The thought of owning a monkey as a pet always seemeddangerous to me. Primate creates that situation and throws in moments of mayhem and horror. Directed by Johannes Roberts, this is one of those thrillers where a jungle is already part of a family’s life. However, when resources are not aligned, there is a combination of bad tests and non-thorough examinations. The monkey then jumps out of its cage with a vindictive vengeance. Think about a one-person Planet of the Apes film…only that ape wants to kill everyone. Primate is a portrait of a pet that will make audiences never want to own a chimpanzee.

The film’s main characters are Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah), Kate (Victoria Wyant), Hannah (Jessica Alexander), and Kate’s older brother Nick (Benjamin Cheng). They go to Lucy’s house in Hawaii for a vacation. Lucy’s sister is Erin (Gia Hunter) and her father is Adam (Troy Kotsur). Lucy’s father is hard of hearing and writes books about animal research. There is one special pet in the family, Ben (Miguel Torres Umba), a chimpanzee that is part of the family. As far as everyone knows he is trained to be loving. Yet, when Lucy’s father leaves on a business trip, Ben goes on a crazy rampage.

The film begins to become a brawl of safety concerns. Lucy, Kate, Hannah, and Nick must learn to protect themselves from Ben, because Ben’s anger continues to rapidly grow. In a big house in the Hawaiian mountains, it is hard to run, Ben’s mighty anger grows exponentially. With all the love and support that Ben has received for years, it creates a landscape of curiosity of wondering what might be making him become so vindictive. There is the talk of rabies, since Ben is a rabid monster, but uncertainty about whether that applies given the scenarios being experienced.

Primate is one of the most loud and rambunctious thrillers involving an ape I have seen in ages. It is not a perfect film, but it keeps audiences’ attention with the hot-headed aspects of chimpanzee behavior. It makes me want to avoid ever being near a chimpanzee ever. Overall, the creativity behind the film is vivid and attention-grabbing. At the same time, the storyline isextremely predictable. Fortunately, the writing is strong as are the scares. The brief glimpses into the sciences help create the suspense in Primate. Two-and-a-half out of four stars.