My reasoning for choosing Primate (2025) rather than Greenland 2: Migration is simply because I had not seen the first Greenland movie.  Indeed, I was not even aware of Greenland (2020), or if I was, I had completely written it out of my memory as to ask myself when first seeing a preview for Greenland 2: Migration, “Um, did they skip one?”  Google says otherwise, and I will have to take the internet’s word.  Not that I have watched Primate, I say unequivocally that I should have chosen the mystery film.  My enduring question during and after my viewing is basic: why?  Why?  Why?  Why?  That is the same question four times, but I am an infinite times more perplexed as to the necessity for this horrendously gory flick about a chimpanzee infected with rabies.  It got so bad at some points that this practicing Catholic had to shut my eyes and cover them.  If only I had enough hands to cover my ears, too, but God only graced me with a pair.  The only thing left to wonder about is whether I will sigh more while writing this than I did while watching it.

The initial scene in Primate is the first sigh-worthy moment.  A veterinarian comes to give Ben (Miguel Torres Umba), a chimpanzee that is the pet of a family living in Hawai’i.  It is clear that Ben has been taught to communicate to a certain degree, and that something is wrong with him.  Thus, instead of submitting to the treatment as the veterinarian asks, he drags the pet doctor into his enclosure and rips off the face of the poor man, literally.  As this is supposedly not usually chimp behavior, especially one so domesticated, the next roughly half hour is spent waiting for the insanity to begin.  Yet, since we do not immediately jump to the mayhem, I suppose I will talk about the intervening action.  Returning to her Oahu home from college is Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah).  Her deceased mother (not pictured) had been a renowned primatologist and the one to bring Ben into her family.  This is not something she needs to explain to her best friend, Kate (Victoria Wyant), who is accompanying her for the summer.  Also joining them is Hannah (Jessica Alexander), who is more Hannah’s friend, and is thus ignorant of Ben’s existence.  When they land at their destination, they are greeted by Lucy’s childhood friend, Nick (Benjamin Cheng), who is recently broken up from his girlfriend (not pictured).  Upon arriving at their cliffside, mostly glass mansion, they greet Adam (Troy Kotsur), Lucy’s deaf father.  To Lucy’s embarrassment, he tries to encourage his older daughter to go after Nick.  The teasing is followed by a request that Lucy says hello to her younger sister, Erin (Gia Hunter).  Erin is upset that Lucy has been away for so long, but Ben coming into the room cheers everyone.  Later, Hannah is looking at the pool that abuts the bluff overlooking the ocean and is accosted by Ben.  Their interaction starts cautious but friendly, then turns violent when he aggressively grabs her arm.  Luckily, in that moment Adam appears with a whistle that is designed to get the chimp’s attention, and the situation goes back to being amicable.  Adam takes Ben back to his enclosure.  While speaking with Ben, Adam notices a dead mongoose on the floor, having been partially eaten.  There is also a corresponding wound on Ben’s arm, the result of having been bitten by the vermin.  Locking the cage, Adam texts the veterinarian to come check on Ben.  Adam next bids goodbye to his daughters and their friends, heading into town for a book signing of some kind.  They never say what he does for a living, but maybe he is also a primatologist?  I should not have to guess at these things.  Anyway, his daughters have the kind of party one would expect of late teen/early twenty-somethings.  During the revelry, Hannah goads Lucy into calling the guys they had met on the plane to come to her house.  Shortly after the sun sets, things begin to wind down, particularly for Kate, who has overindulged.  Lucy helps her to bed, but then comes back downstairs to find Hannah and Nick making out.  It is around this time that the veterinarian becomes Ben’s first victim.  With the enclosure open, the chimp proceeds to the house to wreak more havoc.  The first person to find him is Kate.  Ben’s strange behavior has them worried, and soon everyone is awake.  They go down to the pool area to find Hannah and Nick, and Nick comes up with the brilliant idea of trying to tie up the deranged chimpanzee.  This completely backfires, with Erin nearly having her leg bitten off.  Because Ben is apparently afraid of the water, they all take refuge in the pool, and they remain there for the next few hours.  You know what?  Everyone dies except for Erin and Lucy, even the two guys from the plane.  How this happens is not important, but this is why I asked in the introduction as to why this movie is necessary.  What is better to focus on is that Adam eventually figures out that something is wrong, kickstarted when a scientist (not pictured) to whom he had sent the mongoose carcass alerts him to the presence of rabies.  The fact that neither of his daughters are answering their phones has him leave his book signing and head home.  There are a few more violent sequences before Lucy is able to finish Ben off with a shovel, Adam contributing with a wine bottle, and a push off their balcony and onto their pool deck.  The father and his two daughters lastly greet emergency personnel and the film ends.

Because I was so disgusted by the gore in Primate, I did not bother to wait until the end of the credits to see if there was an extra scene.  That is always a possibility with movies these days.  What strikes this Catholic about the awfulness of these moments is how they are not pro-life.  When I use that term, most people associate it with being against abortion, and that is true.  However, it also stretches to the dignity of the human person.  What is shown on-screen is a desecration of human bodies, no matter how “fantastical” it is supposed to be, and not something anyone should view as entertaining.  That is what movies are supposed to be, right?  Entertaining?  What is fun about seeing a man’s face ripped off, or another person having their jawbone physically removed while they are still breathing?  I witnessed the first one, unfortunately, only because I was not expecting it, but covered my eyes for the rest.  This brings me back to the question I asked in the introduction: why?  Believe it or not, the Church is not an institution that usually goes in for censorship, at least not in the twenty-first century.  Put differently, you can be a Catholic and watch a horror film.  They are not usually for me, but Cameron has fewer reservations about them than I do.  What I am getting at is that the on-screen material does not need to be so over-the-top violent.  Owning a chimpanzee is creepy enough (not to mention foolish), and the film makes Ben creepier by never turning any on the lights on in the house.  While I was annoyed by that filming choice, it could have also made for more chilling moments if we did not have to see every bloody detail.

The only detail keeping me from finding Primate to be one of the worst films ever made is the fact that Adam, Erin, and Lucy all survive.  There is also no post-credit scene showing Ben coming back to life, or Erin having a reaction to the rabies that makes her go crazy.  The film mercifully ends, and I will do the same with this review.  There is no reason to discuss it further, and I am going to pray tonight that humanity moves on from this kind of cinema.