January has a reputation for being a bad month at the movies. After a crowded theatrical window during the holiday season, January is the time for bottom-of-the-barrel releases and big screen gambles that frequently result in box office bombs.
Which is why Paramount’s “Primate” will catch many by surprise, particularly horror fans.
Set in beautiful Hawaii, the film centers around Ben (Miguel Torres Umba), a hyper-intelligent chimpanzee who was the test subject of a linguistic professor and had him living in an enclosure outside her remote luxurious home. Even after the professor dies from cancer, Ben is still “part of the family.”
The remaining members of Ben’s Homo sapien family are Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah), a college student who estranged herself after her mother’s passing, her resentful younger sister Erin (Gia Hunter) and their preoccupied writer father Adam (Troy Kotsur).
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Lucy is coming home from college with her best friend Kate (Victoria Wyant), who brought along the somewhat off-putting Hannah (Jessica Alexander). They’re picked up at the airport by Nick (Benjamin Cheng), a hunky friend of the family who Lucy may or may not have feelings for.
Things are going swimmingly. Lucy introduces her friends to Ben, described as being like a little brother. He’s playful, silly and is miraculously able to communicate through a tablet.
The youngsters are left to their own devices at the house while Adam is away on a business trip. But before he goes, Adam checks in on Ben, who notices that he had been bitten by a mongoose, which was laying dead in the enclosure. Adam locks him in the enclosure just in case.
“Something’s wrong with Ben,” Kate tells Lucy.
Turns out the mongoose had rabies. And Ben, like all hell, eventually breaks loose.
You’ve probably heard of incidents in the past of chimpanzees attacking people, which always note their incredible strength since virtually everything beneath its hair is pure muscle. That’s no different with Ben, who like any human horror villain has one brutal killing after another.
A lengthy portion of the movie takes at the family’s cliffside pool where Lucy and the others seek refuge with the correct assumption that chimpanzees fear the water. Ben, however, is patient. And methodical. And frothing at the mouth. The pool essentially becomes their cage. It’s truly a terrifying position to be in.
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There’s a lot going for “Primate.” While horror films, including this one, heavily rely on sound to fuel scares, “Primates” is also able to build suspense with silence, using the perspective of Adam — who, like Kotsur (best known for his Oscar-winning performance in 2021’s “CODA”), is deaf — as Ben sneaks around him in terrifyingly fun sequence.
And in the age of CGI and motion capture, Umba goes old school, wearing an ape suit and relying on practical effects. Umba, who refers to himself on his IMDB page as a movement specialist, physically transforms into Ben, going from a cute, disarming, T-shirt-wearing pet to a literally rabid monster with a dark sense of humor who is even capable of a maniacal laugh after one of his killings. Having seen the recent “Planet of the Apes” films and the Robbie Williams biopic “Better Man,” — which, yes, depicts him as a monkey — Ben did look different on screen, but no way did I rule out him not being CGI. Regardless, it was a daring creative decision — and it paid off.
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Johannes Roberts has directed several horror flicks (“The Strangers: Prey at Night,” the “47 Meters Down” films, etc.) which probably have their niche fans but are otherwise forgettable in the wider landscape. “Primate” is certainly in a tier of its own, mostly because Roberts is able to have fun with such an absurd premise. Enhancing the experience is the 80s horror-style score from composer Adrian Johnston. It was a nice touch.
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In a month that’s usually a slump at the movie theater, “Primate” flexes its muscle despite the lack of star power in a genre that’s been struggling for originality. Ben is not your ordinary psycho killer, which makes it even more fun. If you’re a big horror fan, and you’re itching to get out of the house, this is probably worth checking out. For everyone else, you can add it to your queue for next Halloween.
“Primate” is rated R for strong bloody violent content, gore, language, and some drug use. Running time: 1 hour, 29 minutes. In theaters now.
