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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: March 28th, 2022.
Director: Vittorio Rambaldi
Cast: Patrick Lowe, Cheryl Arutt, Sarah Buxton, Mitch Watson, Bo Svenson
Year: 1988
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Primal Rage – Movie Review:
Directed by Vittorio Rambaldi and written by none other than Umberto Lenzi (the man who gave us Cannibal Ferox and countless other Italian horror and crime movie classics), 1988's Primal Rage was an Italian/American co-production made during the end of the Italian horror boom of the seventies and eighties. The film was available on VHS during that format's heyday but had remained unavailable on DVD until Code Red released it on disc in 2010, only for that disc to go out of print not all that long after it was released. A decade later, Primal Rage was released on Blu-ray courtesy Dark Force Entertainment and now, 2023 sees the film get a 4k upgrade through Vinegar Syndrome.
The film is set at a Florida college campus where, unbeknownst to most of the student body, a scientist named Ethridge (Bo Svenson, decked out in a white lab coat and sporting the world's most pathetic ponytail) conducts experiments on baboons. What exactly he's up to isn't really made all that clear, but it's got something to do with brain surgery of some sort. Regardless, the baboon he's currently experimenting on is injected with something that makes him very grumpy and prone to biting people. This is a lesson learned the hard way by a pair of would be 'gonzo journalists' working for the school paper - Sam (Patrick Lowe) and Duffy (Mitch Watson) - when the dastardly baboon chomps down on Duffy's flesh.
As the movie plays out, dopey Duffy starts to show signs of infection. His skin starts to become sickly, his veins show through and his behavior becomes increasingly primal and enraged in nature. Go figure. Sam, who rides around town on a red motor-scooter, sets the two of them up on a date with two girls - Lauren (Cheryl Arutt) and an unusually pro-abortion chick named Debbie (Sarah Buxton) - but romance is not to be, for soon he starts to lose his faculties and goes on a rampage across the campus. Of course, Duffy's condition is communicable, and with this being a college campus and girls being readily available, he winds up spreading it. Before you know it, there are all manner of infected students running around causing trouble, much to the dismay of Ethridge and the local police force.
With special effects handled by Vittorio Rambaldi's father, the legendary Italian horror effects king Carlos Rambaldi, Primal Rage, seen here in its uncut form, is pretty strong stuff in the blood and gore department. Not only is there a fair bit of carnage on screen, but the effects work used to turn the various infected cast members into the raging monsters that they become is perfectly goopy, puss-laden and generally just icky in every way that it needs to be. Say what you will about the acting and the storyline, but as far as the effects are concerned, Primal Rage is pretty impressive. Effects, however, don't make a movie. The story here is as goofy as can be and the performances are hokey and frequently overdone. There are moments where the stunt work is terrible (Bo Svenson's final scene in the film being the best example) and moments where it sounds like composer Claudio Simonetti is recycling a fair bit of his previous work.
That said, hey, this is a trashy horror film from the late eighties. Let's keep things in check as far as expectations go, alright? There's still a good bit of fun to be had with this picture. The finale that takes place during a Halloween costume party complete with a guy in a Darth Vadar costume is pretty nifty. It features different costumed merrymakers going about and doing their thing while a crew of skeleton-clad baddies tear it up just a few feet away. The acting, all of which appears to have been dubbed in post, is terrible more often than not but the characters and their eighties era wardrobe are colorful enough that it doesn't matter so much. On top of that, you can have a lot of fun playing 'spot the eighties pop culture fad' on the walls of the various dorm rooms and bedrooms that are used in the movie. Be on the lookout for the Noid, Robocop, Bartles And Jaymes wine coolers and quite a few other popular icons from the decade in which the picture was made.
Primal Rage – UHD/Blu-ray Review:
Primal Rage arrives on UHD from Vinegar Syndrome in an HVEC encoded 2160p transfer taken from a new 4k master of original 35mm negative and framed at 1.85.1 widescreen with HDR10. Detail and color reproduction are noticeably improved over the previous DVD and Blu-ray editions from Code Red and Dark Side respectively, and skin tones look noticeably more accurate. There’s some mild specks here and there and the opening credits show a bit more dirt than the rest of the film (likely due to the opticals used) but the majority of the movie is very clean looking and always properly film-like in appearance. There aren’t any issues with noise reduction, edge enhancement or compression problems at all. Overall, this is a pretty strong transfer of elements that are a step or two away from perfect and it will give fans a pretty nice upgrade in the picture quality department.
The only audio option on the disc is an English language 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Mono track, with optional English subtitles provided. Sound quality is pretty decent, there’s a reasonable amount of depth to the score and effects work. There’s some minor hiss in a few spots and sometimes things are a tad flat, but if you’ve seen the movie before, none of this will shock you. Overall, the track is properly balanced and pretty clean. No real problems to note here.
There are no extras on the first disc but the second disc contains an eighty-six minute documentary on the making of the movie titled ‘Baboon Bite Maniacs!.’ Made up primarily of new interviews with actors Cheryl Arutt, Patrick Lowe, Sarah Buxton, Bo Svenson, Mitch Watson and casting director Billy Damota, it’s a pretty comprehensive look back at the making of the movie. Topics covered here include how the cast members got into acting and how they wound up working on this movie, what Rambaldi was like to work with, how everyone got along on set and how everyone bonded during the making of the movie, Carlo Rambaldi's style, the effect of a potential writers strike on the movie, who did what behind the scenes, having to deal with prosthetics and makeup work, the pros and cons of making a horror movie as opposed to something from another genre, how Bo Svenson would wear his fake ponytail offset to bars to try and look hip, memories of shooting specific key scenes in the movie, how everyone feels about the movie in hindsight and how the movie is very much an obvious product of the eighties.
Carried over from the previous Dark Side Blu-ray release is an interview with William J. Immerman that runs for twelve-minutes. He talks here about how and why a picture (but not this picture - possibly 1982's Highpoint?!) came about after he had finished up his tenure at 20th Century Fox and got introduced to some wily Canadians who wanted to get into film production. From there, he got the script and set everything up to be shot in Canada save for some pickup work in Los Angeles, the tongue-in-cheek nature of the movie, casting the film with comic actors from Toronto's Second City, the differences between the US version and the version that played everywhere else in the world, how the movie may have been ahead of its time in some ways, how he feels the film broke down the barrier to allow American filmmakers to go to Canada and make movies, how his older son got into Canada using a 'Star Trek ID card,' stunt work that was required on the feature and quite a bit more. This doesn't really have anything to do with Primal Rage at all, though clips from it are used throughout.
A still gallery, menus and chapter selection options round out the disc, which comes packaged with some reversible cover sleeve art and, if purchased directly from the Vinegar Syndrome website, a slipcover limited to 6,000 units designed by Earl Kess.
Primal Rage - The Final Word:
Primal Rage is a blast, a ridiculously entertaining piece of goofy trash horror from the late eighties with some pretty cool effects work and a storyline that, as silly as it all may be, keeps us more than entertained. Vinegar Syndrome has done right by the film’s fans, giving the movie a very nice 4k upgrade and providing a really interesting documentary that goes over the making of the film.