A Cool Premise Does Little to Excite in Generic Found Footage Primal Darkness (2026)

Title: Primal Darkness

First Non-Festival Release: April 7, 2026 (Theatrical Release)

Director: Dillon Brown

Writer: Dillon Brown

Runtime: 75 Minutes

Starring: Dillon Brown, Blake Hyer, Maxwell Golden

Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here

Cole Harrington (Dillon Brown) hosts an outdoor vlogging channel on YouTube. Relatively new to the game, Cole already has over 100,000 subscribers by the time season two is ordered. Pushing himself to make the best follow up possible and fighting against his own stagnation, he treks further into the Nevada high desert. There, he begins discovering some troubling finds, including a cell phone that may or may not belong to Micha Blevins (Blake Hyer) or Hannah Givens (Maxwell Golden), two anthropologists that went missing a few weeks prior. It’s not until he ventures into one of the cave systems that he finds something that would terrify anyone alone in the wilderness.

A few cool ideas aside, Primal Darkness is a retread of found footage you’ve seen before.

Kickstarting the film with an affable welcome to Cole, Primal Darkness starts out innocently enough. Gorgeous nature shots paint a picture of the natural beauty and isolation of his surroundings. Cole is far from help and isn’t bothered in the slightest, outside of the irritating cold and snow. Focused on getting the shots needed for his show, Cole is unbothered with the escalating concerns until it is far too late. His journey feels inevitable once the horror is identified.

Before Cole’s fate is known, the B plot takes over, which forces Primal Darkness to re-build the goodwill it initially creates with Cole. Micah and Hannah are far less interesting protagonists. Anthropologists out in the desert with little direction and caught up in a potential ethics concern in their department, the two mess around in the dessert before their final moments are recorded. Far too short to be an effective or equal story and way too long to derail from Cole’s story, this thread feels especially unnecessary in the end, only present to stretch the runtime to feature length.

With found footage, there’s a need to consolidate the footage of the deceased to best construct the events that lead to their deaths. In Primal Darkness, text reveals important information that cannot be seen onscreen. When sparingly used, this can be an effective tool for both storytelling and establishing atmosphere. Unfortunately, Primal Darkness feels the need to implement it throughout the film to tie together the loose pieces of footage. It’s both distracting and irritating, especially considering that some of the information might be best communicated in other ways.

While it definitely leaves much to be desired in its story, Primal Darkness does get its scares largely right. Preferring to rely on good ole fashioned suspense and tension, Primal Darkness forces viewers on the same daunting journey of Cole. Every step down the mine shaft or coyote wail in the distance becomes a foreboding warning for what’s to come. These moments demonstrate a command of restraint, especially when Primal Darkness could easily go all out.

Unfortunately, once it reaches its climax, Primal Darkness shifts to an all-out assault on the senses, which would be great if it was more coherent. Without spoiling the climax, Primal Darkness takes effort to squeeze all it can out of the thin scenario Cole is trying to escape. What starts as capable turns into incomprehensible by the decision to play the same freeze - chase sequence over and over through the ring of light emanating from an infrared flashlight. Harkening back to its irritating intercutting of screams throughout the feature, the more bombastic approach just doesn’t work here. The fear transforms to silliness by the time all is said and done.

It’s a well-intentioned effort, but Primal Darkness falls victim to many of the same issues that plague micro budget found footage films. Awkward story and character development, as well as a shoehorned B-plot, noticeably take away from the horror while the efforts to ramp up its scarier parts come off as inauthentic. Problems aside, it’s undeniable that Primal Darkness taps into some very real fears, especially as it traps us in the claustrophobic mine shafts alongside Cole.

Overall Score? 4/10