January is known as “Dump Month” in Hollywood. It is a time when studios spring their less desirable product on unsuspecting moviegoers. Most times, these movies get lost in the shuffle from all the holiday holdover films and wannabe Oscar bait that clogs up the theater that time of year. However, Dump Month has given us some unadulterated classics in the past few years. M3GAN, The Beekeeper, and Companion have all been January releases and all of them have been modern classics. The trend continues with the enormously entertaining and gleefully gory Primate.
This is essentially Congo Meets Cujo. A group of friends gather at a ritzy house in Hawaii for a party. Tragically, their pet chimpanzee contracts rabies and terrorizes the partygoers. The survivors then hop into the swimming pool and try to wait out the crafty killer chimp.
Director Johannes Roberts has made swimmers being terrorized a subgenre unto itself with his previous films Strangers: Prey at Night and the 47 Meters Down franchise. He cribs from the same playbook here as a big chunk of the movie takes place in the pool. Fortunately, things never become too stale as the ladies find (sometimes stupid, sometimes not) reasons to hop out of the pool and tangle with the murderous monkey.
It’s a little slow to start, but once the chimp goes ape (so to speak), Roberts delivers some fine gore sequences. Faces are torn off, legs are chomped on, hair is ripped from its roots, and heads are crushed. The standout scene is truly… shall we say… jaw dropping.
As far as When Animals Attack movies go, this is a darn good one. It features likable characters, some stylish moments, a cool John Carpenter-inspired score, gnarly gore, and a handful of genuinely suspenseful sequences. Overall, it’s a highly enjoyable bit of monkey business.
I can’t wait to see what next January has in store for us.
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