'Primate' Review: Short, Savage, and Unapologetically Bloodthirsty Monkey Mayhem
- Jack Ransom
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
By Jack Ransom - January 26, 2026
Chimp January is here! Lucy's (Johnny Sequoyah) tropical island homecoming turns deadly when her family's clever chimpanzee, Ben, becomes rabid. With her father (Troy Kotsur) away and no help coming, paradise becomes a prison as Lucy and her friends fight for survival against a pet they once trusted.
There’s been a couple of simian bangers on the big screen in recent years, with the excellent Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and the gloriously ambitious Better Man being true standouts. When this gnarly murderous monkey centric trailer arrived a few months ago my interest was piqued as a fan of schlocky, gory creature features and coupled with a glorious less than 90 minute duration (which legitimately got a cheer from the audience at my screening when the announcer mentioned it).
This was pretty much what I expected both from a positive and negative perspective: completely disposable from both a plot and character perspective, but goes brutally hard in the violent bursts and chuckle worthy tongue in cheek dark humour. Structurally this essentially follows a slasher pattern: pre-title card kill, generic, uninteresting teen/YA partying and brief character set-up’s, then the bloodshed and tension begins. It moves swiftly along and you can pretty much guess from the get go who is going to live and die, but it gets the job done as a conveyor belt for the monkey mayhem.
Where the film excels is in the practical effects department, my God is it savage and certainly earns its 18 rating as Ben batters, chomps, face rips, neck break’s and gobbles his way through his hapless victims. Superbly gnarly blood and guts squelch and splatter the screen and the blend of human actor, CGI and puppetry work perfectly to showcase Ben. Tension is drawn out effectively in the quieter build up’s and a sense of unpredictability lingers over each encounter and the stabbings of dark humour (Ben learning how car keys work, a homage to “Here’s Johnny!” and him chuckling after a couple of kills keep a goofier balance). Lastly, the score goes surprisingly hard with trance, electronic and what sounded like remixes of Halloween & The Exorcist themes.
As mentioned up to the characters are all pretty much disposable and really are there to up the body count. Johnny Sequoyah, Gia Hunter and Troy Kotsur have a fitting family dynamic and both Charlie Mann & Tienne Simon absolutely nail the obnoxious, cringe-inducing, drunk, horny, party ‘lad’ stereotypes. Lastly, shoutout to the two performers: Miguel Torres Umba & Ben Pronsky who bring Ben to life.
Primate does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a quickfire, bloodthirsty, darkly chuckle worthy and well scored creature feature that relishes in its grindhouse/exploitation vibes. The characters are ultimately there as prey and the story is barely existent, but it delivers what is to be expected.
'Primate' releases in cinemas on January 30.
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