The most notable thing about the giant killer crocodile movie Primeval is that its ad campaign never mentioned that it was a killer croc movie! Inexplicably, the previews made it seem like a serial killer horror flick (see poster at left). The movie is a decent entry in the “Giant Animals Attack” genre. Primeval so closely follows the plot of Anaconda (a classic camp example of the previously mentioned genre) that it could almost qualify as a remake. In Anaconda, a documentary crew takes a boat up the Amazon. In Primeval, a news crew treks into the wilds of Africa. Brooke Langton stands in for J. Lo. Dominic Purcell (TVs Prison Break) fills the Ice-T hero role. Orlando Jones takes Owen Wilson’s comic relief part, and Jürgen Prochnow fills the memorably ethnic-ish shoes Jon Voight. The action in Primeval is well paced, but the giant croc antics are occasionally overshadowed by a political subplot.
“Monsters on the loose” have been a staple of sci-fi horror movies since cinema practically began. During the atomic era of the 1950’s, drive-ins were inundated with countless mutated beasts in such films as Them! (1954) Tarantula (1955) and The Amazing Colossal Man (1957). The genre enjoyed a resurgence in the 1970’s, letting loose a whole new batch of critters hell bent on revenge. Atomic radiation was no longer the mutanigenic culprit. Man’s careless abuse of the environment was to blame. One of the oddest of these eco-vengeance thrillers was Night of the Lepus (1972), in which a cast of familiar Hollywood faces must battle a warren of oversized bunny rabbits. Read Article
“This is the largest post-season crowd we’ve ever had,” Ranger Michael Kelly (Christopher George) informs his staff in the opening moments of Grizzly (1976). Read Article
A sleepy coastal town getting ready for the summer tourist season. A series of water related fatalities. A local official who’s determined to keep things quiet. A grizzled sea captain and stalwart common-man who must combat a bloodthirsty beast from the deep blue sea. No, it’s not Jaws (1975) but Great White (1981, aka The Last Shark) the Italian production that so blatantly copies the popular shark franchise that it was marketed as Jaws 3 in Spain. Read Article
Mainly considered a B-movie sub-genre, cinematic monsters from the deep blue sea proved to be very popular with drive-in audiences of the 1950’s. This type of story received first-class treatment in 1975 with Jaws. People flocked to the theatres and soon Hollywood producers were scrambling to make their own tales of waterlogged terror. Dino De Laurentiis was no exception. Read Article
