Director: Johannes Roberts
Starring: Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander, and Troy Kotsur
Movie Length: 1 hour 29 minutes
What Mike thought: As I compose this review, I can’t help but wonder about the thousands, perhaps millions of calls that the Simian Anti-Defamation League has received recently. After all, they’ve hit a rough patch in the arena of motion pictures. Negative portrayals took place most notably in the Planet of the Apes movies a few years ago and in the horror genre, we had a monkey turn into a killer after experiencing eye contact, as depicted in Jordan Peele’s Nope. Next was a killer facsimile in Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey. Let’s not forget King Kong, although definitely more of an anti-hero than a plight to humanity, lives are negatively impacted through his actions.
This week Primate arrives in theaters, a good, old-fashioned creature feature that features an otherwise loveable Ben who has been adopted into a family at a very young age. The matriarch of the family, who has since passed away, initiated the integration. Very much a member of the family at this point, his infection of rabies and subsequent rampage against his loved ones is made all the more impactful.
Ben’s exposure to rabies just happens to take place upon Lucy’s (Johnny Sequoyah)’s return from college, where she’s not visited home for an extended period of time. With her, she brings her BFF and a casual mutual friend to the family home, a beautiful retreat that is isolated in the outer reaches of Hawaii.
Arguably, the most fleshed out character in the movie is portrayed by the father, Troy Kotsur. He’s an author who also coincidentally has taken leave of the family reunion in order to do a book signing. Lucy’s younger sister takes a while to warm up to her, but soon enough their relationship is on solid ground in a surprisingly sudden span of time (two minutes). It should be said that on the fight over to Hawaii, the three young women encounter two frat bros and pass along their number to them upon first meeting.
Things go downhill as poor Ben succumbs to the rabies and Cujo for millennials gears up. After an attach, the gathered woman and a family friend remember that Ben is afraid of water and they enter the swimming pool. Unfortunately, this is a short reprieve because Ben is not dissuaded and proceeds to stalk them.
Through an hour of harrowing circumstances, the creature feature kill count escalates. Some of the violence is downright jaw dropping.
The cardboard characters notwithstanding, Primate delivers on its promise. It’s a fun romp and gives its audience what can be expected of a film of this ilk.
Mike’s rating: Primate earns a 7.0
Primate is now in theaters.
Are you going to see the movie? Have you already? Feel free to leave a comment below or chat with us on Threads at @theconventioncollective, or Bluesky at @theconcollective.bsky.social
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