Primate (2025 film)

Category: Animal horror

Directed by: Johannes Roberts

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I don't usually watch movies in the cinema. Partly because of cost (of both tickets and refreshments), partly because of the convenience of streaming and partly because not all movies are cinematic experiences. However, my teenage son wanted to go see this, we found discounted tickets and so off we went.

I went in with low-to-middling expectations - the first sign that I should be worried was the fact that when we bought our tickets, we could pick literally anywhere in the cinema to sit indicating that there was low demand to see this. Once the movie started proper, there was a total of twelve people seated, including a pair of middle-aged women - a scenario that struck me as incredibly strange. Undeterred, I kept an open mind and decided the quality of the work should speak for itself. 

Now, the only burning question remaining: is this movie about a hominid ape or a high-ranking Catholic bishop?

The plot:

Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah) returns home to Hawaii alongside her friends Kate (Victoria Wyant), Hannah (Jess Alexander) and Kate's older brother Nick (Benjamin Cheng) and is reunited with her father Adam (Troy Kotsur, but I could have sworn was Gary Sinise) and younger sister Erin (Gia Hunter). Adam is an author and animal conservationist, and his recently deceased wife was a professor of linguistics who had taught their pet chimpanzee Ben (Miguel Torres Umba in a physically-demanding role) to communicate by using sign language and a sound board.

The sign language aspect is very important because both Adam and the actor playing Adam, Troy Kotsur, are deaf.

Adam needs to go away for a few days to promote his latest book, requiring him to leave his cliffside house to the six teenagers and Ben. During a night of pizza and general carousing, Ben starts acting very weirdly around Hannah (which is put down to him not being comfortable around strangers), and then starts acting menacingly towards Lucy - someone he is usually very kind to.

Ben gets aggresive again and corners the teenagers in their in-ground pool which happens to be built into a cliff face. After biting Erin quite deeply on the leg, the teenagers realise Ben can't swim and that staying in the pool is their only refuge from Ben's attacks. To add to the drama, they can't call for help as the house is in a remote location and any attempt to get to their phones is blocked by a primate that swings between sedation and primal rage.

After initially finding safety in the pool, the teenagers are in trouble again as Ben traverses the surrounds and emerges on the cliff side of the pool. Hoping to push the chimpanzee off the cliff, Nick lunges at Ben only to be outplayed and falls to his death (a scene that raised a few chuckles in the cinema). The remaining girls keep Erin from bleeding out while the rest all try find ways to get help, including acts of bravery to distract Ben while a mobile phone is retrieved. Because the phone screen is broken, they cant dial 911, so they hit redial to call some cute guys they met on the plane and implore them for help.

Kate and Lucy find a way back to the house, but inadvertently set off the TV right as Lucy is about to grab her phone. The two hide in a closet and accidentally cause books to fall down during an outburst from Ben, triggering his attention as he breaks the doors down and comes within a breath of discovering them.

The girls sneak out, but Ben is hiding on the loft, signalling his presence by use of the sound board. He attacks at Lucy, the girls escape, but Kate is tripped as she runs down the stairs and meets her death when Ben crushes her skull with a rock.

The eye-candy two boys, Drew and Brad, arrive at the house and find the house empty. As they walk through, there are plenty of jump scares and unintentional comedy as Ben stalks Drew. Thinking he is about to get lucky, Drew jumps on a bed and is accosted by Ben who uses his sheer strength to rip Drew's jaw off (great work from the special effects team - this one made everyone wince). Brad walks outside and finds the girls asleep in the pool, drained from the ordeal. Just as he wakes them up, he is attacked and killed by Ben. However, Hannah uses the distraction as an opportunity to sneak back into the house, grab a mobile phone and a set of keys and call 911. Thinking she has found safety, she gets into one of the two cars in the driveway and is a blubbering mess with the 911 operator. But guess what - she got into the wrong car. In even more bad news, Ben has the keys for her car. And in even worse news still, Ben knows how to operate her car's remote. Hannah meets her untimely death in the front seat as she tries to escape.

Lucy and Erin decide that while Ben is not poolside to sneak back into the house.

Sensing something is wrong in his absence, especially due to text messages from his vet indicating Ben may have rabies from a mongoose bite, Adam leaves his publisher and interpreter hanging as he returns home. He walks back inside, but because he is deaf, he cannot hear the screams of his daughters being pummeled by Ben. In one scene, Ben snaps Lucy's wrist, but Lucy gets the upper hand by digging her fingers into the infection site on Ben's arm. Adam finally gets control of the situation by using his whistle which stops the attacks momentarily. Momentarily being the word as Ben attacks Adam, Erin and Lucy, only stopping after copping a beating as well as being stabbed. But no good deed goes unpunished as Ben wakes up and attempts to push Lucy off the deck, and Lucy is grabbed by her father while Ben falls to the pool deck below to be impaled on wooden pool furniture.

Emergency services finally arrive, the family reconcile and Erin gets the help she needs.

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Turns out the movie was about a dangerous hominid ape, not a Catholic bishop...though a movie about a killer Catholic priest with rabies targeting underdressed teenagers would be an interesting concept!

In terms of horror, the most eminent feeling I have is that Primate wasn't really anything profound or groundbreaking (except for Umba's performance as Ben). I walked out feeling like I had watched Cujo, but without the emotional depth.

As a cinema experience, however, watching someone getting their jaw ripped off in widescreen was a sight to behold. The special effects department really earned their keep here - I would be most unhappy if the effects team for this movie don't receive at least one nomination somewhere for their efforts. But much like the Saw franchise, Primate came across as an exploitation flick for the simple fact it features gory deaths for the sake of gory deaths.

The other thing to note is that this movie really comes across as a teen horror, especially with the inclusion of four pretty women in skimpy swimwear. Something for the men to ogle, and a couple of male models for the girls to coo at as well.

What, aside from the special effects, did I like? It was a good 90-minute horror. This movie didn't have any business being a two-hour adventure, but at 89 minutes, it had to keep things ticking along which it did nicely. The middle section where the teens really need to keep their wits about them and take massive risks was great viewing.

Sorry - one last criticism. Because a lot of the movie takes place at night, the lighting is very dark and dim which makes details hard to see (and gives old men like me headaches), so the scene where Drew jumps on a bed and turns a light on was quite a relief. Like, finally, we can see something!

All up, it's a popcorn movie. Don't think too deep, and be prepared to flinch at certain times.

STAR RATING: 3.25/5