Primal Rage (1988)

Primal Rage (1988) comes from that period when a lot of Italian exploitation films were being shot in Florida.  Not just exploitation films, in fact - several of Terrence Hill and Bud Spencer's action comedies were filmed there in the late seventies and eighties, along with several solo vehicles for both actors.  Unlike those films, Primal Rage was one of a number of Italian exploitation pieces aimed squarely at the US market, featuring mainly American performers, but with mainly Italian crews.  Originally a project for Umberto Lenzi, Primal Rage ended up being directed by Vittorio Rambaldi, son of celebrated special effects expert Carlo Rambaldi (who provided this film's effects).  It is, in effect, a zombie movie without actual zombies.  Instead we have a number of people on a University campus being infected with a virus from an escaped experimental baboon, which sends them into an uncontrollable rage, rampaging around gorily murdering people - like Italian movie zombies.

In some ways, it could be seen as a variation on George Romero's non-zombie zombie film The Crazies, but aimed more at a teen audience.  While Primal Rage could never be accused of originality - its most surprising touch is casting B-movie action icon Bo Svenson as a research scientist - it is at least a servicable and slick looking horror film.  What it lacks in depth it makes up for in incident, with a lively climax at the University's Halloween dance, with the participants masked and costumed for the occasion.  Despite a bland cast, it moves along at a reasonable pace and features a typically eighties thumping metal soundtrack and features plenty of gore.  It might not be ground-breaking, but it is diverting enough while it is on.  Ultimately, it suffers by comparison to another Lenzi-originated Florida shot project, Nightmare Beach (1989), which features both a stronger cast and more original, not to mention quite barking mad, plot.