by Conan Simmons – October 26, 2020 – 6:17 am
Something is lurking in the night. Preying on unsuspecting victims who wander carelessly in the woods of a primordial Earth.
Our heroic duo, Spear and Fang stumble upon the gruesome remains of a sabretooth tiger, the first unfortunate creature to become a meal for the unseen Night Feeder. Later that night they hear the screams of a herd of triceratops under attack by the Night Feeder. Spear grabs his weapon and angrily starts to dash off to the rescue but is stopped by Fang whose common sense knows that it is too late. Fang is also still afraid of what she sensed after finding the sabretooth remains.
Eventually the Night Feeder tracks down our heroes forcing Spear and Fang to run for their lives. Do they stand a chance against an unseen horror in the woods on a foggy night?
The animation of the sabretooth tiger at the start is a fine piece of animation. It’s fluid movements set a nice tone to the succeeding cartoon. After it is devoured the remains are among the most gruesome scenes of animation.
There is notable animation of shadows as Spear and Fang walk along the rocky cliffs. The light transitions as day progresses into night is a highlight of the episode.
No episode of ‘Primal’ is complete without a gore scene to live up to the name and the massacre of triceratops does just that. The gore is on par with the sabretooth scene at the start but feels slightly less jarring as it moves quickly without lingering as the previous scene does.
Sound design is very important to how this episode works. With the usual lack of dialogue the feeling of imminent horror is conveyed by the sounds of slaughter in the dark. The Night Feeder itself emits an horrendous screaming noise that leaves Spear and Fang flailing wildly in effort to defend themselves.
The Night Feeder for the majority of the episode is portrayed by placing the audience in a point-of-view mode, taking definite inspiration from Sam Raimi’s ‘Evil Dead’ films. The chase through the fog crashing into trees is very well done. A nice contrast at the end when the scene gets more abstract to emphasize the disconcerted Spear and Fang as they make their final stand against the Night Feeder.