school reporters Sam (Lowe, brother of Rob and Chad) and Frank (Watson) are looking for the next big 
story. Meanwhile Sam's girlfriend, Lauren (Arutt), is trying to set up Frank with her best friend and roomie, Debbie (Buxton), who's really chipper now that she just got an abortion. Unfortunately these romantic plans go south when Frank decides to investigate some shady experiments being conducted at the science lab on campus under the supervision of Ethridge (Svenson) and, while breaking in one night, releases a baboon that scratches him and promptly gets killed by a car. Frank's wound gets increasingly grisly as he exhibits increased signs of strength and aggressiveness, leading to a harrowing night in which he kills a police officer. The man-made contagion quickly spreads to Lauren who in turn scratches three meathead jocks who try to assault her in their strobelight-filled dorm room. Now the rage virus threatens to infect the entire campus, just in time for the big Halloween dance...
A very unlikely precursor to 28 Days Later made in the last stretch of major Italian horror filmmaking, Primal Rage reflects an increasing desire to appeal to the home video market with the most Americanized product possible. Fortunately first-time director Vittorio Rambaldi (son of FX legend Carlo who also did the monkey and gore effects here) has little idea how to pull that off, resulting in a truly bizarre chunk of '80s insanity. References to Geraldo Rivera, the funniest homoerotic male trio this side of Troll 2, a very enthusiastic theme song called "Say the Word" that gets played out three times in its entirety (once live onstage!), and a frisky, metal-inflected score by Claudio Simonetti all combine to create a rollicking good time. Throw in a hammy Bo Svenson as a mad scientist, and well, 
what 
else could you possibly want?
Also symptomatic of the waning commercial prospects of Italian horror, Primal Rage was swiftly cut by distributors for its general release in that country to earn their equivalent of a more commercial PG-13 rating, the same fate which befell Dario Argento's Opera the previous year. (Incidentally, the two Steel Grave heavy metal songs from Argento's film pop up here, too, in a much funnier context.) Unfortunately this hacked-down version was shorn of nearly almost all bloodshed, and in this case, that pretty much destroys the whole film. In its uncut form, this is easily one of the goriest post-Fulci Italian horrors, particularly the show-stopping final half hour in which the three infected jerks terrorize the dance dressed in red-eyed skeleton outfits. A head gets smashed in some bleachers, a guy dressed in a baby outfit has his scalp torn off, a student dressed as Dracula has his throat gorily torn out, eyes are gouged, cops are relieved of their jaws... you get the idea. However, the only DVD version available for years was the English-friendly one from Italy's Millennium Storm, which was missing literally all of these highlights in their entirety. On the positive side, at least the hilariously grotesque shocker ending was left intact; it's a real doozy.
Code Red's DVD in 2010 finally presented the first complete, widescreen DVD anywhere in the world, and anyone who dismissed this one after viewing the eviscerated 
previous version would definitely be wise to give it another shot. The picture quality looks quite a bit better as well, or at least as good as a cheap late-'80s horror film on questionable film stock could possibly look. Contrast levels and color saturation generally look fine, and the punchy Dolby Stereo soundtrack allows you to appreciate the, uh, musical contributions. No extras (or menu screen) apart from the usual Code Red trailers for other titles like Horror High, but the movie alone makes this a must for Euro-schlock enthusiasts. A 2020 Blu-ray edition from Dark Force upped the resolution quality with what's touted as a new HD scan, with 
the DTS-HD MA English 2.0 stereo track actually benefiting the most from the upgrade. There's one new extra here, a video interview (or "interivew" according to the menu) with producer Bill Immerman (11m55s)-- which is baffling since it features clips from this film but only has him talking about making Highpoint instead in Canada.
A mere three years later in 2023, Vinegar Syndrome stepped in with the third U.S. disc edition of this film, a 4K UHD and Blu-ray combo featuring a fresh 4K scan from the original camera negative. As usual the UHD features the film only taking up the full disc with a maxed-out bit rate, while the Blu-ray has the video extras as well. The UHD looks about as good as this film could probably look given its somewhat erratic appearance, with the HDR giving it some extra punch especially during the big dance sequence. Either way it improves on the earlier Blu-ray with more robust flesh tones and especially more legible dark scenes, which could look pretty clogged up before (see below for a comparison). For some reason the DTS-HD MA English 2.0 track (with optional English SDH subtitles) is presented in mono, despite a stereo listing on the packaging. The feature-length "Baboon Bite Maniacs!" (86m2s) is a major plus for fans of the film featuring new interviews with Bo Svenson, Patrick Lowe, Mitch Watson (in a Hausu shirt), Sarah Buxton, Cheryl Arutt, and casting director Billy Damota chatting about shooting in Florida, forging friendships, making product for the VHS market, dealing with the demands of a heavily Italian crew, and being awed by working with the guy who made E.T. That Bill Immerman interview is ported over from the Dark Force disc, and he's still talking about the wrong movie. A fun 1m23s behind-the-scenes gallery is also included from Arutt's collection.
VINEGAR SYNDROME BLU-RAY
CODE RED BLU-RAY
