Fantastic Fest 2025 Review: PRIMATE is a Vicious Chimp Creature Feature

What if Cujo and Halloween, but a chimpanzee? That's the burning question Primate asks and answers with furious, flesh-tearing aplomb. Johannes Roberts' nasty creature feature is absurdly no-frills, launching straight into a primal hunt-and-stalk scenario like a Jane Goodall special turned horror thriller. It's perhaps too streamlined, lacking early development in favor of graphic maulings, but that's less of an issue given how sharp visuals and punishing violence leave plenty to applaud. Primate is a mean and merciless "When Animals Attack" flick that runs on pure popcorn entertainment goodness, because sometimes all you need is a furry antagonist and spectacular death scenes.

Johnny Sequoyah stars as Lucy, who's flying home to her family's cliffside Hawaiian mansion for a much overdue visit. It's a tough situation, since being home dredges up memories of her deceased mother, another unfortunate cancer statistic. But once Lucy's home, it's all smiles from her deaf father (played brilliantly by Troy Kotsur), lil' sis, and her brother-from-another-species, the intelligent chimp Ben (motion captured by Miguel Torres Umba). It's a jolly reunion, including a few of Lucy's friends, until pops has to jet to professional obligations (he’s an author working on his next book), leaving the young adults home alone with Ben ... who's just contracted rabies and is about to go on a killing spree.

That's it. Kids hang out at a swanky island abode, indulge in mood enhancers, and find themselves the target of a raging chimp who once called them his family. It's a creature feature template that uses an aggressive depiction of rabies, turning Ben into an outright villain. Roberts and co-writer Ernest Riera strive to spill blood as quickly as possible, and with an 89-minute duration, Primate achieves that goal. But, to do so, the film sacrifices establishing dynamics that might have painted the human characters as anything more than body count fodder. We don’t have enough time with gentle Ben to start either; it’s basically right to the cruel havoc, which can be a lot to digest at first.

Luckily, chimp-on-human violence is at a gorily gratifying premium. Ben's rampage tears jawlines, snaps necks, and bashes ribcages into a pulp. What's even better is how Ben taunts Lucy and her gang, whether that's his digital communication pad programmed with English words, or the sinister smile he beams after tossing someone off Chekhov's infinity pool ledge (foreshadowed into oblivion). Miguel Torres Umba's tremendous performance as Ben is transformative—acclaimed shades of Matt Reeves’ Planet of the Apes entries—finding small bursts of empathy between gratuitous murder sequences. Roberts holds nothing back in the gore department and makes us recoil at the frightening fury a single maniacal chimpanzee can unleash (when he's not watching Dora the Explorer).

In all seriousness, Primate is a Michael Myers movie except with a chimp and no mask. The way Ben stalks in the background and crashes through closets is so very The Shape-coded, which adds this slasher sensibility beyond wild instincts. Roberts spotlights the film's influences like a badge of honor, including nods to Jurassic Park and all walks of creature-first infamy. Heck, he can't even help recreating the blood-clouding pool shot from The Strangers: Prey at Night because when you have a calling card, why not use it? But homages never feel like cheap replications, because Roberts ensures his film has its own personality beyond pop-culture regurgitation. There are twenty thousand Halloween knockoffs, but how many with a chimpanzee?

Primate is familiar, and can't escape allegations of being underbaked, but with carnage this impressive, you earn some leeway. Roberts confidently directs a blood-slathered midnighter that immediately goes for the kill and never stops stacking corpses. The plot may be wafer-thin, and characters continually make decisions that keep them in peril, but that's all to spotlight Ben (who is immaculately designed, whether digital or practical effects). In other circumstances, I'd be harsher. That's not Primate, an excessively grim and deeply enjoyable B-Movie with a bite strong enough to crack your skull.

Movie Score: 3.5/5