A strong finish to this year’s Ape-ril. So strong it could rip your jaw off, play with it for a bit, and then politely try to put it back on like nothing happened. I sat down to watch Johannes Roberts’s tight 89-minute ape-fueled gore-a-rama the other night with a gummy and half a pint of Chunky Monkey, and let me tell ya, it was hittin’. Almost as hard as Ben the chimp. Apes are strong, in case you haven’t picked up on that by now.
I was surprised (and delighted) when Primate dropped during the dregs of January, aka “Dumpuary”, and managed a respectable return with solid reviews. I’ve been a low-key supporter of Johannes Roberts ever since I discovered The Strangers: Prey at Night back in the MoviePass days and found it to be an atmospheric slasher that only looks better after Lionsgate’s ill-advised attempt to revive The Strangers with a reboot trilogy no one wanted.
I even found a few things to like in Roberts’s Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, which, despite all its problems, is still somehow the best Resident Evil adaptation we’ve gotten so far. (Not a high bar, but still.)
Roberts is a strong visual stylist who clearly loves old-school horror, evident in his John Carpenter-esque scores and retro flourishes. So it’s nice to see him tackle a concept that feels both fresh and familiar in the way the best slashers do. It’s a little Halloween, a little Cujo… and a whole lotta ape.
Lucy Pinborough (Johnny Sequoyah) is a college student returning home to her father Adam Pinborough’s secluded Hawaiian mansion, a successful deaf author. Bringing along her gal pals, Lucy reunites with her lonely sister Hannah (Jessica Alexander), her crush Nick (Benjamin Cheng), and the family’s beloved pet chimp, Ben (Miguel Torres Umba). Yes, Ben is played by an actual actor in a suit, and yes, it rules.
But what happens when Ben gets bitten by a rabid mongoose? Well, as the film’s opening text warns us:
“The first case of hydrophobia was recorded in 2300 BC. Infected animals are literally driven crazy by the sight of water. If not treated within 48 hours, there is no cure. Today, hydrophobia is better known by the Latin word for ‘madness’: rabies.”
This info dump sets the clock on Ben’s transformation and establishes water as the group’s only real defense… or at least a way to delay the inevitable. What surprised me is just how ruthless Primate can be. Characters who are set up as likable and sympathetic are torn to shreds in the gnarliest of ways. We’re talking people getting thrown off cliffs, limbs torn off, bodies beaten to a pulp, and yes, one poor guy gets his jaw ripped off. To be fair, that one guy did seem like a douche.
The film is kept to a single location, never leaving the confines of the mansion, and moves at a breakneck pace. More movies, especially horror movies, need to adopt shorter runtimes. Especially in an age where teens can’t enough of those dang TikToks. I was proud to add Primate to my Letterboxd list of Horror Movies Under 90 Minutes
As an animal lover myself, films like Primate can be tough. In the few scenes we get of an unaffected Ben, we feel for him and see how his family loves him. The film almost has to go too far with the kills to turn the audience against Ben. Stuff so sadistic that you don’t feel bad when Oscar-winner Troy Kotsur is punching a chimp in the face.
I can’t sing the praises of Primate’s visual effects loudly enough. As I mentioned, Ben is primarily portrayed by an actor in a costume, with occasional support from CGI and animatronics. THIS IS HOW IT’S DONE, PEOPLE! You know a film has strong effects when you can’t tell, from shot to shot, what’s CGI and what isn’t. CGI is a perfectly fine tool, but it should never be the entire toolbox.
And how about Adrian Johnston’s score? What a throwback. Check out these opening credits and you’ll see what I mean:
Primate isn’t a weighty film when it comes to message or theme, but it does more than enough to make you care about the characters and stay locked into the situation. There’s not a whisper of pretension here, just pure, unadulterated monkey madness. Sorry, ape madness. It’s so much more fun to say monkey madness.
Is the film a bit of a downer? Sure. I don’t particularly want to watch Ben kill his family, or the family kill Ben, but you’re either on board with the premise or you’re not. Watch at your own risk. If you think you can handle Rob Delaney getting his face eaten, then by all means check it out. Otherwise, sit this one out before things go bananas. I’m excited to not have to write like this after this month.
And thus concludes another Ape-ril. See you next year when hopefully, I review that South Korean movie about the gorilla who plays baseball.
Ape it ‘till you make it.