Primate mixes creature feature fun with white-knuckle tension

Primate- Courtesy of Paramount

Primate is the type of movie that knows exactly what it is and delivers what viewers most likely want to see. It's a movie about a killer chimp named Ben that goes on a rabies-induced rampage. Directed by Johannes Roberts, the movie a bloody good time, bolstered by some strong practical effects. It also has some noticeable nods to well-known horror movies.

Ben lives with a family in a remote Hawaiian home overlooking the ocean. The father, Adam (Troy Kotsur), is a best-selling horror author who can apparently afford such a swanky property. He lives with his youngest daughter, Erin (Gia Hunter). Meanwhile, Adam's oldest kid, Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah), returns home for spring break with a few friends. Eventually, Ben rips apart most of her friends. They probably should have vacationed elsewhere or stayed on campus.

Before a mongoose somehow breaks into Ben's pen and bites him, thus infecting him with rabies, the movie spends just enough time setting him up as one of the family. Yes, indeed, he's very cute in his red shirt. He even hugs a teddy bear. It's stated that he belonged to Adam's deceased wife, a linguistics professor who worked on communication between chimps and humans. Ultimately, she kept Ben. However, it doesn't take very long until the carnage starts.

Primate earns its R rating. This is, at times, a brutal film. Ben isn't messing around. He smashes faces. He bashes one of the characters in the face with a rock. Just when you think he may turn good again because he recognizes Lucy, he screeches and launches another assault. Gore hounds should enjoy this movie for its level of bloodshed and some of the inventive kills. The practical effects impress, especially compared to some of the CGI effects of Ben that don't look nearly as realistic.

The film's setting is another high point. As already stated, the home is isolated. It's perched on a cliff, so the characters can't exactly run down the street. Ben destroys their cell phones fairly early. There are a few sequences where the characters isolate themselves in a pool, with Ben stalking and roaming the perimeter, waiting for one of them to get out so he can attack. Rabies causes hydrophobia indirectly, a fear of swallowing anything, including water. This is why Ben doesn't leap into the pool and murder his prey. It's a clever use of a rabies' side effect.

The entire pool concept resembles another one of Roberts' films, The Strangers: Prey at Night. While the film polarized horror fans, there's a pool sequence that's the sequel's most memorable scene and generally praised. Like The Strangers: Prey at Night, Roberts' effectively uses common domestic spaces in inventive ways to heighten the tension throughout Primate. More broadly, the home transforms into the stuff of nightmares, a kingdom Ben overtakes as the causalities mount.

Besides the pool sequences, Roberts includes several other white-knuckle moments. Adam is deaf, and when he returns home from a book signing, he doesn't hear Ben stomping inside the house about to assault him. There are also some nods to classic horror movie moments throughout Primate. There's a scene where Lucy and a friend crouch in a closet, before Ben busts it open, much like Michael Myers locating Laurie Strode in a closet in the original Halloween. Even the concept of a rabies-infected animal unleashing violence is straight out of the Cujo playbook.

While Lucy transforms into a tough final girl, a lot of the other characters, except her direct family members, are one-note. They're mere fodder for Ben's war path. There's nothing all that distinctive about the friend group. That said, most people interested in this movie probably just want to watch the mayhem unfold. Still, the characterization is generally flat.

Overall, Primate delivers the goods in terms of tension and causalities at the hands of a murderous chimp. As a creature feature, Primate is an entertaining 90 minutes and a solid horror movie to kick off the new year. It doesn't take long for Ben to launch an all-out assault, leaving a trail of bodies and a terrorized family behind.

Primate is currently playing in theaters.