The trailer to Primeval made it appear to be the odd combination of a Steve Irwin wild animal kingdom show with a murder mystery, which despite the juxtaposition, interested me because, well, I’m a sucker for African animals doing devastating things to human beings. Case in point, The Ghost and the Darkness, which, whilst not a great film, is fun if you’re into the aforementioned animal beats man thematic material. When I saw Orlando Jones staring wide-eyed into the camera just before a ravenous cut to something large and scary rushing at the screen, I was hooked.
Unfortunately, the film is a sight less provocative than its trailer would have you think. Claims that its villain is the world’s most prolific serial killer is a tad misleading, and the film perpetrates the deceit from the first frame, where a prominent human rights activist, investigating a mass grave, discovers Gustave–a man-eating crocodile–by mistake. Cut to a New York newsroom where Tim Manfrey (Dominic Purcell) gets paired with Aviva (Brooke Langton), an animal channel reporter trying to make it big, to cover the Gustave story. Together with Stephen the cameraman (Orlando Jones) and croc expert Mathew Collins (Gideon Emery), and with the assistance of the Burundi government, the crew travels to the river home of Gustave, the giant crocodile that’s killed over three hundred people and seems unstoppable. To complicate matters, a local warlord has named himself Little Gustave, and now holds the entire territory under his thumb.
The movie is paced somewhat mechanically, neither opening up as an action adventure nor closing in with suspense. Instead, director Michael Katleman, with the script by Michael Ferris and John Brancato, serves up a tepid telling of what amounts to a nature documentary gone awry. Whilst the Africa setting is gorgeous, there’s more attention given to the infighting of the group. Mathew has little regard for human life, and views Gustave as a prize to be captured alive and studied. This conflicts with their “native” white guide Jacob (Jurgen Prochnow), a grizzled man who has a history with Gustave, and who simply wants to kill the beast. When Steven captures a local shaman being executed by Little Gustave’s men on camera, the plot becomes little more than the crew haplessly trying to escape both Big and Little Gustave, both of which are capable of killing off all but the main characters.
Okay folks, the acting is pretty bad in this. Orlando Jones is the only one worth watching, and only because he offers comedic relief in an otherwise dull and plodding linear narrative. Given the low budget nature of the production, it’s not surprising that the effects are a bit lacking. The shooting is uneven, moving from polished to documentary-style in places, and the editing is often abrupt and incoherent. Whilst the giant croc is fun to see at night, daylight encounters clearly reveal his CG-ness. A paper cutout might have been more effective.
The marketing of the film as a slasher flick drew me in, but that knowledge left me high and dry as soon as the film reveals that it is in fact about a killer croc. Whilst there is a modicum of social justice thrown in to try and make a moral point, it isn’t quite enough to keep this out of the realm of B-Horror gone slightly south. Wait for the DVD, or better yet, try making your own killer animal movie. You’ll probably have more fun.
Fringe Rating: out of 5