ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jennifer Upton is an American (non-werewolf) writer/editor in London. She currently works as a freelance ghostwriter of personal memoirs and writes for several blogs on topics as diverse as film history, punk rock, women’s issues, and international politics. For links to her work, please visit https://www.jennuptonwriter.com or send her a Tweet @Jennxldn

Full disclosure: I LOVE films where animals attack. The notion of a chimp in a sweater with an ipad who goes on a murderous rampage/ piqued my interest immediate. 

I was pleasantly surprised that a movie like this was made and released in the modern era.  

Primate offers viewers a well-executed simple premise. Cujo with a chimp. That’s pretty much it. The characters are secondary to the action. Forget that there’s no rabies in Hawaii, where the film takes place. It doesn’t matter. It’s enough to know that a mongoose got into poor Ben’s enclosure and bit him. The “whys” and “hows” aren’t important when fighting off a rabid ape with the strength of 3 Chuck Norrises. 

Most impressive are the film’s practical effects. That’s not a CGI chimp. It’s an actor in a full body suit. The kills are insanely creative, bringing to the screen what happened in real life when a chimp named Travis went rogue and ripped off Charla Nash’s jaw with his bare hands because he didn’t like her new hairstyle or her new Tickle Me Elmo Doll. Lest we forget Buddy and Ollie, who attacked a couple when they brought a birthday cake for their own chimp, Moe who shared space with Buddy and Ollie in an animal sanctuary in California. No cake? No face. Those are the rules. 

This movie takes what we, the audience, have read about in the news and pictured in our minds for decades and renders it in silicone and spirit gum glory. Although the film feels a bit slow at times, the scenes where Ben the sign-language chimp intimidates his victims made me genuinely uncomfortable. If you’ve ever stared into the eyes of a chimp up close with no bars in between you, as I have, you’ll know what I mean. They look through you. I once saw one sitting in a makeup chair getting his hair done for a TV show. He looked at me as I passed by his dressing room as if to say, “Where’s my skinny oat latte, Bitch?” Later, that same chimp got into the passenger seat of an Audi in the parking lot and put on his own seatbelt. They are us. They are remarkable and marvelous creatures capable of great acts of violence. Add rabies to the mix and an isolated location with an infinity pool, a bunch of young people and a deaf best-selling author dad and you’ve got a decent movie. I loved Ben. None of it was his fault. A sympathetic monster, to be sure. 

Are there other horror tropes we’ve seen a million times before? Yes. But the reason horror tropes exist is because they work. The direction is solid and the overall production design of the house reminded me a bit of the super-modern architecture in Tenebrae even if the lighting is a bit dark. 

Speaking of Argento…the kill scene where the girl buys it in the SUV was shot and scored just like an Argento film. Other musical cues sounded reminiscent of Escape From New York. In another scene, a guy lands on his head at the bottom of a cliff. There are plenty of, “Ohhhh” moments for the gorehounds to latch onto. 

I wish Ben had endured a more spectacular demise at the end of the film, but overall, I enjoyed it. If Primate had come out in the ‘80s, I would have watched it a million times along with Monkey Shines and Phenomena. Inga is still my favorite chimp in a horror movie. MONKEY JUSTICE!!!!

The Paramount Blu-ray release has a commentary track from director/writer Johannes Roberts and producer Walter Hamada and features of the making of the movie. You can order it from Deep Discount.