Primeval serves as irrefutable proof that way too many critics take their title a bit too seriously. By definition, critics should be fans of their field but, alas, all to many fall prey to hubris and lapse into critical snobbery by the end of the day as nothing stands up to their standards. Case in point, as evidenced by most every review of veteran television director Michael Katleman’s challenging, iconoclastic debut feature-length film, a picture which houses a giant crocodile, Primeval is a production which cannot produce (especially in the wake of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws)–not only anything of redeemable or worthwhile quality–but even the remotest smidgeon of entertainment value. With a Zen-swiping and tabula rasa revision of such elitist mindsets, many critics would be able see that Primeval is a well-handled, well-crafted feature with more than a few things to say.
As penance for breaking a faux political scandal, Tim Manfrey (Dominic Purcell) is forced to go on assignment in Africa with fledging reporter Aviva Masters (Brooke Langton) in order to cover the story of the world’s deadliest crocodile. With cameraman Steven Johnson (Orlando Jones) and crocodile expert Mathew Collins (Gideon Emery) in tow, the team finds itself amid a civil war as the party attempts to survive battle on two fronts.
The opening credits tell us that Primeval is based on true events, the last term being pivotal in the understanding of Katleman’s agenda for, yes, the legend of Gustave, a man-eating crocodile which inhabits and hunts along the Rusizi River, is true. However, the warring factions within Burundi, Africa is also rooted in fact. Masterfully, the filmmaker does not permit this synchronicity to go unnoticed or unappreciated as he establishes a parallel between both human and non-human elements of his tale.
After Katleman finds his central antagonist in Gustave–a beast weighing over a ton who is estimated to be responsible for 110-300 human fatalities over the course of 60 years (a little research quickly dismisses the notion that myth aides in the legend as we compound the mortality rates of several different reptiles throughout the years, for crocodiles are indeterminate growers atop the fact that Gustave bares very recognizable hunting wounds)–he aligns his titular “primeval” with “Little Gustave,” a warlord who tyrannizes the dry areas of the region. As noted by Michael McRae in his National Geographic coverage of the reptilian phenomenon, “Gustave is believed to have claimed more than 300 victims. This number pales in comparison to the death toll of Burundi’s bloody conflict between Hutu insurgents and the Tutsi-dominated government, a fire which started burning in 1993.”
Despite the fact that humans are proven to be a greater threat than Gustave ever fathomed being, we nevertheless learn that the crocodile is the consequence of human folly after genocide resulted in prosperous feeding grounds for the repitle during the time in which he was estimated to have been born, thereby fashioning the creature’s decades-long proclivity for human flesh. As such, the metaphor for Gustave as human evil made manifest is exquisitely compounded for its genesis is even attributable to human malevolence as its gargantuan size symbolizes the aggregation of continued maliciousness.
Though our representative creature possesses a bite ten-times more devastating than a shark (3,000 psi verses 350 psi respectively), Katleman abstains from chomping at the proverbial celluloid bit as his patience, restraint, and control is reflected in the masterful instance of Aviva rescuing a sacrificial canine as we sit, nerve-wrackingly anticipating the rote “boo” moment which never comes. As the requisite false alarm fails to be seconded by the inevitable “boo” pay-off (thus countering genre cliché once more), honesty is unabashedly breeched as our American troupe finds itself at an embarrassed loss for words in the face of native customs. Instead of following Hollywood protocol and resolving the impasse or even coyly mocking the society which had the audacity to place American citizens at odds with their readymade, God-given comfort, Katleman cuts to the next scene, permitting real-life circumstance to eerily linger in our jarred, culturally programmed minds.
Furthermore, Katleman is to be congratulated for unrepentantly refusing to humor the viewer by presenting the all-too-frequent, audience-appeasing piece of anthropomorphic cinema. Much to the dismay of critics such as James Berardinelli, who unfoundedly declares, “We’re supposed to be rooting for the humans not a future handbag, but a screenplay like this makes it impossible,” the director makes us contend with the fact that, just like ourselves, Gustave is merely attempting to survive and, analogous to the chicken who seeks revenge upon the human who eats her kin in order to live another day, unlike Berardinelli, we have no choice but to consider why we might feel strangely disconcerted at the crocodile’s continuing diligence and perseverance. This, despite the fact that Katleman even aides us in our reasoning by having one of his characters cite that Gustave is not only attempting to survive, but is doing humanity an indirect service by helping depopulate an already crowded world which continues to breed despite the fact that we are unable to feed our own. Thus, we are left with an inversion of the standard motif: Nature verses Man.
Granted, the preface of “based on true events” doth not a movie make. The fictionalizing of a story eliminates the arbitrary facets of standard life while compressing the narrative into a meaningful whole. Thus, the ultimate question is never how faithful a film is to its source material, but how well presented the tale is in relation to its overall aesthetic agenda. What makes Michael Katleman’s Primeval daunting is not only how well constructed and thought-provoking his metaphors are but how he accomplishes such while nevertheless retaining the truly fearful aspects of the original story. Thus, to quibble with the notion that Gustave is able to evade capture as being too dramatized overlooks the fact that crocodiles are the only reptiles which house cerebral cortexes, thereby allowing them memorization capacities based upon pattern recognition. But, of course, omniscient critics who are already aware of the film’s worth prior to viewing it are undoubtedly also well versed in African history and Herpetology, thus, Primeval is a production which can be justifiably poached without remorse.
– Egregious Gurnow
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
