Primate | Film Review

 

When a family's chimpanzee becomes rabid, a group of friends has to fight for their survival.

I can't lie, I love cheesy horror and creature features, so even before the film started I was feeling really positive about it.

And thankfully I had such a good time! It's kind of exactly what you think it would be, in the best way.

It was interesting that the film actually let us get to know the characters a bit. Usually in a film like this, the horror of the 'creature' is the most important thing and everything else falls to the side. While I don't think we necessarily needed as much information on the characters as we got, it was still nice to see.

That being said, as much as we know about them, they're not as developed as they could be.

This film is stupid decision central, which will have you rolling your eyes in frustration but is also actually quite fun to watch.

It was a lot more tense than I thought it would be. This aspect of the film was done really well.

Ben, the chimpanzee, was such a fun antagonist, but then the whole movie was a lot of fun. Which is all you can really hope for with a movie like this.

The death scenes were really creative and well done. I've found in recent times that gore is a lot more common and not shied away from, and I for one am completely on board with that.

The stakes actually felt high, and it was stressful in a great way.

This is not an amazing movie, it's not getting universal praise and the filmmakers know that, so they leaned into the fun and tension and that's the best thing about movies like this. They know exactly what they are.

Overall, even as a fan of the specific sub-genre, this was better than I thought it was going to be. I've gone for a alightly above average score based on the actual quality of the movie but for enjoyment only it would be a lot higher!

6.5/10