Primeval (2007) Horror Crocodile

Primeval (2007) - This was the first of two films to come out in 2007 with the other being Rogue (2007) which is a strange curiosity about  Hollywood. Similar ideas going through development and getting released within five months of each other. Primeval has the earlier release date and did a meager 10 million on a 6 million dollar budget. Still that is way better that the ten thousand profit made on Rogue. Both films feature a giant crocodile eating people but they take very different approaches. I like when a film starts out with a short but too the point scene that ropes the viewer in. In this film a UN team is uncovering a mass grave from what could be the Burundi civil war/genocide. The specialist looking at the bodies walks to what looks like could be another grave and attempts to dig her shovel into the ground. The ground trembles and she is violently snatched and dragged into the river by a giant crocodile. She is eaten as the UN soldiers shoot at the creature from the shore. This is a fast and brutal scene that sets up the opening credits over newspaper clipping of  troubles created by the crocodile, "Gustav" as the local named him. Its a really nice setup to get us to the characters we will be following.
   Producer Tim Manfrey (Dominic Purcell) who is in a bit of trouble with his boss at the "Network News Channel" about a story he did so is assigned to fly to Africa to produce the Giant crocodile story. More than that with naturalist Matt Collins (Gideon Emery) he is to make the story about the capture of the crocodile. They will go in light try not to upset the locals so with executive Aviva Masters (Brook Langton), cameraman Steve Johnson (Orlando Jones) and a guide they will try to make the capture of this beast prime time news. Burundi is shown as the chaotic place where things don't go as planned. The strong arming producer Tim bluffs his way to get things done. Although the great white hope aspects of the setup are really annoying the Director Michael Katleman working from a script by John Brancato and Michael Ferris pulls off showing a war torn country even if it is from the arrogant white male point of view. It is also troubling early that Aviva Masters is nothing but objectified as the cute not serious journalist, if she does not have an arc that disproves this it will be very disappointing. They meetup with guide Jacob Kreig (Jürgen Prochnow) who is tough and to the point and start their plans for the expedition. We do get some conflict between Kreig and Collins one who wants to capture the creature one who would prefer to kill it. They do not really plan more just get in jeeps and drive. The hope is that the writers did this on purpose with the idea of having the group learn and appreciate foreign cultures, ceremonies in their honor and the blessings of the native shaman (Ernest Ndlovu) adding up to a better appreciation for foreign cultures. The happy dancing villagers and the constant joking by Johnson and the inability of the Americans to take the situation seriously adds up to make the white point of view sort of offensive.
  After attempting to capture the crocodile the crew realizes it is a smarter animal than they thought. Johnson wanders off to get some B-roll for there piece and comes across the local militia beheading the shaman and shooting his family in retribution for not supporting the local warlord "Little Gustav".  This shows a real attempt on the writers part to make the message of the violence in Africa more than just a setting. Using Masters as the conduit we get commentary on the American inability to care for black people never mind African black people. Not to get too political the film shifts to an action sequence where a local ens up trapped in the cage designed to capture Gustav. The giant CGI crocodile attacks attempting to get the boy and oh boy it is obvious that the cage will not be enough for that one.
  Meanwhile Aviva has her own problems as a soldier attempts to rape her while the men are out of the camp. She fights back but is no match for the man and thankfully she is save by Gustav who was hungry and decided to have a meal of the soldier. Manfrey calls for them to leave but one of the other soldiers shoot there guide Kreig. He works for Little Gustav and the only reason they all don't die that night is the kid they saved from the crocodile shoots the soldier. A classic Hollywood trope is to bring in a storm when the climax is on the way. We learn Kreig's hatred for the beast is personal and the crocodile is coming back to finish the job it started. The last thirty minutes is wonderful survive the monster action as the croc attacks and the group loses members one after the other. Trapped on a floating dock the five night survivors wait for rescue. They will have to chance getting back to camp where they helicopter is looking for them but they know Gustav is on land nearby. Add in the arrival of little Gustav's men means another of the group dies. Dealing with both Gustav issues splits the group and creates some really decent action sequences. Unfortunately Johnson's responses to escaping the crocodile through humorous comments takes the seriousness away from what should be a heart pounding climax.
  The political angle was much more well thought out and we see corruption and murder and the double crossing means we can't necessarily have any heroes in the Africans we see. Again are seeing this through the white lens of the good Americans who now want to expose the bad African behavior to draw attention to the corruption. It is so unflattering though the idea of either happy villagers or warlords with nothing in between. As they are forced to go with Little Gustav (Dumisani Mbebe) the scene suddenly goes from day to night I guess to the dark and the rain and thunder and lightning will make the CGI crocodile look more reasonable. Why the director chose to have a kills blood spurt appear to hit the camera lens seems like a mistake in judgement. After the final confrontation we wrap the film up with touching moments and an but never get to an attempt at real journalism, so the story arcs are incomplete. Text added to the screen again attempts to make commentary about the real world events the story are based in but that wrapping seems inappropriate for the type of film this is. It tries to have it both ways on one hand being a monster movie and on the other a political commentary, which could work. Unfortunately it really is like watching two different films at once the two never quite meshing into one story. So even though we get on screen information about the end of the very real life war in Burundi the film ends with a horror scene and text about Gustav being alive and well. I guess I appreciate what the film makers were trying to do here even if it did not totally come together.  I still recommend the film but it has to be said that it is a bit messy in its delivery.

   

Train (2008) Horror Tourist Trap

Train (2008) - Eli Roth in 2005 came out with the first Hostel film and followed it in 2007 with Hostel part II, in those films Roth capitalizes on the unknown corners of a newly liberated eastern Europe to stoke our fears about travel to those lands. In the films young tourists staying in a hostels are enticed to find a party but are instead captured by sadistic locals and sold into a torture murder ring who wealthy clients get off on harming other humans. Roth although a bit mean spirited in his approach touched on the hidden fear we have of 'the other'. His use graphic torture scenes to and nihilistic attitude did strike a chord in the horror community and those films were well received. I bring this up to connect to the subject of today's subject Train. Coming out after Roth's trend setter it works really hard to imitate his work. It takes the eastern Europe setting and visceral graphic violence contains it on a train instead of an abandon industrial factory. Unlike Hostel or the sequel it stereotypes the American wrestlers as a group of ignorant foreigners who may not need the viewers empathy. The bad guys are far worse though, horrible villains and lowly scum whose characters definition is simplistic and cartoon. Plot points are exposed way too early in the film taking much of the mystery out of the film. Some of the lines are so cliche that they make the film stale. Other than that it was great.
  Thora Birch) she at least has the slightest of story arc, and learns a new wrestling move. I think in the end the horrific experience she has teachers her to reach for that little extra you need to survive a torture train as well as in the wrestling circle. She is joined by teammates Sheldon (Kavan Reese), Todd (Derek Magyar), and Claire (Gloria Votsis), as well as assistant coach Willy (Gideon Emery) and Coach Harris (Todd Jensen).
The opening credits give away the theme right away as we see a big guy cutting up a body in a less than sanitary environment. where we see that parts are saved we know either this is a human butchery or that someone else is in need of a human liver. We quickly move past that to defining our victims, uh I mean characters. It's an American wrestling team on an international tour in eastern Europe. There is nothing really defining here we get introduced to personalities and the main character Alex (
  When the wrestlers and Willy sneak out to go to a local party they miss the train to the next leg of the tour. Coach is angrily waiting for them at the hotel the next morning. There is this moment where as they are searching the dark streets for this party where they pass a steam engine sitting in the dark and Alex pauses to look at it. This foreshadowing by Writer / Director Gideon Raff was just a bit too on the nose. His writing gets better though but not in this film, he wrote extensively in the room for the great series Homeland so this early work was a step towards better things.
  Stranded and frustrated with the lack of anyone in a foreign country being able to speak his language the Coach plays the ugly American shouting what he wants at the train station attendant. He is "rescued" by Dr. Velislava (Koyna Ruseva) who tells him that you purchase your tickets on the train not in the station. She suspiciously directs them to her train that happens to be heading to their destination. I say suspiciously because it was like she was directed to act that way. As the creepy as shit helper load them into the train you see they are also told to treat the Americans as mush as objects as possible. Be slimy and creepy and then take their passports. Ugh. Unless this is a very clever satire that I just did not get, it is a poorly executed series of cliches that fail to create any kind of suspense or originality. the added insult where we see the passports thrown into a fire  was so on the nose it stings.
  What follows is a long series of kills and close calls as we unravel the non mystery of this train and why foreign tourists are abducted and killed. The particularly annoying one is Todd who when playing Truth or Dare, takes the dare and has to run the length of the train in his underwear. He reaches the dark dirty part of the train that we the audience have already seen and know this is the cutting room where the parts are harvested in the least sanitary conditions possible. I know that is stupid but really not what we need to talk about. Todd gets there and is creeped out and just says the absolute most cliche things anyone could say.  He hears a sound and says "Guys, this isn't funny." then "Look I don't want any trouble" then "Is anyone out there?" These three lines encapsulate everything wrong with the film. It is like it is trying not to be original.
  After several of the Americans are taken comes the unraveling of the mystery for the rest of the characters. As they search for the others they are thwarted by the not so nice Conductor Vasyl (Valentin Ganev) Played like a game of cat and mouse except these American mice are slowly finding that the entire train is full of cats, and it is too late for them. Once it is revealed that the train crew is taking the passengers organs, again in a way that is so dirty visceral and unsanitary that it is unbelievable and really takes the viewer right out of the movie. Logic dictates that this is not how organ transplants are done so you just have to call bullshit. I know they are going for what was so successful by Eli Roth but boy they really did not nail it. The cruelty that is shown does not make sense and you can't outRoth Roth. They do try though with some rather mean pieces. Like cutting Sheldon's balls off and the nasty bit where they give injured Claire to a group of soldiers who stopped the train. They try to make it poignant by having Alex watch her friend carried away screaming by the five soldiers knowing she is going to be raped and killed. Really it was the writer wanting to be as mean to the character as possible again though there are others that do this better.

  Eventually with the mystery unraveled the film turns into a survival film and when the train reaches a destination the film goes on even longer and it should really end. Alex is our final girl and tries to help any of the still surviving companions she runs into but really all she does is get them killed. I don't know what else to say, the ending with the big Russian cutter guy is inevitable and her using that cool move her boyfriend taught her in the beginning of the film was totally appropriate, set up and paid off. Overall the acting is not bad but some of the lines they have to say and how they chose to act was off putting.  I know I seem to be too critical but I still watch these films with an open mind. Still this film leaves you wishing it was just better.