Primate - The scoop and digest

Johannes Roberts directs and co-writes natural horror with 47 Meters Down collaborator Ernest Riera.

Johnny Sequoyah - Lucy

Jessica Alexander - Hannah

Troy Kotsur - Adam

Victoria Wyant - Kate

Gia Hunter - Erin

Benjamin Cheng - Nick

Summary

In Hawaii, Doctor Lambert enters an enclosure and is killed when a chimp rips his face off.

36 hours before.

After spending years away, college student Lucy with friends Kate, Nick and frenemy Hannah drive to Lucy's lavish house.

The chimp from the beginning is family pet Ben, who freaks out at the sight of infinity pool.

Lucy's father Adam discovers a mongoose bit Ben and corpse later tests positive for rabies.

Suffice to say, Ben goes fucking ape shit.

Donkey Kong is freakishly strong

Premise is spectacularly simple, but gory kills are satisfying and brutal, as Ben bludgeons victims and tears off jaws.

Heck, we even get a generous dollop of tension once aquatic safe space is left.

Ben is a combination of practical effects and movement specialist Miguel Torres Umba wearing a suit.

Strategy kicks ass.

Humans spend a lot of time in water, as they know Ben won't entertain taking a dip.

Contrary to popular belief, apes can swim, but don't because of body structure, fear of drowning and predators hiding beneath.

Hawaii is one of the few places in the world where rabies doesn't exist and owning a pet chimp is illegal.

Let's assume that filmmakers didn't know and/or care.

Not that he could deny it, but Roberts admits idea came from Cujo (novel and film), and Adam's character (a famous author), is probably a nod to Stephen King.

Adam plunges a shattered wine bottle into Ben's chest, but goose is finally cooked when he attacks and sends Lucy over the balcony.  While Adam and Erin save her, Ben is fatally impaled on a broken table leg.

Two-part death adapts:

1. Cujo (1983) - St. Bernard is impaled in the stomach with a broken baseball bat.

2. The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) - Peyton is pushed out of the attic window, and falls on the picket fence below.

Or maybe I've got too much imagination.