The Primevals was a strange choice for Perth's Revelation Film Festival. Rev has previously hosted films such as The American Astronaut, The Fall, and Atmo Horrox. I was anticipating something in that rather offbeat vein.

What I got instead was a Saturday morning kids' movie. Ironic, since Rev is strictly 18+.

It caught my attention because of the story behind it. And there's respect due to David Allen, RIP, and those who carried on with the film and completed it. But it did seem out of place in the festival program.

That said, it had King Kong's cousin the Abominable Snowman, good space alien reptiles, bad space alien reptiles, reptile/human primitives, and spectacular scenery. And Nanny - sorry, Juliet Mills. All in all, I got my money's worth.

This is a film made from a sci-fi story of the '50s, started in the '70s, finished in the '90s and released in 2023, 25 years after the death of the writer/director who was in fact a stop motion animation guy. The only real actor in the film is Juliet Mills, the script is bad, the story laughable, everything is really ridiculous.

As one other reviewer noticed, my brain couldn't understand how was this was not in black and white. But at the same moment, I had these flashes of recognition: the low tech, the stop motion, the particular type of dialog, the obsolete scientific ideas and so on. I can't imagine someone work 50 years on this film and not realize how ridiculous it was. So I choose to believe it was a throwback satire thing, a set up for Mist3k, a loving reminder of the ways old cinema was.

Unfortunately. The film seems to take itself seriously, so I can't really recommend it even for the drunken fun nights with your mates. It was a surreal experience for sure.