Primate (2025) Film Review: A pet chimp gone mad makes for a grisly creature feature

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A group of friends' tropical vacation goes awry when Ben, an adopted chimpanzee, is bitten by a rabid animal and suddenly becomes aggressive, leading to a primal tale of horror and survival.

Primate (2025) is a natural/teen horror directed by British filmmaker Johannes Roberts, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Ernest Riera.

For horror fans, this is one of the better modern B-movie offerings of the genre, clocking in at a slick hour and a half and offering plenty of fun gory carnage for a solid Friday night flick to enjoy.

The film knows exactly what it needs to be and effectively delivers on its simple premise of a domesticated animal going wild and violently attacking anyone near it.

For those with a strong stomach, this is the quintessential crowd-pleasing horror movie, tightly edited and never overstaying its welcome.

Meet Ben - the starring chimpanzee of the show, a loveable sweet primate who tragically takes a dark turn after he is bitten by a mongoose infested with rabies

The movie is swift in its execution and wastes no time in setting the foreboding tone as viewers are treated to brief expository onscreen text regarding the link between rabies and bodies of water, before delivering on its pre-warned shocking graphic violence immediately.

The first scene perfectly establishes the type of movie which is to follow, balancing unsettling, suspense-fuelled set pieces with gross-out gore.

Director Johannes Roberts certainly demonstrates his keen understanding of the genre, utilising a variety of creative filming techniques to fully make the most of this horrific concept. There is a great combination of POV shooting, clever camera angles and emphasis on blocking by focusing on a subject in the foreground, with the frightening visual of the chimp lurking in the background.

Roberts wisely knows when to include sound and when to hold back. The film includes a fantastic score by Adrian Johnston, with an eerie lightmotif for Ben utilised throughout and an inspiring usage of a synth-like soundscape, which makes a very strong overall impact.

The movie is a clear love letter to older horror B movies of the 1970s and 1980s, made all the more endearing through its disturbing soundtrack, some cheesy over-the-top character beats and plot conveniences, as well as the admirable decision to use practical effects for bringing Ben the chimpanzee to life.

This blood-soaked creature feature proudly wears its campy, B-movie status on its sleeve, whilst also exhibiting solid direction and excellent practical effects throughout

Due to the film's lower budget, the production team made use of an animatronic puppet and a stand-in performer, Miguel Torres Umba, to capture the realistic, primal movements of Ben when he is viciously attacking the helpless teens.

Although there are a few noticeably clunky shots which result from the practical issues of relying on puppetry, for the majority of the time, the effects are quite convincing and often work in the film's favour. The creep factor is especially prevalent here, amplified through spine-tingling moments when the rabid chimp is silently observing his prey from the poolside.

For a movie like this, it is essential to get the creature right, and this realistic tangibility to Ben provides a praiseworthy authenticity which CGI most likely would have taken away from the final product.

Fans of gnarly kills full of gruesome details, such as bleeding appendages and faces literally getting ripped off, will get exactly what they have paid to see, although many of these sequences are shot with dark lighting, so some may be a tad disappointed with the noticeable lack of detail at points.

Luckily, the film definitely makes up for it with a couple of particularly memorable, gruesomely graphic kills. Anybody who has already seen the film will know exactly what is alluded to when the word 'bedroom' is mentioned...

Unfortunately, the movie does more often than not slip into the typical trap of these lower-budget horror flicks by relying on the typical genre clichés to drive the plot forward.

The small cast of characters does literally exist to be fresh meat for Ben to sink his teeth into and make questionable, stupid decisions, such as literally standing still in the path of the dangerous chimp to simply observe when running away is clearly the smarter choice in this life-threatening scenario.

Los Angeles-born actress Johnny Sequoyah stars as Lucy, a young college student returning to her luxurious Hawaii home following several years of absence, only to fight for her life and protect her friends and family from her beloved pet chimp

A steady build-up of these moments does break immersion in the film and lead to questions aimed at the writers; however, Roberts' sound direction and knack for naturally building tension through efficient pacing and scene compositions do make up for this common horror pitfall.

All in all, despite some grievances with plotting and some surface-level writing for its characters, Primate certainly gets more factors right than wrong. Johnny Sequoyah makes for an easily rootable, likeable lead with a more nuanced performance than most low-budget horror outings, and the film is paced well with a nice, easily digestible run time.

Both delightfully gnarly and suspense-driven in its execution, Primate has plenty to satisfy those looking for a garish good time at the cinemas this weekend.

Check out the trailer for Primate (2025) below, and please let me know your thoughts in the comments!