From the director of 47 Meters Down, its sequel 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, and Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City, Johannes Roberts is back in the directors chair and behind the pen again with former collaborator Ernest Riera comes the chimpanzee version of Cujo – which Roberts said was a direct inspiration for Primate (obviously) along with Carpenter influencing his work in this outing. Primate – is a lot of movie, and is certainly not for the squeamish or animal lovers out there – Ben, the chimpanzee in the movie, is clearly CGI and no actual animals were harmed in the making of Primate – but the movie is still a lot as he looks real and goes through some pretty horrific things as his rampage rages on in this house on the outskirts of Hawaii with a group of friends, acquaintances, and family. So, strap yourself in and get ready to go bananas for Johannes Roberts Primate.
The movie focuses on Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah) is travelling home with her friends played by Jessica Alexander and Victoria Wyant, to go home to her sister Ellie (Gia Hunter) and their father, played by Troy Kotsur and a family friend played by Benjamin Cheng. On their little slice of heaven is their pet chimpanzee, Ben (occasionally played by Miguel Torres Umba) who live a relatively innocuous live. Ben is happy living with Ellie and her father, while Lucy is mostly away until she comes back home, but everything goes horribly wrong once Ben is bitten by a mongoose. At first, they just assume Ben’s hurt as there are no rabies in Hawaii, but Ben seems off and it is later confirmed, Ben in fact was bitten by a mongoose with rabies, but when that is revealed we’re already on our journey of insane brutality and grotesque violence inflicted onto these teenagers.
Ben, whose now been infected with rabies is no longer himself and Lucy, Ellie and their friends are in a fight for their lives against this young chimpanzee whose much stronger and more intelligent than anyone other than Lucy and Ellie truly want to give him credit for. Like most people though, we never truly understand the strength and intelligence of animals but it is on full display here as Ben lays absolute havoc out within this house, tearing people apart and gruesomely laying waste to anyone in his way. When a movie opens with a rabies infected chimpanzee ripping the skin off someone’s face like a fruit roll-up it sets up a certain tone and expectation to follow – Primate delivers on that promise tenfold.
While a movie that is so centred and focused on bringing gore and violence to the forefront, acting may come secondary but there is a standout performance in the film. This mostly comes from Johnny Sequoyah, as her performance of Lucy – wearing her heart on her sleeve determined to try and save Ben, and protect her family and friends is admirable and on occasion inspirational – that is where the standout performance ends. Troy Kotusr whose in the movie for a probable 10-15 minutes at most, is fine in his role, there is nothing wrong with his performance it just lacks depth other than a father doing what he can to protect his family. Lastly though, Miguel Torres Umba as Ben in occasional scenes bringing life to this chimpanzee is certainly giving Andy Serkis a run for his money as a master of mocap and performance in that regard.
Primate is a nearly mean spirited gruesome blast, if you can stomach seeing an animal get infected with rabies and kind of get some of the punishment it dishes out itself throughout the movie than you won’t be bothered. Even knowing it was not a real animal, thankfully, it still looks incredibly real and the ability to dissociate it may prove to be more difficult than expected. Overall though, Roberts brings a gnarly Cujo-esque chimpanzee frenzy to the big screen and horror fans are certainly going to enjoy the Donkey Kong raged adventure.
