‘Primate’ REVIEW: No Monkey Business
‘Primate’ REVIEW: No Monkey Business
Ben (Miguel Torres Umba) peering through a screen door | Still from IMDb
It’s befitting, really, that Johannes Roberts’ latest horror-thriller Primate contains one short needledrop of Charli XCX’s hit single “360,” because when you think about it, the film kinda comes off as his Brat summer moment, that after years of developing his stylistic preoccupations on location-based premises, geographic escalating tension, and John Carpenter-indebted undercurrents on surprisingly well-put together B-movie genre schlock such as the 47 Meters Down duology, The Strangers: Prey at Night (which I maintain is his best film and where he found his footing), and the over-maligned Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, he manages to get a notable big studio push and palpable mainstream attention with this latest entry in his oeuvre that possesses all of what came before. This time, Roberts makes use of the studio money to zero in on his flourishes in quite economic and very visceral ways, once more getting mileage out of a very straightforward-to-a-fault material and producing a stylish, white-knuckle thrill ride.
The premise of Primate is as straightforward as it gets in this type of slasher: college student Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah) makes a return trip to her family in Hawaii alongside a group of friends and acquaintances, attempting to reconnect with her younger sister Erin (Gia Hunter) and somewhat distant novelist father Adam (Troy Kotsur) after the death of their mother years prior. Another member of their family, adopted pet chimpanzee Ben (played in a suit by Miguel Torres Umba), is also equally excited to see Lucy back, but what was supposed to be a relaxing, if a bit hedonistic, vacation takes a nasty turn when Ben contracts rabies from a stray mongoose and goes mad.
Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah), unaware for now of what lies above her | Still from IMDb
On a script basis, there isn’t too much meat on the bones of Roberts and consistent collaborator Ernest Riera’s screenplay. While we do get a decently likeable enough bunch of unfortunate victims and some thematic threads here and there about the long-standing baggage of Lucy’s mom’s passing, among other things, the film is not something you go into for clever writerly display (although it stumbles into some darkly hilarious beats out of sheer bloodlust). No, what it really aims to do — and does quite well — is sequence a consistently on-edge chronology of suspense set-pieces that are further emphasized by nasty gore. And by nasty, I mean “damn, practical FX this chunky on Paramount money?” level because some of the dispatchings here are comically cruel (I implore readers to seek out the R-18 cut for the full experience).
And it’s not reliant on them either for the horror of it all, but rather, they are the punctuation mark, the very pointed end of a sentence to some legitimately intense moments that Roberts directs the hell out of. Moments of long takes not only map out the space and location of the house the whole movie is set in, allowing for wide visual coverage, but provide the sort of classical tension where one change in angle could lead to something nightmarish, the latter creating a very amusing aside at one point.
Once the plot kicks into overdrive and the bodies start dropping, all fearful emotion and uncertainty are formally milked for all their worth in numerous locations. Mostly within a pool (Prey at Night fans know what is up) become home to stripped back anxiety-inducers that escalate into a wild final act that really explodes. All of this is aided by a thumping synth soundtrack from Adrian Johnston to really underline the throwback vibes and solid performances from the main cast (Troy Kotsur being a standout, the film meaningfully integrating his deafness as he provides some of the most rousing moments of the film).
The main group (Johnny Sequoyah, Victoria Wyant, Gia Hunter, and Jessica Alexander) fearfully remaining in the pool | Still from IMDb
Overall, Primate is a brisk, riotous picture that delivers what you’d expect from its synopsis, and does so with striking visual aptness and a whole lot of blood. Whilst this isn’t the most in-depth picture on the page, and the positives aren’t exactly fresh stuff, Roberts once more fashions himself off Carpenter, whom he cited as a primary inspiration alongside Stephen King within ’80s horror. Even so, the extent to which he commands audience attention through grace and blunt form through this realm of brutal commercial B-cinema is still worthy of respect. In that regard, Primate is a good choice as you can get for a quick blast of pure no frills fright, with no monkey business attached in its 90 minutes of carnage.
‘Primate’ is now showing in Philippine cinemas through Paramount Pictures Philippines — in R-16 and R-18 classifications.
