Now, instead of going bigger, louder or more prehistoric, director Johannes Roberts heads in a far more unsettling direction. In “Primate”, the monster isn’t some ancient beast or deep-sea terror – it’s a chimpanzee.
And somehow, that makes it even worse.
This jumpscare-heavy survival flick proves you don’t always need claws the size of machetes to instil fear. Sometimes, all it takes is something that looks a little too much like us.
Set against a deceptively idyllic Hawaiian backdrop, the film follows Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah), who returns to her family’s isolated cliffside home with her friends Kate (Victoria Wyant) and Nick (Benjamin Cheng).
Tensions are already bubbling when Kate brings along Hannah (Jessica Alexander), someone Lucy doesn’t see eye to eye with. It’s the kind of interpersonal friction horror films love to establish early on, but to Roberts’s credit, he doesn’t linger on it.
Waiting at the house is Lucy’s deaf novelist father Adam, played by Academy-Award winner Troy Kotsur, as well as her younger sister Erin (Gia Hunter) and the family’s pet Ben – the titular primate.
Ben isn’t your average animal companion. He’s unusually intelligent and capable of communicating via a tablet, a skill taught by Lucy’s late linguist mother. At first, he’s calm, observant, and oddly endearing.
Naturally, that calm doesn’t last.
After being bitten by a mongoose, Ben’s behaviour shifts dramatically. What follows is a rapid descent into chaos as the once-gentle chimp turns aggressive – and downright violent.
Roberts, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ernest Riera (“47 Meters Down”), wastes no time getting to the good stuff. This is a very gory film – Brutal, with a capital B.
The opening scene itself involves half a man’s face being ripped clean off. It is unapologetically grisly, a clear sign this is a movie for those who like their horror messy.
Skulls are crushed, limbs are torn, and at one point Ben casually holds on to the jawbone of a person he has just pried apart while still alive.
One of “Primate’s” smartest choices is its setting. The cliffside house is stunning but brutally remote. There’s nowhere to run to, no neighbours to get help from – and when the chimp’s fear of water traps the teenagers in a swimming pool, their sense of helplessness becomes suffocating.
The filmmakers make excellent use of this confined space, crafting moments of claustrophobia.
What makes Ben especially terrifying isn’t just the violence but how human he feels. Played by movement specialist Miguel Torres Umba, the chimp is brought to life using practical effects – a combination of prosthetic makeup, puppetry, and a full performance suit.
The result is far more effective than CGI. His slow turns, eerie pauses, and deliberate stalking feel less like an animal and more like a possessed human toying with its prey.
Is this how a real chimp with rabies behaves? Probably not. But realism isn’t the point, and if it were, this film wouldn’t be as much fun.
While a movie about a killer chimp isn’t exactly unpredictable, it does throw in several clever twists. Just when hope appears – a car key found, a potential escape, others arriving at the house – “Primate” reminds you that Ben is smarter than you might expect.
It’s these moments of false relief that make the inevitable bloodshed more effective. Meanwhile, Adrian Johnston’s score drives the tension, while strategic silences, especially from Adam’s deaf perspective, sharpen the suspense.
With its lean 1.5-hour runtime, “Primate” doesn’t overstay its welcome. It’s tight, energetic – and clearly designed to be watched with a full theatre audience, where the gasps, nervous laughter and full-on screams are part of the experience.
As of press time, ‘Primate’ is screening in cinemas nationwide.