Primitif (1980) Online

Primitives is an extremely rare cannibal film filmed in Indonesia, and although it is a blatant take on cannibal ferox, it is unique in odd ways. The soundtrack is stolen Kraftwerk! Yes, I kid ye not, the film actually opens to "We are the robots"!

The "heroes" are Scooby-doo esque students that venture into the jungle to gain some hands-on experience with primitive culture to aid them in writing their thesis, and decide to go for gold by venturing even deeper into savage territory, in order to bring back experience they can really write about, and that they do. They take a raft down river, and when it hits a rock, their guide is killed and they are separated. Lost, they encounter hostile savages, who capture two of the students, while the other wanders around looking for them. The rest writes itself.

Primitives is generally a dull watch, but has its moments. In one scene for instance, a kiddie savage pee's on a captive student (Robert) from a height of 20 feet while a laughs! In one combat scene, A savage throws an axe at Robert, and he misses. The axe then boomerangs and strikes the savage in the throat, killing him! There are also some interesting animal combat scenes, like a leopard versus two crocodiles, and a huge snake versus a huge reptile.

Like other cannibal films, it has some token animal killing scenes, although they are mostly faked I'd say (but still yuk). It is also pretty gory in spots, the most notable being a scene where a savage gives birth, and licks the bloody baby clean! (Eskimos do this too, by the way, and they don't use diapers...) There's also an excellent spike trap scene which will make you howl laughing.

Still, unless you can't get enough of cannibal films, you may not appreciate it, but it may act as a good introduction to cannibal film to the uninitiated. (Though poor nonetheless)

Cannibal holocaust lite!

An atrociously made, acted and dubbed cannibal movie that is also very tame in terms of violence (except for a scene where a crocodile is skinned alive) and nudity (it must have been on the female lead's contract not to have a single nude scene). The "highlights" of the film's stupidity include:

A: The poorly integrated stock footage of animals killing each other.

B: The lamest attempted-rape sequence you'll ever see.

C: A scene of the cannibals having circled around the hero and then attacking him one-at-a-time, and him defending himself with karate moves!

D: A silly conversation about whether the cannibals have any chances of "adapting to our civilization" ("Well, it's gonna take quite some time"!).

E: The already-mentioned axe-boomerang scene, and a terribly edited spear-throwing scene a few seconds earlier.

The on-location filming is the only thing that forces me to give this film one star, instead of none. Only for the desperately curious.

In the era where Jungle/Cannibal movies are crowned, Indonesia filmmaker didn't waste the potential. The result is Primitive, a monetized thriller that supposed to be scary. The movie is about a group of college student to do some research upon some primitive tribes in the jungle. Unbeknown, they drifts to wrong site of the jungle and met this cannibalistic peoples. And this began the carnage toward them.

Due the budget, there's seem a limitation in creativity and vision. The movie meant to be serious, but unbelievable that there's a lot comedic situation, despite still left some good scare.

Primitive starred by Barry Prima, prior his Film-Silat (Period Action) era. He is very popular in the 80's. Unbelievable (again!) that he ever played a role in this kind of movies (actually, there's also has 'Serigala', a blatant copy of 'Friday The13th'), before he's got exploits in the 80's.

Even though look cheap in every aspects (f/x, gore, costumes, setting, etch), actually this movie is still an enjoyable flick. Watch this if you have chance, and you will believe everything I've said.

6/10

When I first found this film at my local video store I thought it must have been a retitled version of one of the Lenzi or Deodato cannibal films as I had never heard of it before. After watching it I wish it had been.

There is something almost authentic about the Italian cannibal films, where as this comes across as exactly what it is, a cheapo jungle adventure. The natives in this one ham it up way to much in my opinion.

I have mentioned cannibals a few times already, but there is no actual cannibalism in this film(people are speared and taken by crocodiles), although it is mentioned by some characters in the film, it is however in the same vein as the Italian cannibal films. There is of course plenty of violence against animals and some hilariously badly inserted stock footage(very grainy) of a leopard attacking or being attacked by crocodiles and a snake killing a furry critter of some sort.

Some scenes are OK, such as the scenes set inside a cave, where two of the central characters are held captive, being urinated on while trapped in a cage and being forced on to all fours and ridden around like a horse, but in the main it is badly acted and pretty boring.

The version that I saw looked like it was cut, although I would not think that an uncut version would be all that gory anyway as there doesn't seem to be that much opportunity for extreme violence with the situations that are created.

Only seek this one out if you have to see every cannibal(?) movie ever made.

I obtained this on the VideoAsia "Tales of Voodoo 2" label. No voodoo to be seen, although the eponymous natives were reasonably uncivilised.

What do you get from your average cannibal movie and how does it match up?

Well I would venture to list and suggest the following:

Soggy jungle scenes: present; Offensive animal cruelty: present; Woeful acting: present++; Poor camera-work: present+++ Nudity: not a jot; Gore: present; Plot: the usual.

Lawd! This film is desperate. A downmarket Cannibal Holocaust meets Cannibal God. The Indonesians haven't a clue. Watch something else....

Playing like a low rent version of an Italian cannibal movie, but with little nudity, some gore and bad fright wigs this is the story of a group of students who travel deep into the jungle to get material for their thesis. Stopping first with a tribe that has had contact with the modern world, they then move on to find an undiscovered group. While traveling down stream their boasts flip in the rapids and they are separated into groups. One group is captured by an unknown tribe while the others try to find them and stay alive.

This is half a good film. Most of the stuff up until they meet the unknown tribe is okay in a low rent sort of way. Once they meet the tribe things get very silly as everyone seems to be wearing the same bad wig and carrying professionally made by the prop department stone weapons. The tribe often seems to be engaging in too much "ooga booga" behavior. There are flashes of good stuff in these scenes but mostly it comes off as a gory Caveman (The movie with Ringo Starr).

The film seems to want to be on par with the Italian cannibal films but its done on the cheap and with no conviction like the films they are seeking to copy. There is almost zero nudity which is odd for a primitive culture. They strip one guy down to his bvds and then stop as if for modesty reasons. The female lead never loses her shirt even though everyone else ends up with torn clothes. The violence against animals is quite graphic (and some of the animal against animal stuff is from another mismatched film), but some of the violence against people is shown slightly obscured manner. Its a great disappointment.

This isn't to say the movie is awful. Its not. There are some good things here, basically anything not involving the natives (which I know defeats the purpose since this is film about them). This is going to appeal more to people with a love for or high tolerance of bad movies since a good half of this is very silly.

Primitives (1978)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Three college kids and their professor travel to Indonesia where they go into the jungles in search of cannibals. They find them but soon learn the cannibals are rather hungry. Here's a rare jungle/cannibal film from Indonesia, which tries hard to recapture the Italian cannibal genre but pretty much fails. The biggest problem is that there are so many cliffhanger moments that you really can't take the film too seriously. The worst thing is that none of the characters are all that likable so you have a hard time wanting to see them live. Be forewarned that there are a lot of real animals slaughtered (and eaten) on screen.

I imagine that Ruggero Deodato's 1977 horror flick CANNIBAL (aka JUNGLE HOLOCAUST) was a pretty big hit in Indonesia because it instantly spawned this remake, which is a scene-by-scene copy replacing the Amazon jungle with Indonesia and the Italian actors with Indonesian ones. Even the characters look the same, right down to an Indonesian guy with glasses replacing Ivan Rassimov. Deodato's film is obviously the superior of the two but PRIMITIVES is not without merits, and it's pretty amusing to watch the various rip-off bits taking place. The only let down, really, is that it's not as insane or crazy as some other Indonesian horror films I've seen (QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC for instance) but of course it still has its share of crazy stuff.

Opening to the unusual strains of Kraftwerk on the soundtrack, director Sisworo Gautama Putra treats us to the rather disorientating sight of a wide-lens camera zooming around the jungle in frenzied flight. This same wide-lens camera keeps popping up throughout the movie at most inopportune moments, often turning the quite serious happenings into something bizarre and crazy. Why? Who knows. Here's where we get introduced to the lead characters, supposedly college students, but more like mature students.

The first up is some Indonesian chick who obviously has a no-nudity clause in her contract, seeing as when her clothes are torn-off, a bikini-style strip of cloth is left around her chest. Second up is the Ivan Rassimov-wannabe guy who is actually pretty funny as he wanders around the jungle and eats poisonous fruit. Finally, we have the first major leading role in a horror movie for Barry Prima, later to become a national hero after appearing in the WARRIOR films. Prima is in his element as the nimble hero, his acting ranging from carefree happiness to elation to a surprisingly display of sorrow and despair when imprisoned. All that and he gets to karate-chop the cannibals, too (only in Indonesia)!

The first native tribe our heroes encounter is a pacifist one that spends a lot of time dancing and jabbering in a OTT ritual as our leads solemnly commentate on the action (racism runs rampant in this movie, be warned). Pretty soon afterwards they steer their homemade raft into white-water rapids and are unsurprisingly washed up later on the shore, separated. Barry and his would-be girlfriend immediately get themselves captured by a native tribe, who strip our lithe hero to his undies in a direct rip from CANNIBAL. Afterwards he gets stuck in a cage and urinated on whilst a minor tribe member has his private parts crushed with a rock after waving his manhood at the female captive - scenes which again bear direct traces of Deodato's film.

Meanwhile, our bespectacled friend witnesses one of the other no-name Asian guys getting chewed to pieces by a crocodile (leaving a cheesy severed arm floating down the river) whilst he himself grows more and more ill from a festering leg wound - hey, just like Ivan Rassimov! Eventually the gang escape - no surprise there - and a chase and battle with the natives ensues in the jungle as they head for the river. The ending is totally unsurprising if you've seen Deodato's earlier movie, other than for a hilarious moment in which our heroes build a solid, sturdy and large raft in under TWENTY SECONDS.

Most of the film's horror content comes from mondo-style footage of animal stuff which is just as horrendous as in the Italian cannibal films of the period. Crocodiles eat leopards, snakes chew reptiles and - in the film's most distasteful moment - a squealing orangutan's skull is smashed by a blunt axe. Thankfully the latter moment is staged off screen although it's no less disturbing. Typically for an Indonesian film, the effects are there to disgust rather than impress, so we get people chewing on live bugs, a woman giving birth explicitly and severing the umbilical cord with her teeth, and the most hilarious jungle trap scene I've ever witnessed, in which the victim is thrown through the air on to a bed of spikes and then strung up by a tree - that's a clever trap!

Other amusing highlights include some snake fights (rubber snakes animated by a bit of string-pulling); a guy getting pulled up into a tree by a snake - the effect is startlingly poor; a really bad shot of a man getting a spear in the stomach; and a hilarious moment in which a stone axe turns into a boomerang for some inexplicable reason to crush the throat of the thrower! The bizarro elements help to make PRIMITIVES worth seeking down, even if you've seen the movie that it rips off shot-for-shot, as nobody makes 'em like the Indonesians and this is a solid enough example of their horror genre at work.

Supposedly inspired by the Italian cannibal movies of the seventies "Primitives" is an Indonesian insult to the genre and should be avoided at all costs. Three dopey college students are interested in writing a thesis about primitive tribes so they venture deep into the jungle in search of one. The trio consists of the athletic Robert, annoying butterface Rita and nerdy Tommy whose rail thin face makes him look like a brown skeleton with long hair and glasses. The group dismiss the first tribe they encounter due to the lack of primitive street cred (aren't the college types always elitist snobs) convincing their river guide to take them deeper into the jungle. After crashing their boat Robert and Rita become captured by the primitives they were looking for and are subjected to the lamest "tortures" ever. The tribe all wear the same goofy wigs while yelling "oooh oooh oooh" for EVERYTHING! The funny thing is somehow the same grunts obviously convey information as the tribe seem to react like it's a distinct language. Anyhow, Robert and Rita are tied up and stripped down in tame Hallmark quality exploitation. Robert ends up in his briefs while Rita is basically given shorts and a cutoff t-shirt. Are you titillated yet? Let me inform you now that the prude who plays Rita obviously refused to do any hint of nudity which is a shame because all this screaming no-talent has going for her is her decent sized tits. The aforementioned torture? Gasp in horror as Robert is forced to give piggy back rides! Try to peel your eyes from the vicious rape that basically consists of a native flashing Rita! Be shocked at the extreme urination scene where a boy relieves himself on Robert's prison cell! There is some graphic scenes in this movie but of serious animal abuse that really is used as an excuse to seem edgy. Don't be mistaken. I enjoy a rare piece of red meat like most men however I find this kind of senseless killing of animals appalling. Now as for the director, well, that's another story. This is the cannibal movie equivalent of holding hands on a first date. No nudity, very little gore, stock footage stolen from other Italian cannibal movies, unappealing characters, lifeless storyline, plodding pace, and that's just for starters. How was this film inspired by anything other than sitting in a doctor's waiting room reading a twenty year old copy of "Highlights" magazine? What's worse is the quality of the film. First time I ever needed to adjust the tracking on a DVD. The font used for the subtitles which appear to be Greek are so large they take up the bottom third of the picture. It appears in some parts that the film was missing (lucky me) as the runtime on my DVD was only an hour and twenty four minutes. Packaged under the "Tales of Voodoo" label along with the dismal "Diamond Ninja Force" with neither one of these movies having anything to do with said voodoo. Perhaps there was voodoo practiced on me as I was dumb enough to buy this double doody waste of time. If you happen to come in contact with this movie burn it immediately.

Three anthropology students, Robert, Rita and Tommy, venture into the uncharted regions of the Indonesian rain-forest where they are attacked, captured and tortured by a tribe of primitives.

My search for the most obscure of cannibal flicks continues, taking me deep into Indonesian exploitation territory with this trashy jungle adventure/survival horror from director Sisworo Gautama Putra. Although, strictly speaking, this doesn't really qualify as a cannibal film since no-one actually gets eaten, the movie is clearly modelled after the Italian cannibal 'classics' of the 1970s and serves up scene after scene that will seem all too familiar to fans of the genre.

During the course of the film, the captive students are stripped, humiliated and taunted, someone is impaled on a jungle booby trap, a woman gives birth in the jungle and has her newborn baby licked clean by children, a native is emasculated with a rock, and an assortment of animals are torn apart and eaten while still alive. However, with the exception of the sickening real-life animal cruelty, the film fails to match most of its Italian counterparts in terms of genuinely disturbing sequences, with a notable lack of graphic gore and gratuitous nudity (despite being grabbed, groped and almost raped, buxom Rita somehow remains clothed throughout).

Unintentional laughs, on the other hand, are never in short supply: the incongruous opening music is Kraftwerk's electronic classic 'The Robots'(!?!?!); Robert's distress at being ridden like a horse by the tribes-folk is absolutely hilarious; the 'language' spoken by the natives consists of comical grunts, shrieks and 'Ooooh's; a ridiculous rubber snake attack sees the victim being hoisted right up into a tree; an axe is thrown, only to return like a boomerang and strike down its owner; and a raft is constructed by the exhausted students in the space of thirty seconds.

This film is called Primitif (a direct Indonesian translation of the English word, primitive). The alternative title is 'Tales of Voodoo 2', the title written on the VCD box.

The storyline was (supposedly) about a group of students going into the deep jungle of Indonesian forest (possibly Kalimantan area, in which it borders Malaysia's Sabah & Sarawak) to do research about the indigenous people living there.

The guide were reluctant about the whole idea, but finally agreed when he was shown the ever worshiped greenback. D'uh. Some things never change, ain't it ? So into the deep jungle they went. And things turned to worse when they were separated because of the raft incident.

Many bad things ensued after that. But, lo and behold, they survived it all and they got back safely.

In the whole an hour and a half film, there wasn't a single scene of voodoo rituals. And there were many cannibalistic scenes involving animals killing each other, but rest assured, they were all fake. Just like the film poster, made to look gory (and erotic), but trust me, it was entirely bad advertisement.

But should I watched this film during the era, I may have different view about it. Those were the days when cannibals were craze, so perhaps this film could quench the thirst for the genre.

All in all, a 2 out 10, because giving it a 1 may seem like all the work (and my time watching it) have gone down the drain.

I watched this movie under the title "Primitif" with Holland subtitles. It was not interesting at all, the plot (if any) was obvious and the gore effects was not very good. Need I say that the acting was ham? The only positive thing is the intro soundtrack which was "We are the robots" by Kraftwerk, accompanied by some "stylish" jungle-footage. Bah!

Unless you're a REAL jungle-exploitation/cannibal-movie fan, this is not worth the 90 minutes.

Well, I bought Primitives before having seen it, and it was just okay. The acting was terrible (but that's par for the course, I'd say) and it was pretty gory in spots, but I couldn't help laughing myself silly at the part where a cannibal's thrown STONE axe boomerangs and hits him. Now, don't let that confuse you, this is a serious film, but I really have to wonder why they didn't edit that ridiculous part. Also, near the end, it takes the main characters about 20 seconds to build a very complicated raft without tools.

On the plus side, there are some gutsy cannibals (one scene where they're messing around with a snake) and some surprising underwater photography, which is probably expensive, especially when the film's obviously ultra-low budget is considered.

As a whole, this films is like a cheesy combo of Jungle Holocaust and Make Them Die Slowly. In the end I wouldn't recommend this to anyone except die-hard jungle cannibal movie fans, like me.

Rugged Robert (hunky Barry Prima), snippy Rita (homely eyesore Enny Haryono), and nerdy Tommy (bespectacled beanpole dweeb Johann Mardjono) are a trio of eager young college students who along with their macho guide Bisma (chunky bearded wonder Rukman Herman) find themselves in deep trouble when they encounter a lethal tribe of primitive cannibals deep in the jungle. Man, does this extremely cheap and crummy clunker strike out something rotten in every conceivable department: Sisworo Guatama Putra's flat, fumbling (mis)direction, the poky pace, Imam Tantowi's by-the-numbers hackneyed and predictable cookie cutter script, the slipshod editing, the bland acting, Lee Fioole's sub-par cinematography, the dreadful dubbing, precious little nudity, several poorly staged action scenes (in one especially unimpressive scene a native feebly wrestles with a python), the mild gore, Gatot Sudarto's mostly insipid, only sporadically lively score, a pitifully dumb and nonexplicit attempted rape that's followed by an equally lousy off-screen castration, and the colorless, unappealing main characters (Rita in particular is insufferably whiny) all leave a great deal to be desired. The fact that the DVD source print is clearly taken a beat-up VHS tape complete with drop-outs and occasional faulty tracking doesn't help matters in the least. This stinker quite simply lacks the essential sleaze and vigor that it needs in order to qualify as an entertaining piece of trash. Only the beautiful jungle scenery and the inspired use of Kraftwork's insanely funky "We Are the Robots" as the opening credits theme song offer some relief from the overall stupefying tedium. A dismally dull and dissatisfying dud.