When Primitive War was first announced to be in production, I was personally intrigued by the premise alone. An R-rated, gory, and intense dinosaur flick set in the midst of Vietnam War? That seemed like a fresh alternative to more traditionally family-friendly media, such as the T-Rex in the room, Jurassic Park. With such a solid sell, my expectations for this film were pretty high, as the community built with anticipation. Thankfully, Primitive War is here to completely shoot some adrenaline into the indie genre film scene, taking itself 100% serious, and avoiding the “It’s supposed to be cheesy! It’s a mindless dinosaur movie!” route that many other fellow dinosaur films embark upon. It’s a film that dares to be something greater than a generic action flick, and shows that there is still heart and soul put into genre movies that are just “blood, guts, and dinosaurs.”
Based on the cult classic novel by Ethan Pettus, Primitive War follows Vulture Squad, a reconnaissance group of delinquent soldiers in the midst of the Vietnam War in 1968. They’re tasked with some of the dirtiest jobs in the military during the conflict; in each mission they go in, find intel, kill witnesses, and come back with no questions asked. It’s a need-to-know basis, and sets the mystery (and eventual conflict) up greatly when they are tasked with locating some missing Green Berets who have vanished without a trace in the vast jungles. Of course, the audience knows that they have become dinosaur food, but Vulture Squad is in for a rude awakening.
Right out the gate, it’s obvious that Primitive War is an indie film, but that doesn’t stop it from caring. The big showcase of that was the incredible sound design that elevated this film to newer heights. Much like Predator, the jungle feels alive, with various dinosaur bellows and screeches howling throughout the trees. You can hear them… you can feel them… but you have no clue where they’re at until it’s too late, and you become lunch. It’s pretty seldom that dinosaur films accomplish this horror, as most media takes from Jurassic Park, having the dinosaurs come roaring in from miles away.
Additionally, the score by Frederik Wiedmann (known for his DC film scores like Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox and Batman: Caped Crusader, as well as Season 3 of Picard) balances the film’s mashup of tones effectively, with action-packed epic music for the finale, honorific, dignified music to emulate Vulture Squad, and more. It’s a soundtrack that I’m going to be listening to repeatedly, and that’s a huge plus for an independent feature. Some highlights to check out after reading this review are The Vultures, Vultures Closing In, and Tyrannosaurus Rex Fury.
The action and cinematography also provided atmosphere to the film. For instance, our opening introduction to Vulture Squad was ripped straight from Platoon or any other major war film. It felt real, with every shot bellowing from the sniper’s gun being heavy and felt. It wasn’t just like other modern action films where they bellow out machine guns and spray and pray – these soldiers made careful, calculated decisions in their choices, and the reality of killing people in a major conflict was there, even if taken a back seat to the main prehistoric attraction. There’s some questionable moments where there was overreliance on strobe lighting that was kind of distracting and makes it hard to see what’s going on, and it can get old quick. However, when it counts, and there’s a shot that needs the extra vfx budget, they went all-in, and you see every last gory detail.
Many have already pointed this out, but the film’s weakest hand was perhaps the characters and sticking to them a bit more than just “Keyes is funny” and “machete dude” amongst Vulture Squad. I can identify several of them by name, but there’s clearly characters there meant to just be canon fodder to the dinosaurs, and that’s about it. With the film’s extended runtime, it would have been a little nicer to get to know the characters just a bit more for the audience’s sake, but we spend plenty of time with Vulture Squad, and you come to care for a lot of them, despite some of them not really being upstanding citizens.
Each time one of Vulture Squad is killed in action, it’s felt by their squadmates. When one of them is viciously mauled by a Utahraptor, you see him crying in agony for a good ten minutes, coughing up blood, and begging for death. That’s a level of care that I see missing in many contemporary blockbusters, and it was appreciated, even if the villains were just “evil Soviet guy #34.” I do wish we got just a bit more time to develop some of the other soldiers before their demise for greater impact, but for the ones we did get time with, it was appreciated.
Lastly – the dinosaurs. For an indie film with limited resources and a smaller budget, this is a triumph in special effects and what can be done on a smaller budget. The obvious standout is definitely the Utahraptor (my state dinosaur!) as they feel massive, unstoppable, and smart as hell. The practical effect raptor seen early on when it decapitates one of the Russian soldiers was so brilliantly done, even if on screen for just a brief moment. My favorite sequence in the entire film is the final T-Rex rampage at the end. It’s pure carnage on film, with soldiers and scientists getting ripped to shreds left and right, being bitten in half, crushed, and devoured without mercy.
Yet, when there’s nobody around, there’s a great moment when the two T-Rexes share an embrace, as they are mates and are happy to see one another. It’s a fun and soft moment that shows that these things are just animals. It was also great seeing these dinosaurs just existing, with many sequences just involving dinos like Spinosaurus merely basking in the sun, and not out to get anybody. They aren’t just theme park monsters in this film, and that is so refreshing. They’re the greatest apex predators in history, and that’s echoed throughout the movie tenfold. Vulture Squad is hunted, stalked, outsmarted, and consumed without ever knowing what hit them. Yet, at the end of the day, they’re just hungry animals, which makes it even more tense for the audience.
Overall, Primitive War is a great throwback to a time when genre films, especially dinosaur and creature features, dared to be something greater. Yes, it’s a fx-heavy indie film, so there’s gonna be some flaws, but the core of the production clearly cared about what they were making here. You can tell just by watching this movie that there’s tireless dedication that went into something that would be normally dismissed as just silly, and it oozes off of every bit of Primitive War in every aspect. The costumes, the sound effects of the guns, the knowledge of warfare and military tactics, and the more scientifically accurate dinosaurs – it’s all crafted with respect and unwavering passion.
Others may think that Primitive War takes itself too seriously, and to that notion, I completely disagree. Having a genre film like this fully commit to what it is doing is wonderful. Not everything has to be meta and self-aware, especially when that trope has completely compassed genre film in these times. It’s got some old school action film machismo akin to Predator or Rambo if you’re looking for something like that (your mileage may vary there), but otherwise, it’s just a wickedly entertaining production, and shows that there’s still fun to be had at the movie theatres, you just have to look beyond the scope of the massive billion dollar blockbusters.
Primitive War was released on August 21st and is now available in select theaters via Fathom Entertainment.
