Take 51: Primate
In Primate, Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah) heads to her Hawaiian home for a little vacation with her gal pals Kate (Victoria Wyant) and Hannah (Jessica Alexander). She is reunited with her father Adam (Troy Kotsur), sister Erin (Gia Hunter), boy next door, Nick (Benjamin Cheng), and their pet chimp, Ben. Early into their trip, Ben gets into it with a mongoose and when he is bitten. Fun fact: Hawaii i the only rabies-free State in the United States. Ben starts acting strangely but hey, nothing to worry about, right? Adam leaves the youngins to promote his book and sends his friend over to look at Ben just in case. That doesn’t go well and before long, the group finds themselves locked in their remote paradise with Ben who definitely not his regular cute, lovable furry self.
Phew. This one is A LOT. The first trailer I saw was footage of a test market audience where everyone one was micced and recorded and they bragged that not one person didn’t jump out their seat. That really stuck with me going into this. And I get it. I’d say I’ve been pretty desensitized to most jump scares. Bay-bee, when I tell you that when one of those lands, it’s truly satisfying. There are a couple here. It’s nice to be genuinely surprised in a horror movie. One of the deaths early own really caught be off guard and one of several “look away” moments in this movie. Do I think that they needed be quite that graphic. Absolutely not, but I have the good sense to look away when I know it’s going there. If you wanna sit there and absorb, have at it.
This movie is scary. The anxiety was high. The situation, although a bit out there, was relatable. I could relate to the fear that the characters were going through. But still, there were a few moments that took me out. It seems like just about every horror film has those moments. Those “Smart-people-doing-stupid-$#!+” moments. And, yes, I get the are needed so that the movie can happen, but really? Like come on y’all. He has a mongoose bite. Maybe you look into it. And girl! Why are walking through glass barefoot?!!
Not a lot to say about the acting-every one was fine. I do wanna give a shout out to Hannah, Jessica Alexander’s character. They try to gas light and position her as annoying and problematic and the one who, when she will inevitably meet her end, we don’t feel bad, but she is probably the one I ended up relating to the most. She says the most sensical things and has some legit great-ish moments. I was also curious about who or what was responsible for Ben. Miguel Hernando Torres Umba is credited as Ben so whatever he did, it was good, whether motion capture, articulation, facial acting, good job.
By the end, I definitely felt like I had gone THROUGH it along with the characters. It is listed as only an hour and twenty-nine, but once it got going, it was pretty much non-stop. I was woefully entertained, yes. But an important metric for me is, would I want to rewatch it? Honestly, probably not, but definitely worth an initial viewing.
My score… 7.9 A little predictable, but when it wasn’t…
Have I hit a primal nerve in my review? Leave it in the comments—- yes, I WOULD be ecstatic to get one from time to time. And until next time…
