, and those who carried on with the film and completed it. But it did seem out of place in the festival program.

That said, it had King Kong's cousin the Abominable Snowman, good space alien reptiles, bad space alien reptiles, reptile/human primitives, and spectacular scenery. And Nanny - sorry, Juliet Mills. All in all, I got my money's worth.

This is a film made from a sci-fi story of the '50s, started in the '70s, finished in the '90s and released in 2023, 25 years after the death of the writer/director who was in fact a stop motion animation guy. The only real actor in the film is Juliet Mills, the script is bad, the story laughable, everything is really ridiculous.

As one other reviewer noticed, my brain couldn't understand how was this was not in black and white. But at the same moment, I had these flashes of recognition: the low tech, the stop motion, the particular type of dialog, the obsolete scientific ideas and so on. I can't imagine someone work 50 years on this film and not realize how ridiculous it was. So I choose to believe it was a throwback satire thing, a set up for Mist3k, a loving reminder of the ways old cinema was.

Unfortunately. The film seems to take itself seriously, so I can't really recommend it even for the drunken fun nights with your mates. It was a surreal experience for sure.

After the discovery in the high Himalayas of what appears to be a Yeti specimen, he's been sent back to the United States for research. Leading the investigation is noted anthropologist Claire Colller (Juliet Mills of Billy Wilder's Avanti!) who decides to organize an expedition to the Himalayas. Collier teams up with Mat Connor (Richard Joseph Paul), a former student of her class and famous writer, Rondo Montana (Leon Russom) , an ex-big game hunter, and Kathleen Reidel (Walker Brandt) , another one of Collier's former students and the guide (Tai Thai) for their journey. Through dangerous paths, they suddenly arrive in a lost world in which they will discover an amazing and hidden crater inhabited by prehistoric creatures, primitive hominids and alien reptiles. They then are captured by aliens and are judged and condemned to death penalty. A Civilization Lost in Time... Invaded One Million Years Ago !. Journey to a hidden valley of incredible splendor and unbelievable terror... where the future and the past battle for the present !.

This fantasy picture gets action, adventures, derring-do, amusing images and breathtaking landscapes . Colorful atmosphere in this entertaining story in which with tension and adventure are maintained throughout. Splendid cinematography by cameraman Adolfo Bartoli showing marvellous outdoors and abound matte painting, including enjoyable special effects by specialist Dave Allen, and a nice production design too. Two decades after the death of the expert FX artist David Allen, this peculiar project was born; an imaginative story of adventure and science fiction in the purest style of the 60s and 70s. Allen, a Stop Motion specialist, responsible for the effects of films such as ¨Howling¨, ¨Young Sherlock Holmes¨ and ¨Willow¨attempted since the 1960s to make this film, to which he dedicated hours and hours of work until his premature death in 1999. After his death, the storyboards, puppets and other elements of the project passed to his work colleague Chris Endicott, who completed it, and finally almost 25 years later, ¨The Primevals¨ was released.

It contains traditional special effects by means of stop-motion, in the wake of Ray Harryhausen; in fact, there's a spectacular fight between Yeti and alien creatures. In addition, a rousing and spectacular musical score by Richard Band, 'Full Moon' and 'Empire' regular composer. The impressive and majestic soundtrack is one of the film's greatest assets. The motion picture was professionally directed by late Dave Allen and produced by Full Moon Features. The latter was a B-production company, owner Albert Band; he was one of Hollywood's most prolific directors who started his career in the early 50s and continuing the legacy, his son, the equally prolific producer/director Charles Band. Albert Band began financing a number of motion pictures through the sixties, seventies, and eighties decades and helped his son, Charles, to bring together his own production company, 'Empire Pictures', in the early eighties. Upon the collapse of Empire Pictures in the early nineties, Band continued to work with his son and help bring a number of low-budget and medium budget films to the Hollywood screen or direct to video releases. Albert Band directed some Westerns, such as : ¨She came to the Valley¨, ¨Massacre at Grand Canyon¨, ¨The Young Guns¨ and ¨The Tramplers ¨ at his best . Furthermore, he made terror and Sci-fi , such as : ¨Aliens Gone Wild , Prehisteria , Prehisteria 2 , Robot War , Ghoulies II , Satán's Dog¨ and all kind of genres. While his son Charles Band has written/produced/directed a lot of films, such as: ¨The Creeps, Hideous, Dollman vs demonic toys, Puppet master, Crash and burn, Trancers , Trancers II: the return of Jack Deth, Dungeonmaster, Metalstorm: the destruction of Jared Syn, Parasite, The alchemist¨. Rating The Primevals (2023) : 6/10, acceptable and passable fantasy/adventure movie.