Primate

Directed by Johannes Roberts, Primate follows several figures as they’re terrorized by a rabies-afflicted chimp. It’s a workable premise that is, to increasingly distressing effect, squandered by Roberts, as the filmmaker, armed with his and Ernest Riera’s screenplay, delivers a slow-moving endeavor that suffers from an almost total lack of compelling, three-dimensional protagonists – with the interchangeable nature of the picture’s characters essentially (and frustratingly) preventing the viewer from working up any interest in or enthusiasm for their increasingly perilous plight. Far more problematic, however, is the degree to which said chimp remains sympathetic for the duration of the picture’s brief (yet not brief enough) running time, as it becomes more and more difficult to comfortably stomach Roberts’ recurring efforts at painting the animal in a sinister, menacing light (ie this might have worked had Roberts offered up a single likeable potential victim). By the time the nigh endless climax rolls around, Primate has certainly confirmed its place as a woefully misguided misfire that’s rarely, if ever, as fun or thrilling as Roberts has intended.

* out of ****