Primate
Cast of Characters:
Lucy – Johnny Sequoyah
Hannah – Jessica Alexander
Adam – Troy Kotsur
Kate – Victoria Wyant
Erin – Gia Hunter
Nick – Benjamin Cheng
Drew – Charlie Mann
Brad – Tienne Simon
Ben – Miguel Torres Umba
Director – Johannes Roberts
Writer – Johannes Roberts & Ernest Riera
Producer – Walter Hamada, John Hodges & Bradley Pilz
Distributor – Paramount Pictures
Running Time – 89 minutes
Rated R for strong bloody violent content, gore, language, and some drug use.
After being away for some time, following the death of her mother, Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah) has finally returned home to her sister Erin (Gia Hunter) and her deaf novelist father Adam (Troy Kotsur). Tagging along on the trip are her friends Kate (Victoria Wyant) and Hannah (Jessica Alexander), who are immediately introduced to another member of Lucy’s family: Ben (Miguel Torres Umbra), their pet chimpanzee who was trained to communicate with humans by Lucy and Erin’s late linguistics professor mother. Ben’s everything a kid would want in a pet. He’s fun, playful and just likes to – you know – monkey around.
And can peel your face right off the skull if things go south.
Annnnnnnnd south they sure do go after Adam travels out to a book signing event, leaving the girls home alone with a creature fully capable of smacking the ever-living ape shit out of them and crushing their bones. Of course, that ain’t stopping them getting lit and partying hard while father is away, but amid the fun and games, they begin to notice that Ben is suddenly acting… well, a little off. Turns out something got into Ben’s cage and messed with him, and now something is indeed wrong with Ben.
Okay, as someone also named Benjamin, I definitely feel attacked.
Yeah, you all thought it was cute when that Ed chimp was goofing around on third base with Matt LeBlanc, or when cheeky little Dunston would be slinking around five-star hotels, cheesing while swiping jewels from guests.
Well, who’s laughing now?
Upon first seeing the trailer for Primate, my immediate thought was that this could go either way. It’d could be a fun, bloody creature feature, or it could make total sense as to why it’s getting dumped at the beginning of January. Humans vs. animals has been a longstanding go-to within the horror genre ever since Alfred Hitchcock conjured up terror out something as sweet and docile as a bird.
Lots and lots of birds.
Since then, viewers have been visually attacked by rats (Willard), sharks (Jaws), fish (Pirahna), dogs (Cujo), spiders (Arachnophobia), dinosaurs (Jurassic Park), gorillas (Congo), snakes (Anaconda), bears (The Edge), wolves (Frozen), alligators (Crawl), and cocaine-snorting bears (Cocaine Bear), just to name a few. Primate has apes once again stepping into the batter’s box for Team Killer Animals, and while this film could’ve gone every bit as terribly wrong as the predicament its characters find themselves in against Ben, it works.
For sure, no one’s gonna be mistaking this film for high art, or even by killer animal standards, a masterpiece like Jaws. Primate is totally bonkers, totally dumb and features characters making even dumber decisions. But it’s the type of bonkers, totally dumb, bat-shit crazy film that knows what it is and embraces it. As we critics often say about films of this type, it understands the assignment and nails it, delivering B-movie creature horror schlock with grade-A craft.
Writer/director Johannes Roberts (co-writing with Ernest Riera) is no stranger to the horror genre. Between 2017’s 47 Meters Down and 2018’s The Strangers: Prey at Night, it’s clear he gets what makes bare-bones, straight-to-the-point genre fare of this type tick, and begins ratcheting up the tension right from the start. Furthermore, those that have seen 47 Meters Down knows Roberts has a strong penchant for creating tension out of a tight, claustrophic, seemingly impossible to escape from settings. Much like his previous killer shark feature, Primate also confines its young protagonists to a remote home setting, then confines them further to the home’s infinity pool as a means of avoiding Ben due to the link between rabies and hydrophobia. Of course, watching a B-movie like this open with scientific babble like it’s National Geographic, you wanna go, “Okay, calm down, movie.”, but it’s nevertheless an effective plot device that keeps things moving.
Aiding the use of tension to wondrous effect is the first-rate craft on display. Combining dim lighting and shadows with some savvy camerawork from cinematographer Stephen Murphy, Roberts transforms Ben from playful pet to terrifying monster (capturing Ben from an underwater POV shot inside the pool is a nice, nightmarish touch). Sound also plays a vital role in amplifying the terror, and not just by way of the haunting, heavily John Carpenter inspired synth score by Adrian Johnston. During one particular moment, it’s the total lack of sound that is all the more chilling. That white-knuckle sequence places the viewer in deaf actor Troy Kotsur’s perspective by going completely silent as he’s unknowingly stalked by the killer chimp.
The gorehounds will have plenty to enjoy here, ’cause Roberts serves up some vicious kills, and boy, does he like to linger on them also. The film wisely opts for the practical makeup route, as opposed to CGI blood and gore, which gives all the bloody monkey mayhem a highly tangible feel. It should go without saying that Primate is not for the easily squeamish. Even I, who am pretty gore tolerant found myself getting jolted by a few of the kills, most notably when Ben has a little too much fun with a victim’s mouth (another highlight set piece that combines nervous humor with genuine horror).
You’ll know it when you see, or depending on your tolerance… won’t see it.
The cast is uniformly up to the task here, with the primary targets of Ben’s wrath effectively conveying the sheer terror of being hunted by a rabid animal. Johnny Sequoyah, especially, turns in strong lead work as Lucy and makes for a formidable final girl against Ben. Academy Award winner Troy Kotsur, still fresh off his win for his superb performance in the excellent CODA, also scores a couple standout moments as Lucy and Erin’s dad Adam. Primate may seem like a wildly different career choice for Kotsur following CODA, but it’s still nice to see the Oscar-winning actor afforded the opportunity to, as they say, “get his bag” in a mainstream horror flick.
The star performance here, though, is obviously Ben. The portrayal’s not by an actual chimp or a motion capture effect, but is performed by Miguel Torres Umba, a Colombian movement specialist dressed up in an ultra-realistic, practical suit. Between Millennium FX’s incredible suit design and Umba’s terrific physical performance, Ben is given a sense of realism we don’t often get in natural horror films that opt for a CGI creature. Sure, today, a studio could easily plop down the change to create a digital monkey, but you can’t beat practical when it’s done right, and the fact that we’re not questioning the look or, worse, laughing at how bad it looks is a testament to a job done right by Millennium FX and Umba.
Closing Statement: Primate certainly isn’t winning points for intelligence, but between a game cast and some gnarly thrills and kills from writer/director Johannes Roberts, they deliver a lean-and-mean, no-frills, nature-run-amok horror film that does exactly what’s required of it.
Silver Screen Fanatic’s Verdict: I give Primate a B+ (★★★).
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