Primal Rage (film)

Primal Rage is a 1988 Italian-American science fiction horror film directed by Vittorio Rambaldi.

Plot
Frank Duffy, a reporter for a local newspaper in Miami, sneaks into a research laboratory that carries out experiments on animals. Bitten by a rabid monkey, the young man falls prey to an uncontrollable fury and spreads the infection in the nearby college, where the carefree Halloween party taking place there turns into a bloodbath.

Cast

 * Patrick Lowe as Sam Nash
 * Cheryl Arutt as Lauren Daly
 * Sarah Buxton as Debbie
 * Bo Svenson as Ethridge
 * Mitch Watson as Frank Duffy
 * Doug Sloan as Lovejoy
 * Luis Valderrama as Chas
 * John Baldwin as Bryan
 * Turk Harley as Prof. Jenkins
 * Jennifer Hingel as Kimberly
 * Barry D. Schreiber as Oakley
 * Paul Bridges Thompson as Lab Assistant
 * Sally Carlson as Nurse
 * Greg Schmidt as Sam's Roommate
 * Mal Jones as Janitor
 * Kristine Loyd as Babe
 * Tom Kouchalakos as Rookie Cop
 * Brody Howell as Drunk Student
 * Earl Lee Simpson III as Baby Huey
 * Ben Stotes as Vampire
 * Joe Del Campo as FBI Agent
 * Christopher David Brown as FBI Agent
 * Eileen Engel as Dorm Receptionist
 * Julian Byrd as University Vice President
 * Jack McDermott as Police Chief
 * Darlene Wheatley as Editor
 * J. D. Steel as Tow Truck Driver
 * Tom Boykin as Fratter
 * R. Emmett Fitzsimmons as Campus Cop
 * L. R. Dutchyshyn as Cop at Halloween Party
 * William Cagliostro as Infirmary Student
 * Jay Amor as Orderly
 * Bill Wohtmann as Veteran Cop

Production
The film was directed by Vittorio Rambaldi (in his directing debut), the son of Italian special effects artist Carlo Rambaldi.

The film was written by Umberto Lenzi and James Justice. Lenzi would later recall that he was approached with two scripts, saying that "One was fucking awful and one wasn't bad." Lenzi "took the one [he] liked the most", "about a female scientist that has an accident in her lab and becomes genetically mutated, transforming into a tiger", and rewrote it, but by the time he arrived at the United States, he found that his backers wanted him to film the other script, which became Nightmare Beach (also known as Welcome to Spring Break). The script that Lenzi worked on, which he described as a homage to Cat People, was eventually further rewritten by Justice, and the final script that was shot was credited to "Harry Kirkpatrick", an alias Justice also used in Nightmare Beach, in which he also worked on.

The film's poster art was made by Renato Casaro.

Reception
Joseph A. Ziemba and Dan Budnik in their book Bleeding Skull!: A 1980s Trash-Horror Odyssey of the film, "Primal Rage borrows the plot and general sense of chaos from George Romero's The Crazies, gives it a shot of Cro-Magnon idiocy, and adds a "Avoid the Noid!" poster, an A.L.F. stuffed animal, and a relentless z-rate metal soundtrack. Leapfrogging over mundane hilarity (padding that involves racquetball), squirm-inducing gore (eyes ripped out) and the savoir fare of the late 80s (skull costumes from The Karate Kid), Primal Rage does not ask much from its audience. All we have to do is keep our eyes open."

The film was also covered on RedLetterMedia's Best of the Worst series, in the 2021 Halloween episode.