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The Primevals

I first heard of The Primevals when I was a kid. Back in the day, which was the 1970s, I received all of my movie news from magazines, which was where I first discovered the work in progress fantasy film that was being directed by special effects master David Allen. Using stop motion animation, a technique that was pioneered by Willis Harold O'Brien, Allen created a story of an expedition that travels to Nepal after an incident where a Yeti had been killed during a confrontation with a group of Sherpa.

Having received the body of the Yeti (and it was promptly put on display in their museum), this expedition, led by Claire Collier (Juliet Mills, the daughter of actor John Mills, and the sister of Haley Mills), wants to see if they can find more Yeti and perhaps save them from extinction. Hiring a safari guide with the super heroic name of Rondo Montana (!!!), they go looking for more Yeti in the Himalayas, only to find a lost civilization. Don’t you hate it when that happens?

In short, The Primevals is superb. The footage with the actors was shot by Allen back in the 1990s, before his untimely death. Full Moon Entertainment, which produced this film, proceeded to finish it within the last five years through fundraising. Despite dealing with footage that had been shot decades apart, it’s all still beautifully edited together in a solidly made film that simply looks gorgeous. The effects were finished by many of Allen’s friends, some of whom donated their time, and they are masterfully done.

The Primevals fondly reminds me of Land of the Lost, a fantasy TV series that I watched as a kid. The Primevals has a far larger budget, and is much better in many ways than LOTL, but the movie still shares a wonderful, straight-forward tone that doesn’t treat its subject matter like it’s a joke. While it may take a bit for the film to get going, once the fantasy elements take center stage, The Primevals is simply enchanting. It's not often that a lost classic fantasy film get re-discovered like this, and it's so satisfying. I’m very grateful to have finally seen The Primevals, after reading and hearing about it for going on fifty years. It was well worth the wait. --SF

I saw The Primevals as a digital rental on Amazon. But it's also available on physical media from Full Moon Entertainment.

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