STORYLINE: After returning home to Hawaii for summer break, LUCY (Johnny Sequoyah – DEXTER: NEW BLOOD) is reunited with her father ADAM (Academy Award winner, Troy Kotsur – CODA), sister ERIN and their pet chimpanzee BEN. Lucy and her friends KATE, HANNAH (Jessica Alexander – THE LITTLE MERMAID) and Kate’s older brother NICK decide to throw a pool party to take advantage of an empty house after Lucy’s father is called away for work. Unbeknownst to them, Ben is bitten by a rabid animal and the gentle chimpanzee they once knew is no more. The group is forced to barricade themselves in the pool, but with no means of calling for help, they must work together to figure out how to outsmart the now ferocious Ben and survive their ordeal. (IMDb)

   Putting animals as  the star attraction of horror films can be a creepy approach to scare audiences. Jaws (1975) terrified beach goers.  In 1941 Lon Chayney Jr’s The Wolfman made viewers cautious of the full moon.  Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963) had viewers to looking up at the skies in fright.  To be perfectly honest, I just want to give a shoot out to Snakes on a Plane (2006), and all the goofy, fun B films like it that don’t take themselves to seriously.  The latest horror movie about animals gone wild, or more commonly known creature feature, Primate, has made its theatrical debut. 

   The villainous animal, at the heart of the story, is a rage infected chimpanzee.  The creature in this feature corners its victims, and waits for its prey before making each spooky attack.  Does this premise sound familiar?  If you saw the rabid dog tale Cujo (1983), then you have seen this story before.

    Primate opens with the typical over the top jump scare, that is expected in modern horror films, and horror in general.  Yhr opening jump scare has become more abd more over the top on recent years. Bone Lake (2025) did over the top the best.   From there the story, in Prinate, sets itself up, and plays itself out pretty quickly.    The story barely fills the eighty nine minutes is runtime.  However the jump scares, fill out that runtime nicely.

   As I write this blog Primate is still fresh in my menory. Then again, I am inky twelve hours out from the bed credits rolling.  When I am enjoying the air conditioning of the movie theaters, watching the spectacles of the summer blockbuster season, more then likely I won’t be able to recall the events of this movie. That’s a Shane because I like horror films.  Admittedly though, creature features tend not to be my favorite. That’s not because I don’t find them entertaining, I just prefer haunted house movire or zombie flicks. 

   Primate had the jump scares but a story that did not hold up, because it has been told better in previous movies. 

    Until next time I will see you at the movies!