★★★

The novelty wears off pretty quickly, but I caught myself smiling ear-to-ear for much of the time I spent watching the resurrection of the Full Moon Features, 1990s straight-to-video creature feature, The Primevals. After a brief theatrical run earlier this year, the film is finally getting its flowers some 30 years after the ambitious effort first went into production in Romania. 

One of the largest budgeted films in Full Moon’s catalog, The Primevals is a meandering mashup of science-fiction, exploration adventure, mystery, suspense and monster drive-in horror. A beloved project of producer Charles Band, famed stop-motion animator David Allen was brought on board and over time, the film simply could not sustain Band’s vision from a financial standpoint. Allen died in 1999 with the project on hold and through a steadfast commitment to the Full Moon brand, Band got his company into a financial position to resurrect the project. In recent years, a team of filmmakers completed the film and finally brought it to the big screen for its festival premiere in July 2023.

That it exists is the film’s victory. The Primevals, with respect, is a campy, if not outright silly, 1990s straight-to-video flick which looks great from a presentation standpoint, but still offers the convoluted scripting and anachronistic gaffes that a lot of movies from that era suffered from. While we get the fun of seeing the same scene switch from night to day and back again, there is an earnestness to all of this that cannot help but win you over. Video stores would hang their hat on these quiet renters, films that you could rent just a handful of times and turn an almost instant profit for a store’s bottom line.

As a movie, I am not quite sure what is going on here exactly. A yeti is discovered in Nepal and after it is killed, embalmed, and brought back to display at a conference of scientists, a makeshift team is assembled to return to the country and see if more yeti exist. Juliet Mills, bless her heart, tries to make all of this matter and two wooden performances by actors Richard Joseph Paul and Walker Brandt as college students added to the team are quite something. When the definitely-not-inspired-by-Indiana-Jones character named (checks notes) RONDO MONTANA, portrayed by character actor Leon Russom, joins the fray, I have to admit I was hooked.

Rondo. Montana. Amazing name.

Mileage may vary and after about an hour, I wanted to push this along to the end. But kudos to Full Moon, Charles Band, and all involved in seeing this vision all the way through and helping it get across the finish line. For what it’s worth, I miss these movies… and it reminded me that working in video stores in the 1990s was, in a word, everything. 

The Primevals was screened as part of the 50th Seattle International Film Festival.