Primate is the Perfect B - Rated Horror Movie of the Year
Credit to PRIMATE Review — Knight Krier
I was thrilled that I finally got to check out this movie in theaters. I decided to wait until I was able to go on $5 Tuesday at the Cinemark, because since this was deemed to be a B — rated horror movie, I wanted to wait for $5 Tuesday. I don’t really like to spend money at the theater when it comes to particular films, and I definitely misjudged this film before watching it.
It was pretty mixed with reviews, so I was expecting at least, a decent watch. Instead, I was met with a heartfelt family horror film, who invite a group of friends to spend time with them at their home, only to be ruthlessly attacked by their pet chimp, named Ben.
The movie perfectly sets up the family’s love for Ben, and he represented a symbol of love for the family. He had belonged to the main character’s mother, who had sadly passed away from cancer. It made sense why the family adored Ben, they saw him as another member of the family. Watching the group try to survive against someone that they once saw as family is gut wrenching, and the film does not pull any punches when it comes to the brutality of every single kill!
The movie begins with a young woman named Lucy, who returns home to spend time with her family.
Lucy comes back home to be with her family, who haven’t seen her in a while. She returns home to her father and sister, who are quite rich. They live in their own house built on the edge of an island, and Lucy invites other friends to tag along for the visit. Lucy is happy to see her father, Adam, who is deaf, and her little sister, named Erin. She is also greeted by Ben, their pet chimp.
It was genuinely so wholesome to see how the family interacted with each other, and I love how they included sign language as a huge part of the story. You could tell how close the father was to his daughters, and my tension only increased, scared as to what horrors were going to take place later in the film.
Everything is going well, until Lucy’s friend, Hannah, notices that something is up with Ben.
While she is checking out the pool, Ben greets her, but he is acting strange. Hannah is suddenly grabbed roughly by Ben, but Lucy’s father tells her not to worry, because he always acts weird around strangers. He takes him into the cage, Ben’s own personal home. Lucy’s father finds out that he was bitten by a mongoose, explaining his odd behavior. He assures Lucy and Erin that he will test the mongoose to make sure Ben is alright, and leaves to go on his book tour.
Lucy spends time with her friend group, and they decide to invite two random guys that they had met on the plane ride home. Lucy gets her heart broken for a quick moment, when she spots her crush, Nick, who is her best friend’s brother, making out with Hannah.
While Lucy is upset over this realization, her father had invited a random guy to check on Ben, who is brutally killed by Ben. This kill had actually taken place in the beginning of the film, to show the audience how gory this film was going to be. It was a great start to the film, and I grabbed my face, cringing from watching Ben rip off this dude’s face.
Ben goes on a rampage against Lucy and her friends, each of them realizing that Ben has rabies.
The group finds that Ben is acting quite strange, and while Lucy is trying to calm him down, they attempt to call the man who had showed up to check on Ben, only for the group to become terrified when they hear his phone in the distance. Hannah suggests that they need to put Ben down, angering Lucy, and the group gets into a fight, while Erin is trying to comfort Ben.
Ben attacks Erin, biting her leg. The group fight off Ben, and then they all jump into the pool, to avoid getting attacked again. Ben is scared of the pool, due to his rabies condition, and does not go after the group. The friends use Nick’s shirt to stop Erin’s bleeding, and Nick gets an idea to push Ben off the ledge of the pool, since the pool is at the edge of an island. Nick charges at Ben, and he fails, falling to his death. Lucy’s best friend, Kate, witnesses her brother’s death, and breaks down as the group watches in horror.
The group then gets the idea to go for the phone inside of the house, to call for help. Their first attempt does not go well, when Ben rips out a chunk of hair from Hannah, and Lucy decides to go inside of the house, and Kate offers to help. They are almost attacked by Ben when they accidentally turn on the television, and he leaves the living room once he doesn’t find the girls. Kate and Lucy try to run out of the house when they discover Ben is still in the living room, and he charges through the glass door to go after the duo.
Kate is unfortunately killed by Ben, and Lucy screams in horror when her friend dies. She goes back to the pool, to be with Hannah and Erin.
The two idiots the group had invited show up to the house, only to be added to the death count, and the blood bath continues.
Credit to Primate Review — IGN
The two dudes from the plane ride show up to the house, excited to party. One dude gets his jaw ripped off by Ben, and other guy is bitten to death with a mini shovel by Ben. Hannah decides to make a run for it to the guy’s car, to try and get help for the remaining survivors. She ends up running into the wrong car, and calls 911 when she spots Ben outside. She fails to escape from Ben’s wrath, and she is slaughtered, beaten to death.
Hannah’s death was the worst one for me to watch, and I struggled to get through this scene. Hannah was a bit of a jerk, but she wasn’t a bad person, and was willing to do anything for the girls, to make sure they survived.
Her death bothered me the most, I was so pissed that she had died.
Adam returns home, once he finds out that Ben was infected with rabies, after he learns from a veterinarian that the mongoose had rabies. During a sequence that had me so tensed up, Adam cannot hear his oldest daughter being attacked in the background, when he arrives home. Lucy had run back into the house, and had been jumped by Ben. She struggles to get away from him, and her family comes to the rescue.
Erin is attacked once again by Ben, and her father is struggling to fend off Ben when he tries to protect his daughters. Lucy uses the mini shovel to fight off Ben, and the father uses a bottle to stab Ben through the chest. The girls embrace their father, and Lucy notices that Ben is getting back up to attack the family.
Lucy pushes her family away, screaming at Ben. She is jumped by the chimp, and her family catches her before she falls off the ledge, where the pool is located. Ben lands on top of a piece of furniture that had fallen earlier in the film, and he impales himself, finishing off the infected chimp for good.
Lucy and Adam get help for Erin, and she is carted away in an ambulance. Lucy freaks out when she hears a device that Ben used to communicate with the family, implying that her trauma will never go away.
I thought this was one of the best horror films with a creature as the monster. It was so original, and I was in shock to learn that the chimp was played by an actual dude. They had gone practical for the film, building a chimp suit for the man to play Ben. This really added to the film’s horror, and the kills were even harder to watch!
I think this film has a chance for a cult following, it 100% deserves a huge following by horror fans!
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