Primeval

Movie trailers can be deceptive, but few more so than the one for this horror movie about Gustave, described as the world's most prolific serial killer. Gustave turns out to be a giant crocodile in the central African country of Burundi, where a group of intrepid reporters set off to film and capture the beast (all for sweeps week, we're told in a particularly laughable preamble). The obvious model for Michael Katleman's Primeval is 1997's Anaconda, but it's not nearly as much fun, and the special effects are relatively weak (a serious problem in this kind of genre piece), since the crocodile looks just like what it is—a piece of CGI work inserted into live-action shots (of course, the actors playing the animal's potential meals are a fairly pallid bunch themselves). Worse, the film attempts to add a serious subtext in the form of a secondary plot involving a conflict between the government and a shadowy but brutal local warlord called Little Gustave, whose thugs menace the reporters during the expedition. Drawing on the continent's endemic political and military disorder to further a creature-feature narrative is not only tacky in the extreme, but it necessitates a serious tone, robbing the film of the tongue-in-cheek humor that's often a saving grace in monster flicks. Ultimately, Primeval turns out to be a croc in more ways than one. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by director Michael Katleman and visual effects supervisor Paul Linden, a 10-minute “Croc-umentary: Bringing Gustave to Life” featurette, three deleted scenes (6 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a subpar horror flick.] (F. Swietek)