Ever since Steven Spielberg's masterpiece “Jaws,” one might think that the bloodthirsty sea hunters would be the most frightening creatures in the animal horror genre. But violent monkeys in particular often cause the audience a very special kind of discomfort: the animals seem to be too close to humans in terms of evolution that one doesn't instinctively think that one can recognize oneself in them. It's no coincidence that the German distribution title of George A. Romero's “Monkey Shines” was called “The Ape in Man”, the best and most profound monkey horror film ever made to date.
With “Primate,” British director Johannes Roberts (“The Strangers: Sacrificial Night”) now pays tribute to this direct relationship in a special – and particularly effective – way: the rabid chimpanzee Ben, who literally breaks every human bone for 90 minutes, is not unleashed on his victims using CGI, but instead embodied by actor Miguel Torres Umba in a monkey costume. This is how you create an uncompromising animal horror that is completely committed to physical force, claustrophobic tension and tangible, practical gore – and at the same time remains surprisingly entertaining!
Luckily, monkey Ben is afraid of water: Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah) and her guests are no longer safe anywhere outside the pool!
Ben is initially rather gentle and playful when Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah) returns to Hawaii for the summer vacation to her father Adam (“CODA” star Troy Kotsur) and little sister Erin (Gia Hunter). Her mother, a linguist who died of cancer, once brought the monkey home because she wanted to research whether animals are able to react to concepts. Since then, Ben has long since become a full-fledged family member, able to translate feelings into words at the touch of a button on a tablet: for example, that he missed Lucy when she was studying away from home for the last few months.
But nature plays a trick on the ape's all-too-rapid humanization. In his cage, Ben is bitten on the arm by an infected mongoose and develops rabies. And this soon manifests itself in excessive, completely uninhibited violence: he tears and bites the skin from the face of a veterinarian who wants to examine him with relish, before finally killing him…
Not a gram of fat too much
Even if the FILMSTARTS reviews for the underwater shocker “47 Meters Down”, which was shot on a minimal budget, and its sequel were not so positive at the time, Johannes Roberts is considered by his fans to be a guarantee of emphatically drastic animal horror, which effectively and without any narrative fat returns to a basic virtue of the genre: creating fear in a technically effective way. “Primate” doesn’t spend much time constructing a narrative frame either. Rather, at the beginning he establishes a minimalist setting and a varied threat situation in just a few minutes.
Pursued and attacked by Ben, Lucy, her friends Kate (Victoria Wyant) and Hannah (Jessica Alexander) and the rest of her party guests quickly become prisoners: her parents' house is located directly on a cliff that falls into the sea and the only possible escape point is a swimming pool that the water-shy chimpanzee cannot enter. It is precisely in this limitation to the essentials that the great, extremely entertaining and skilfully played out appeal of the film lies. Every attempt to leave the safety of the pool and escape results in an excessive, bloody set piece.
Ben is played in the classic way by an actor in a monkey costume – and that proves to be much more effective than any CGI creature!
“Primate” becomes a delightful celebration of purely handmade, practical effects, the likes of which have rarely been seen in major Hollywood productions of late. You probably have to explain the huge success of the splatter orgies “Terrifier 2” and “Terrifier 3” that a Hollywood production can once again allow itself such explicit and harsh gore effects. In particular, a scene in which a human lower jaw is torn out with a crash, only to appear again later in the plot, is unlikely to be surpassed in terms of drama in mainstream cinema!
At the same time, Johannes Roberts is also an experienced connoisseur and lover of horror stories: fans of Stephen King will certainly be reminded of the novel “Cujo” and its film adaptation again and again when they see it (“Primate” was actually about a dog that had become rabid in an earlier version of the script). With smug joy, the film can't resist quoting the most iconic scene from Stanley Kubrick's King adaptation “The Shining” and thinking further: If a mad monkey looks through a splintered door, the murderous intent there too seems all too frighteningly human.
Conclusion: The premise is so reduced, the implementation is so mercilessly effective! Director Johannes Roberts once again demonstrates his flair for minimalist storytelling and maximum effect.