Primate – Movie Review
A lean, mean, killer creature feature, Primate comes from filmmaker Johannes Roberts (47 Metres Down, Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City) and poses a question long desired to be answered by cinemagoers: “What if your pet chimpanzee contracted rabies and went on a violent spree while you’re on vacation in Hawaii?”
Relentlessly tense and packing a brutal punch, Primate is an effective thriller with a simple premise that follows a family and their friends who become trapped in their tropical vacation house by their pet chimp, who is bitten by a wild, rabid animal, and goes on a menacing and terrifying killing spree. And where Roberts’ really succeeds with this film, is that is the main focus – pure terror.
There are still moments of familial drama and character arcs that hit the bare minimum requirements to get the audience invested in this family. The sisterly chemistry between Johnny Sequoyah and Gia Hunter is sweet, and the integration of Troy Kotsur as their deaf father leads to some sentimental moments, especially towards the end of the film. But, with the central focus being on the group of friends trapped by the rabid chimp while their father is away leans more into a teen-horror style vibe, than a drama about a family bonding through crisis, which is exactly what this premise needs.
The scenario is truly terrifying as the titular primate showcases its immense power, speed, and danger right from the opening scene, which sets the tone of the violence right off the bat. What also heightens the fear is that this chimp is in complete control of where the group goes, keeping them trapped in their luxury vacation houses pool that back on to a steep cliff face one way, and the only back entry into the killer chimp occupied house the other. The cage-like entrapment definitely draws an interesting parallel to the captivity of the chimpanzee initially, but ultimately serves as a claustrophobic, inescapable situation for the humans to be in.
Roberts definitely leans more into the terror than the violence in Primate – something that often leads to great payoffs when it comes to the chimp attacks that are sporadically featured throughout the film. It’s not a frequently violent movie, but it’s an effectively violent one, with disgustingly wonderful practical effects used for the gorier moments, with one scene in particular, eerily taking place in a bedroom entirely lit in red, that stands out as the film’s more disgusting, yet exhilarating moment.
On top of the effective use of practical effects, the blend of CGI and a real life chimp used for the primate is astounding, often leaving the audience wondering which is in fact the animated or real animal. The animalistic movements also heightens the overall terror, as the chimp moves around the house in such a sleek manner, resulting in brilliant tension and some really solid jump scares. Another technical highlight is the way Roberts and the sound designers utilise Troy Kotsur’s character’s deafness to add even more suspense to the scene by taking away the audio in scenes from his perspective, completely relying on the dark visuals to create the terror and put the audience directly in his perspective.
Clocking in at 89 lean minutes, Primate may not do a lot to reinvent or reinvigorate the creature feature genre, but it does the foundational things right to be a solid, entertaining, nasty flick that effectively scares and disturbs.
Primate is in Australian cinemas January 22
