Primate

Primate (2025)

79% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 131 reviews)

Runtime: 89 minutes

Directed by: Johannes Roberts

Starring: Johnny Sequoyah, Jess Alexander, Troy Kotsur, Victoria Wyant, Gia Hunter

From: Paramount

I… went ape for Primate.

Truth be told, the effective advertisements (where they stressed that test screenings made everyone in the audience jump in shock) plus learning that the film had a Carpenter-esque synth score from Adrian Johnston… that was enough to persuade me. Indeed, the score typically reminded me of old-school John Carpenter, which is a compliment.

The film is unapologetically a B-movie; of course that won’t be for all tastes. College girl Lucy (a great name if you get the reference) returns home to Hawaii for summer break-she’s been away due to her mom’s passing from cancer. The family has a chimpanzee named Ben who was taught sign language. Middle-aged me was reminded of Koko the Gorilla, who was taught sign language. A rabbit hole is reading the dirty details of how she was evidently cared for and other unfortunate controversies. Ben is bitten by a mongoose that has rabies-perhaps a few liberties were taken in how quickly Ben turns evil.

I probably shouldn’t question how quickly Ben turned into an evil chimp that inflicted gory carnage as if he’s watched the Terrifier films. That plus that monkey subplot in Nope (you know, people still debate now how that subplot tied into the main plot! I’d almost want to watch that disappointing movie again to discuss that…) reminded me of poor Charla Nash. She was a lady whose friend’s chimp snapped one day and mauled her. Her aftermath/the damage to her face would cause even the toughest and most extreme film-watchers to genuflect.

Primate can be nitpicked to death if you’re the insufferable CinemaSins type. This won’t be me; instead, I’ll shower praise and note why I was glad this wasn’t one of those “elevated horror” movies that almost always leave me cold or those PG-13 Blumhouse flicks that are lame and squander potential good premises. This is an R-rated film that features several gore-heavy moments, all done practically. Including end credits, the movie is an hour and a half long, never overstaying its welcome-perhaps at the expense of seeing Ben as a kind animal before his turn.

Unlike w/ too many modern films, I wasn’t aggravated w/ any of the main characters I was supposed to like. Plot armor isn’t a huge deal like you also get w/ too many modern films, not to mention certain popular streaming shows… I’ve seen a few Johannes Roberts films before and those were only mediocre at best but this contained several tense suspense scenes and used mainly one location decently well. This was also the first film I saw Troy Kotsur in-he was the one credited name in the cast I knew and his performance was good. Thankfully, there wasn’t a dreadful performance in the cast.

I’m evidently a simple man; still, there’s no shame in enjoying a silly yet unpretentious B-movie that delivered on its premise. I wish that there wouldn’t have been too many knuckleheads in the auditorium audience, but alas… I’m also reminded that one day I should check out the similar Link and Shakma.