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Primal Rage

Original title: Rage - Furia primitiva
  • 19881988
  • RR
  • 1h 31m
IMDb RATING
5.3/10
837
YOUR RATING
Primal Rage (1988)
HorrorSci-FiThriller
A scientist at a Florida university inadvertently creates a "rage virus" while performing experiments intended to restore dead brain tissue in baboons. When a journalist for the college pape... Read allA scientist at a Florida university inadvertently creates a "rage virus" while performing experiments intended to restore dead brain tissue in baboons. When a journalist for the college paper breaks into the campus lab, he's bitten by one of the infected baboons; the virus soon s... Read allA scientist at a Florida university inadvertently creates a "rage virus" while performing experiments intended to restore dead brain tissue in baboons. When a journalist for the college paper breaks into the campus lab, he's bitten by one of the infected baboons; the virus soon spreads to a trio of rapists and a valley girl, all of whom go on killing sprees.
IMDb RATING
5.3/10
837
YOUR RATING
    • Vittorio Rambaldi
    • Umberto Lenzi
    • James Justice
  • Stars
    • Patrick Lowe
    • Cheryl Arutt
    • Sarah Buxton
    • Vittorio Rambaldi
    • Umberto Lenzi
    • James Justice
  • Stars
    • Patrick Lowe
    • Cheryl Arutt
    • Sarah Buxton
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 13User reviews
    • 28Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Photos49

    Cheryl Arutt in Primal Rage (1988)
    Primal Rage (1988)
    Sarah Buxton in Primal Rage (1988)
    Jennifer Hingel in Primal Rage (1988)
    Sarah Buxton in Primal Rage (1988)
    Bo Svenson in Primal Rage (1988)
    Barry Schreiber in Primal Rage (1988)
    Cheryl Arutt in Primal Rage (1988)
    J.D. Steel in Primal Rage (1988)
    John Baldwin and Luis Valderrama in Primal Rage (1988)
    Sarah Buxton and Mitch Watson in Primal Rage (1988)
    Eileen Engel in Primal Rage (1988)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Patrick Lowe
    • Sam Nash
    Cheryl Arutt
    Cheryl Arutt
    • Lauren Daly
    Sarah Buxton
    Sarah Buxton
    • Debbie
    Mitch Watson
    • Frank Duffy
    Bo Svenson
    Bo Svenson
    • Ethridge
    Doug Sloan
    • Lovejoy
    Luis Valderrama
    • Chas
    John Baldwin
    • Bryan
    Turk Harley
    • Prof. Jenkins
    Jennifer Hingel
    • Kimberly
    Barry Schreiber
    • Oakley
    • (as Barry D. Schreiber)
    Paul Bridges Thompson
    • Lab Assistant
    Sally Carlson
    • Nurse
    Greg Schmidt
    • Sam's roommate
    Mal Jones
    Mal Jones
    • Janitor
    Jenny Cooper
    Jenny Cooper
      Kristine Loyd
      • Babe 2
      Tom Kouchalakos
      • Rookie cop
        • Vittorio Rambaldi
        • Umberto Lenzi
        • James Justice
      • All cast & crew
      • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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      Storyline

      Edit

      Did you know

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      • Trivia
        Released a year before Nightmare Beach, which was also filmed in Florida and featured 2 actors from this film and also features a few of the same songs on the soundtrack. Umberto Lenzei was involved with both films.
      • Connections
        Featured in Best of the Worst: Halloween Spooktacular 2021 (2021)
      • Soundtracks
        Headbangers
        by Gow

      User reviews13

      Review
      Review
      Featured review
      7/10
      Say the word? Eighties! Say the word? Rabid Monkey-Virus! Say the word? Cheese!
      Leave it to the Italians to come up with one of the most engrossing, cheesiest and outrageously entertaining splatter flicks of the 80s! Umberto Lenzi, here under his favorite pseudonym Harry Kirkpatrick, wrote the fantastically bonkers script but offered the director's chair to his lesser known buddy Vittorio Rambaldi. "Primal Rage" is as eighties as it gets: the über-cheesy and misfit pop song "Say the Word" doesn't just feature once or twice but three times integrally, there are loads of beautiful girls with humongous hairdos and sexy aerobic outfits and even the obsessive evil scientist sports a ridiculous little mullet-ponytail! There were quite many horror movies with monkeys during the late 80s, but unlike you'd suspect from Lenzi, "Primal Rage" isn't a clone of "Monkey Shines", "Link" or "Shadow of Kilimanjaro". Dr. Ethridge is working at a Florida University campus and uses a baboon as guinea pig for his research involving brain diseases, but he accidentally saddled the poor animal up with a virus that invokes rage and rabies. When the rebellious campus reporter Frank Duffy breaks into Ethridge's laboratory, he releases the baboon but gets bitten and thus contaminated with the virus. Duffy passes forward the virus to a cute girl he met during a blind date and she, at her turn, contaminates a trio of vicious rapists. Each virus carrier goes on his/her own killing spree during the night of the annual campus Halloween party. "Primal Rage" is clichéd, derivative and predictable, but oh-so-entertaining! The film is fast-paced and features terrific make-up art as well as countless of gory highlights, including beheadings and impalements. Hunky 80s kid Patrick Lowe is rather annoying, but the rest of the cast is decent, with young and yummy actresses Cheryl Arutt, Sarah Buxton and Jennifer Hingel. Naturally, of course, it's Bo Svenson who steals the show as the fanatic scientist (with ponytail). Special kudos for the creative minds who thought up and designed all the dozens of great costumes that people are wearing during the Halloween party! I honestly never saw any cooler or creepier horror costumes in my life.
      helpful•2
      3
      • Coventry
      • Feb 18, 2018

      Details

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      • Release date
        • December 1, 1988 (Italy)
        • Italy
        • English
      • Also known as
        • Miami, Florida, USA
      • Production company
        • El Pico S.A.
      • See more company credits at IMDbPro

      Technical specs

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      • 1 hour 31 minutes
        • Color
        • Dolby Stereo

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