- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Video Codec:
- Resolution: 1080i/50
- Audio Codec: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
- Subtitles: N/A
- Classification: 18
- Region: ABC (Region-Free)
- Discs: 1
- Studio: Kaleidoscope
- Blu-ray Release Date: February 28, 2011
- RRP: £19.99
[amazon-product align=”right” region=”uk” tracking_id=”bluraydefinit-21″]B0049UVAY2[/amazon-product]
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.co.uk
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:2/5]
The Film
[Rating:2.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:2.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(Screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG thus are meant as a general representation of the content and do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
The Film
[Rating:2.5/5]
This Aussie horror film won the 2010 Audience Favourite Award at Frightfest, which would lead one to assume it must be a really good piece of horror. Think again. Primal delivers on the gore for sure and it’s great to see the nicely captured imagery of the Australian outback, but after that, it’s a bit of a letdown. With the stiff acting, unconvincing premise, and plot holes, Primal is ultimately unsatisfying.
The story is about a group of six friends who journey deep into the bush to study ancient cave drawings. Their outing is all going well until one of the group goes for a swim in a pond, becomes ill, and overnight changes into a toothy feral beast; she’s gone primal, as the title suggests. She begins to attack the rest of the group and they must ward off her attacks to survive.
How or why she has turned and what exactly is causing the metamorphoses is never fully explained and the rest of the film is just a bloody, carnivorous rampage lacking much depth. It’s okay for a few minutes, but for over an hour, it just becomes repetitive.
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Despite being a region-free release, this arrives on Blu-ray with a 1080i/50 encodement, so if you’re not in a Region B area or don’t have the appropriate equipment capable of handling this resolution, then you shouldn’t purchase this disc.
The image looks like an HD production with lifelike imagery and natural flesh tones, but there are some motion artifacts evident and the picture looks just a bit smooth. There is also a little video noise apparent here and there.
Audio Quality
[Rating:2.5/5]
There is only a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack offered up. It has edgy sounding high frequencies and boxy ambient trail-offs. Dialogue is intelligible and stereo imaging is good and wide, but a lossless track would have been so much more preferable.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0/5]
There are no supplements on this release.
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:2/5]
Primal may be good enough to slip into a horror marathon on Halloween, but on its own it doesn’t have the goods. It’s probably best to skip this one.
Additional Screen Captures
–
[amazon-product align=”right” region=”uk” tracking_id=”bluraydefinit-21″]B0049UVAY2[/amazon-product]
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.co.uk
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:2/5]
The Film
[Rating:2.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:2.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0/5]
Join the Discussion on Our Forum