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

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.

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.