Primal Rage is a 2018 horror film of the "Killer Bigfoot" genre, starring Casey Gagliardi, Andrew Joseph Montgomery, and Phil Casados.
Max Carr is an ex convict recently released from prison and reunites with his estranged wife, Ashley, and takes a trip with her to the Pacific North West. Things take a turn for the worse when they get into an accident and Ashley is abducted by a monster called the Omah. Teaming up with a local sheriff, who is beginning to reconnect with old roots of his own, Max returns to the woods to save his wife, face the monster and in the process, uncovers the spiritual origins to the Omah.
Has nothing to do with the video game of the same name.
Tropes in this film include:
- Agent Scully: The Sheriff initially believes that his community is superstitious for putting so much belief in the supernatural.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Unlike many other versions of the Sasquatch myth, Omah is specifically vile and the rebirthed form of an evil chieftain.
- Animalistic Abomination: The Omah is for all intents and purposes, a sasquatch, which is described here as a spiritual entity and the manifestation of a long dead chief. It resembles a beast, but its behavior is deliberately human.
- Asshole Victim: The hunters are presented as aggressive and unpleasant people, so as to fit the bill.
- Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: This is a Killer Bigfoot movie. The legend surrounding it has them as formerly human spirit like monsters.
- Bittersweet Ending: Ashley manages to escape the forest, back to civilization. Max stays behind to fight the Omah and manages to kill it. However, he is critically wounded while doing so and is left at the mercy of similar creatures that surround him in the woods.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Happens to just about everyone the Omah gets his hands on.
- One unfortunate hunter gets an arrow shot through his throat and his head stomped in.
- Another hunter gets his jaw ripped to the hinge and that doesn't immediately kill him. As he crawls around, before the Omah stomps him in.
- Cruel Twist Ending: Max manages to kill the Omah in a one-on-one fight but finds out the hard way that the Omah was but one of a species.
- Damsel in Distress: Ashley is kidnapped by the Omah after it slaughters the hunters, and it becomes Max's mission to save her. She manages to escape the Omah's cave on her own, but it takes Max fighting the Omah to the death to get her out of the woods for real.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The Whispering Woman certainly invokes a dark presence and looks like a Native American variant of a Wicked Witch, but she is actually helpful and on the good guys' side in dealing with the Omah.
- Expy: The Omah's use of weapons, traps and armour, brings to mind that of the Yautja.
- For the sasquatch buffs out there, the Omah may bring to mind the Gugwe
, in its appearance and behaviour. The Gugwe is said to be an especially aggressive species of sasquatch, notable for having a protruding snout on its face, resembling that of a mandrill or baboon.
- For the sasquatch buffs out there, the Omah may bring to mind the Gugwe
- Gratuitous Rape: At one point, the Omah rapes Ashley in its cave. It has no weight and pretty much exists to be shock value or highlighting how needlessly cruel the Omah is.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Downplayed, but it's briefly stated that the Omah's aggression comes from witnessing the evils of humanity.
- It Can Think: The Omah isn't a stereotypical brute sasquatch, or animal. It prepares traps, uses weapons and armour and displays a human like cunning throughout the film. Justified, as it Was Once a Man.
- Magical Native American: Zig-Zagged. The Native American characters mostly believe in spiritualism and the supernatural. The Sheriff is an open skeptic of their superstitions before he reconnects with his roots. The Whispering Woman is a straight up witch!
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The native Americans in the setting believe the Omah to be the spirit of a former chief, however the creature never shows real supernatural powers and the existence of other like him shown at the end might imply is just a myth and the Omah is just an unknown hominid species.
- Minority Police Officer: The Sheriff is a Native American, who has a hard time at first believing in the "superstitions" of his community.
- Sadist: The Omah is far more than a simple rampaging monster; it has a human like cunning (justified as it was human), and not only kills people in brutal and gruesome ways but has an affinity for cruelty and torture. It even has a shrine of dead bodies to its name, and according to the native characters, takes pride in its work.
- Stalker with a Crush: The Omah takes a fancy to Ashley upon seeing her and makes her a personal target. Not to kill her, but to force her to be his Sex Slave.
- Took a Level in Badass: Max gets this by having to go up against the Omah in a one-on-one fight and manages to bash it to death with a rock despite being physically outmatched.
- Uncertain Doom: The film ends with Max having killed the Omah, only to get shot by an arrow and find himself surrounded by more of them. The end.
- Was Once a Man: The Omah's origin is tied with it being the manifestation of a deceased tribal chief.
- Wicked Witch: Inverted. The Whispering Woman is a benevolent supernatural presence, her dark and creepy appearance aside. Her goal is to protect the forest from the Omah.
