'Primate' review: Basic but delivers thrills for a terror flick
MANILA, Philippines — Exciting watches are promised this 2026 with films like "Primate" leading the pack of new releases.
The film centers around the Pinborough family, whose college student daughter Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah) returns home to Hawaii after years to be with her deaf father Adam (Oscar winner Troy Kotsur) and younger sister Erin (Gia Hunter).
The unexpected member of the family is the titular chimpanzee Ben (Miguel Torres Umba), who was taught sign language by Lucy's late mother. To the Pinboroughs, Ben is more than just a pet.
Things go awry when Ben contracts rabies, terrorizing Lucy, Erin, and their friends through the night.
Up to this point, horror director Johannes Roberts' best-known releases were the "47 Meters Down" movies and the "Resident Evil" reboot "Welcome to Raccoon City," so his familiarity with the genre was never going to be an issue.
Just under 90 minutes, "Primate" is a flick filled with end-to-end frights and shocks. A cold open literally sets the stage for the kind of gore audiences should expect.
Even with its tight runtime, Roberts, co-writer Ernest Riera, and editor Peter Gvozdas manage to keep sequences lengthy and enthralling enough where no minute is wasted.
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The screenplay is as basic as they come, but most slasher movies are, and people do not necessarily come to these viewings for great stories — they come for the violence — and the film delivers on that front.
There are numerous moments where audiences will find themselves screaming at the screen and grappling their seatmates, making "Primate" such an ideal exciting watch with company.
Credit is due for production designer Simon Bowles and cinematographer Stephen Murphy for utilizing as much as spaces possible with dim lighting and narrow spaces.
Also deserving of praise is Umba, a movement specialist who is very convincing as a chimpanze in a practical suit, rivaling the visual effects of the newer "Planet of the Apes" movies, recent versions of King Kong, and 2024's "Better Man," which envisioned Robbie Williams as an anthropomorphic chimp.
Mid-January is always the slowest time of the year for movies, especially in the Philippines post-Metro Manila Film Festival. It is the same overseas, like Hollywood, with the awards season happening every first quarter of the year.
It is precisely that quietness that allows films like "Primate" to thrive and keep the movies alive from the very start — the same cannot be said for people unable to deal with rabid apes.
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