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Anyone remembering the Stephen King classic ‘Cujo’ where a rabid St Bernard goes on a killing spree in his hometown will be under no illusions about what to expect with ‘Primate’ which should be subtitled ‘What if Cujo were a chimpanzee?’
This creature feature, written and directed by English filmmaker Johannes Roberts, asks that exact question, with fairly limp results.
The film opens with Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah), best friend Kate (Victoria Wyant) and frenemy Hannah (Jessica Alexander) decamping to Lucy’s cliff top Hawaiian home on a college break; a home she shares with dad Adam (Troy Kotsur), sister Erin (Gina Hunter) and their chimp Ben, brought into the home by Lucy’s recently deceased mother and treated like a family member.
Familial tension, where Erin and Lucy barely speak and where Adam is a writer always on the road, is exacerbated when the teens are left alone and, unbeknownst to them, Ben has contracted rabies, leading him to go on a rampage.
If you’re thinking, ‘is this film as silly as it sounds?’ the answer is a resounding yes. Despite a series of pretty fun and extremely gory kills – it definitely beats The Bone Temple for bloodletting – ‘Primate’ is a fairly insipid tale.
Following the typical horror trope of getting a group of beautiful, young people together only to have them picked off one-by-one, ‘Primate’ occasionally entertains because of the previously-mentioned kills, which include heads being caved in, faces ripped off and mandibles removed.
Outside of that, if you get your chuckles from watching teens making bad decisions and a sometimes exhibiting a bewildering lack of consistency, you’ll have fun.
On the plus side Kotsur’s own deafness is used as a kind of plot device in a set piece to semi-good effect. Also Roberts makes a bold choice by using real chimpanzees alongside actor Miguel Torres Umba rather than CGI, helps somewhat with authenticity.
Definitely not a film to go ape over!
