A passion project of stop-motion master David Allen, it was unfinished due to his cancer death. In 2023, Full Moon and former Allen associate Chris Endicott finished the movie, which is filled with “100% hand-rendered, stop-motion special effects.”

This started as Raiders of the Stone Ring, a movie developed more than sixty years ago by Allen, Dennis Muren and Jim Danforth. That was almost bought by Hammer, as was another film the trio wanted to make, Zeppelin vs. Pterodactyl. Years later, Allen wanted to make this with writer Mark McGee as either The Glacial Empire or Primordium: The Arctic World. Settling on the name The Primevals, it was finally bought by Charles Band after special effects artist Steve Neill shared it during the making of Laserblast.

If you ever saw any Empire Pictures coming soon ads, The Primevals were always in them. Then, when Full Moon started, it got filmed, and the hard work of animation began, even as money woes hurt the studio. In 1999, when he died, Allen left Endicott the film elements, storyboards, stop-motion puppets and all of his equipment.

Luckily, this was finally finished in 2023, and now, after a theatrical run, it’s on DVD.

Deep in the Himalayas, a gigantic creature has been killed,d and Dr. Claire Collier (Juliet Mills) thinks that it is a yeti. Wanting to see one of them alive, she goes on an expedition with Matt Connor (Richard Joseph Paul) and big-game hunter Rondo Montana (Leon Russom) to get the truth. That said, this has caused so many wild things to happen — Who operated on the brain of the yeti? What technology is hidden in the mountain? Are those lizard people? — that you’ll love it. Trust me. Get over the fact that stop-motion looks jerky in a world of CGI. Shut your brain off, and enjoy something unironically for once.

I’ve wanted to see this movie since it was always in magazines—Cinefantastique had it on the cover! — and now that it’s in my house, in my collection, and I can watch it at any time? Sometimes life isn’t so bad. Man, those lizard men are great. Where are the toys for this movie?

You can get this from MVD.