(Ape caricature art by Richard Smith)
By Anthony Taylor, Contributing Writer
…in Collaboration with ATLRetro
Welcome to Apes on Film! This column exists to scratch your retro-film-in-high-definition itch. We’ll be reviewing new releases of vintage cinema and television on disc of all genres, finding gems and letting you know the skinny on what to avoid. Here at Apes on Film, our aim is to uncover the best in retro film. As we dig for artifacts, we’ll do our best not to bury our reputation. What will we find out here? Our destiny.
THE PRIMEVALS – (2023) – 2K BRD
2.5 out of 5 Bananas
Starring: Juliet Mills, Richard Joseph Paul, Leon Russom
Director: David Allen
Rated: NR
Studio: Full Moon Features
Region: A
BRD Release Date: 05/31/2024
Audio Format: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0
Video Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Run Time: 98 minutes
Legends are funny things. Some loom large as iconic cultural touchstones, growing as time passes; some remain nebulous and fade away, unrealized and vaguely remembered. Sometimes one dies many deaths but grows to mythic proportions based on circumstances around their resurrection, as is the case with David Allen’s film, THE PRIMEVALS.
Begun as a pet project by the stop motion animator in the late 1960’s, it was eventually announced as an upcoming production for Charles Band in 1978, even garnering a cover story in Cinefantastique magazine. Plagued by rewrites and budget battles, the film languished in development hell until the early 1980’s, when Band’s new company Empire Pictures proclaimed it as part of their upcoming release slate once a year for four years.
Band and Allen did finally gather the financial resources to begin production in 1994, with shooting taking place in Romania and Italy. Allen then began the stop motion animation sequences for THE PRIMEVALS only to be diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, which eventually claimed his life in 1999 at the age of 54.
Allen passed the torch on to his colleague and assistant Chris Endicott, who finally shepherded a finished version to release by Full Moon Pictures last year, though a slightly truncated version was released to Amazon Prime Video for streaming in 2023.
The film follows a very Harryhausen-esque template in setting up an adventurous search for Yetis in Nepal, where one has recently been killed and sent to California for research. A team of university scientists determine that the beast had been surgically altered to attack humans, and set off to solve the mystery of who might be creating weaponized giant primates and to what purpose. Led by Juliet Mills and Richard Joseph Paul, the team find more than what they expected — a lost civilization under the rule of evil beings.
So does the reality live up to the legend of this film that was held seemingly forever in production stasis? Was it worth the wait?
Frankly, it’s a very mixed bag. The creative team were special effects animators and artists, not screenwriters or feature film directors, and it shows. The script is all action and no characterization, and rife with plot holes — we understand why the story unfolds around these characters, but know just about nothing about who they are or their motivations beyond responses to cliched trigger events. The dialog is very much on par with an episode of oh say, THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN from late in the fifth season of that show.
The cinematography fares little better. In many of the effects shots there is a sense of mood and place, but for the rest of the film, the lighting is very flat and again conveys the impression of a production made for television several decades ago. It’s hard to ignore the evidence that the film, at least the live-action scenes, was shot in 1994. Of the acting, all I can say is that Juliet Mills acquits herself well throughout, but nobody else seems to have shown up for rehearsals if there were any.
It’s clear that these scenes were orchestrated by a director inexperienced not only with shooting and blocking for live action, but at a loss as to how to direct actors or communicate what was missing from their performances, if indeed he could even see that for himself. Bucking the trend, Richard Band’s original score for the film is just about perfect and conveys fanfare and mystery that almost makes up for some of the bad acting and other shortcomings. In the end, the film is an amateurish production with some wonderful visual tableaus and effects as well as great music.
Full Moon’s region-free presentation of THE PRIMEVALS is presented in several editions, all sourced from the original camera and digital materials in 1080p Blu-Ray format. Their Ultimate Collector’s Edition box set is presented in a leather collector’s case, with three Blu-rays featuring the theatrical cut, a new documentary on the making of the film, never before seen special features, and vintage behind-the-scenes footage, as well as the “David Allen Cut,” an extended version that contains storyboards and other footage assembled to more accurately reflect Allen’s original vision Also included are a set of postcards and a pair of enamel pins. In addition, there’s a three-disc set without all the fancy packaging and merch extras, and a single-disc version available which includes the theatrical cut of the film and the trailer.
There are plenty of reasons to be disappointed by the final result of David Allen’s pet project, but a few key reasons to enjoy it as well. If you’re a fan of Ray Harryhausen’s SINBAD style adventure, or old-style Disney live-action films like IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS or THE ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD, you’ll enjoy the nostalgic feel of THE PRIMEVALS. There’s something comforting about this particular kind of film that even bad acting and dialog can’t completely wreck if you have fond memories of its predecessors.
One wonders if the result might have achieved a magnitude of greatness higher if the script had gotten a pass by a writer with more flair for character, and if Allen had ceded the director’s chair to someone experienced in creating the kind of cinematic moments that he envisioned but was unable to execute.
As a film critic, I can’t recommend THE PRIMEVALS in good conscience; but as a film historian and lover, I have to recommend it as it scratches an itch that so many modern filmmakers seem to not know even exists – the longing for stories by generations of viewers who grew up watching fantasy and monster films made before the world was fully mapped and explored, created by people who understood that possibilities and imagination are always more interesting and exciting than facts and explanations. David Allen was a visionary artist whose reach exceeded his grasp — not a bad epitaph, perhaps.
Ape caricature art by Richard Smith.
Portions of this review were previously published in Screem Magazine.
©2025 Anthony Taylor