Film Review: Primate (2025): A Suspenseful and Well-Made Exercise in Horror Featuring a Crazed Chimpanzee
Primate Review
Primate (2025) Film Review, a movie directed by Johannes Roberts, written by Ernest Riera and Johannes Roberts and starring Troy Kotsur, Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander, Victoria Wyant, Gia Hunter, Benjamin Cheng, Charlie Mann, Tienne Simon, Miguel Torres Umba, Robin Chalk, Nick Romano, Ben Pronsky and Stuart Whelan.
Primate is a tense thriller about a friendly chimpanzee named Ben who ends up getting rabies and terrorizing a group of (mostly) young girls. Filmmaker Johannes Roberts expertly builds tension in this fast-paced and frightening horror film that succeeds on many basic levels as an entertaining film which achieves what it sets out to do which is to thrill the viewer and keep the suspense mounting. It helps the movie out that Oscar-winning actor Troy Kotsur is on board. He’s the deaf performer who won the best supporting actor Oscar a few years back for his turn in the 2021 best picture winner, CODA. Kotsur gives his performance here a lot of charisma and, again, proves that he’s more than capable of acting in almost any type of movie regardless of the genre.
Opening with Ben attacking a man by tearing his face off, the film switches back to some hours before this gruesome event as the young Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah) is heading home on a plane with her friends, Hannah (Jessica Alexander) and Kate (Victoria Wyant). This wouldn’t be a complete teenage horror movie if Lucy didn’t meet some cute guys on the plane that she and her friends will call up later on. When Lucy and her couple of friends arrive home, the audience gets to meet and know Ben, the chimp who Adam (Kotsur), Lucy’s dad, and the whole family have developed a sweet bond with. Ben is extremely high functioning and communicative, but is soon bitten by a rabid creature and thus the suspense will soon begin.
Gia Hunter serves as Lucy’s younger sibling, Erin, who is the second one the chimpanzee turns on when it is discovered that Ben is no longer the sweet and kind-hearted animal he once was. Primate, set in Hawaii, becomes a thriller about survival where our young heroes end up going in the water to escape the wrath of the newly vicious Ben who rips some skin off of Erin’s leg. As the movie proves that Hannah could be right in originally suggesting that Ben be put down when they discover the news of his infection, this film has a lot of unrelenting tension that is perfectly crafted by its talented filmmaker, Roberts.
Kotsur has a commanding screen presence which makes his character likable as he tries to help his family and their friends survive when things spiral out of control. Johnny Sequoyah, as the older daughter, is well-cast and has an appealing personality as her character invites the boys from the plane over the house when nobody’s around to prevent her and her friends from having some innocuous fun. Ben has other plans for the gang, though, given his new vicious streak.
Jessica Alexander, Victoria Wyant and Gia Hunter are all solid in their supporting turns within this picture that builds suspense efficiently enough that there’s never a lag in the action right from the movie’s outset. If anything, that fact may be a minor flaw of the film which could have taken its time to build its premise instead of jumping right into the action so early on in the movie. Alexander has a lot of personality in the way she performs her particular role here and Wyant develops a well-orchestrated rapport with Seqoyah’s character on-screen. As Hunter’s character is initially attacked, it becomes clear she’s the one who needs to be saved the most as those who aren’t viciously attacked by the chimp also fight to stay alive. We root for Hunter’s character, the sister Erin, to stay alive thanks to the fine work of the actress, herself.
Primate is at its best when it stages chimpanzee attacks. Ben is a trained chimp who could act naughty or nice at any given moment even after the bite which changes his personality and makes him more violent. At the early stages, it’s fun watching Ben transform from a good guy to a bad one right in front of our eyes. If Stephen King’s Cujo were remade with a chimpanzee instead of a dog and set in Hawaii, Primate could well have been the result.
Troy Kotsur carries his portion of screen time in Primate extremely well even if, ultimately, the young lead actresses seem to get just a tad bit more time in terms of key moments to excel. Additionally, Sequoyah is a stand-out of the film as the new horror movie consistently keeps the viewer intrigued by the action and moves at a quick and energetic pace all the way through. Ben is actually quite a fascinating character and the film leaves the door open for a potential sequel and I’d be happy to get one as long as they don’t try to turn the chimpanzee good like they did with the doll, Megan, of M3gan. Primate is somewhat comparable to the original M3gan and is also a successful January horror film release.
Rating: 7/10
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