“Primate” review

I managed to attend a screening of director Johannes Roberts’ new horror film, Primate, at the Philadelphia Film Festival on Saturday, October 25th. The synopsis sounded interesting and I thought there could potentially be something here, not to mention it’s a good time of the year to watch a horror flick. Unfortunately, Primate squanders its potential with a tonally inconsistent script, despite solid visual effects and a suspenseful atmosphere. 

Primate centers around a girl named Lucy who is traveling back home for vacation with a few friends, just as her father is leaving for a business trip. It is revealed early on that the family has a pet chimpanzee named Ben, who, unbeknownst to them, becomes infected with rabies around the time Lucy arrives back home. The infection turns Ben into a crazy, murderous beast as he hunts down the group one by one. 

There are some things that this film does well. The opening scene is effective and chilling enough to set the tone for the events that follow. The film also has a condensed atmosphere that adds to the tension. The smaller scale helps keep the audience on edge because the threat of Ben is lurking at every corner. The visual effects and CGI are well-done, especially when it comes to the gore that is quite plentiful throughout. 

My main issue with the film is that it is tonally inconsistent. It tries to blend some comedic elements into the horror, so what ends up happening is that the film is neither truly scary nor funny. The filmmaker’s main focus seems to be horror, but the horror is never fully achieved due to this weird mix. Sure, there are some moments, but the moments don’t add up to a complete experience. This movie, like many others in the horror genre, also suffers from some really dumb writing, as in the characters making several dumb decisions. It would be easy to overlook it if there were one or maybe two instances, but there are several throughout. Many other horror films have this problem, but that doesn’t excuse this one. 

This is a frustrating film in some ways. It’s not that it’s not interesting or entertaining. At a brisk 89 minutes, it’s paced pretty well and never feels dull or uninteresting. It’s mainly that it’s not quite sure what it wants to be and never fully leans in one direction. It turns out that Primate doesn’t have much bite after all. 

Rating: 2.5/5