Horror Movie Review: Primate (2025)

Directed by Johannes Roberts, who also co-wrote the story with Ernest Riera, Primate is a frustrating watch and all because there’s a good film in there struggling to get out. Alas, what we get is a forgettable flick with very little substance held up by some impressive gory moments. A film to unchain your brain to, a schlocky B-movie, which is no bad thing in the end.

Starring Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander, Troy Kotsur, Victoria Wyant, Gia Hunter, Benjamin Cheng, and Miguel Torres Umba, Primate tells a very simple story.

Set in Hawaii, the film surrounds a family who happen to have a unique member amongst them. A chimpanzee named Ben, who is highly intelligent and able to communicate using custom soundboard software on a tablet. Something he was taught to do by the late matriarch of the family, a linguistics professor.

She was Lucy’s mother, and the college student has returned home to her deaf father and younger sister, Erin after many years away. Along with her best friend Kate, another woman named Hannah, and Kate’s brother, Nick, they go to the family home in the mountains, where Ben is overjoyed to see them.

At least until a mongoose gets in Ben’s enclosure, bites him, and gives the chimp rabies. As the party gets started and goes long into the night, Ben turns feral. This is where the fun really starts.

It doesn’t take long for Primate to get going, which could be seen as a good thing, except this means there’s very little depth to anything and later, it harms the pacing of the film. The characters don’t matter, the story (what little we have) doesn’t matter, the familial connection doesn’t matter, and the fight to survive doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we have a rabid chimpanzee pulling faces off, throwing fools off cliffs, and generally biting, clawing, and maiming his way through the cast.

Which, I can’t stress enough, isn’t a bad thing if you go into it expecting that, and the film does deliver on most of its promises.

However, and I can’t stress this enough, the result has no long-term value and won’t be remembered in six months’ time, and all because it is fluff. I really think it’s a film that could have still built a strong emotional connection between the humans and the chimp, really sold the impact of having to fight off a loved one who has lost their mind, and still been uber gory and violent. It would have meant many scenes hit that bit harder instead of being nothing more than shoulder shrugging moments.

Though the gorehound in me will always enjoy a head crush or two. Especially when, as is the case here, the effects hold up. Overall, it’s nothing special to look at, but effort was made to make things look and feel real, which extends to Ben too. The decision to not CGI the chimp was a good one, and even though it doesn’t quite look right and there are times where the proportions are off, the effort is appreciated.

I didn’t like the film, but I don’t think it’s a bad film either. Not everything needs to say or do something, and while I would have liked something with a bit more meat to the bones, I can easily see why this will appeal to many.