The Primevals, on BluRay

Thanks to writers with three names, like Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Edward Bulwer-Lytton, we want to believe there could be a lost world nestled in a hidden valley or under the Earth’s surface. That is exactly what a scientific expedition finds in late stop-motion animator and special effects artist David Allen’s long-lost labor of love. Instead of dinosaurs, they find yeti and aliens, but the vibes are definitely in the tradition of The Lost World and The Land Time Forgot. Decades in the making, Allen’s fantastical feature was constantly interrupted by financing woes and ultimately his untimely death. However, he captured the footage he needed with his cast and left behind sufficient creature-models for his colleagues and producers to finally finish The Primevals, which releases this Tuesday on BluRay.

Matt Connor’s doctoral thesis crashed and burned, because he argued for the existence of the yeti. He is therefore quite interested when his advisor, Dr. Claire Collier unveils a genuine yeti body, smuggled out of a very angry Nepal, for the museum’s collection. Of course, to really understand the yeti, they a live specimen, so off they go to India, where crusty hunter-adventurer Rondo Montana (surely a hat-tip to Rondo Hatton) will guide them across the border.

On the trail of the yeti, they fall into an underground cavern that opens up into a “land before time.” There are neanderthal people, but they are terrified by a race of lizard-people aliens. It is reptile creatures who stirred up the yeti, using them in gladiatorial games with the poor hairy hominids. It was one of those electrically stimulated yeti that killed their sherpa’s brother in the moody prologue.

The Primevals is a ton of fun, for two reasons. Allen’s stop-motion animation, creature design, make-up effects, otherworldly sets, and other assorted creations are extremely cool looking. Just as importantly, Allen and his posthumous collaborators always play it straight as an arrow. The camp (which is admittedly there in some of the dialogue) is unintentional.

This is not a spoof. It is a remarkably successful attempt to channel the magic of Willis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen classics like King Kong and Jason and the Argonauts. Frankly, the film Primevals most feels like, in terms of the movement and texture of the monster design and animation, might be Clash of the Titans, Harryhausen’s last great achievement in visual magic.

Richard Josph Paul is painfully earnest as Connor and recognizable character actor Leon Russom was an imperfect fit for the Quatermain-esque Montana, but he sufficiently fights to land it. However, Juliet Mills is right on point as Dr. Collier. Best of all, Robert Cornthwaite makes the most of his brief appearance as Dr. Lloyd Trent, Collier’s colleague, who maybe is not as eccentric as he sounds. It is a charming addition to his pantheon of genre movie scientists, in classics like The Thing from Another World and The War of the Worlds.

Watching The Primevals is nostalgic in so many of the right ways. You can see Allen’s wild creativity and his passion for the classic work of Harryhausen and O’Brien in every frame. Maybe producer Charles Band will never make his money back (as he suspects), but this film will absolutely build into a beloved fan favorite. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys old school stop-motion animated fantasies and monster movies, The Primevals releases this Tuesday (9/10) on BluRay.