Primate has been making the rounds as a must-watch film, but is it actually worth your time? Sure, it’s gory, and there’s a crazy, rabid chimp, but is there something else to this film we’ve missed? As an avid fan of the horror genre, I might have had some thoughts walking out of my screening of Primate, and though there’s a chance I’ll be called out for being really stupid for bringing up these thoughts, I want to see if there’s anybody out there who agrees with me. Primate, looking in from the outside, is supposed to be a gore-fest where a rabid animal becomes a killer creature that ruins the lives of many people. But is there an underlying message here? Is it just supposed to be a creature feature that leaves you traumatized for days? Or is it just some horror film that’s paying homage to old horror films? I don’t really know. But there’s one thing I do know: I didn’t feel like the chimp was an animal; it was almost a slasher dressed up as a creature feature. So what did this mean to me? Let’s find out in the ending of the film.
Spoiler Alert
Is It A Happy Ending?
Primate’s ending sees the father of the girls put Ben down because he’s trying to kill him. Honestly, the only thing running through my head at the time was the fact that I didn’t want the old man to die. This sentiment hit me right at the start of the film, when he tells the kids he’s leaving for some time but will be back soon. I found myself thinking for half the run time that I don’t want him dead (the other half, I forgot about him because so much else was going on). I think we’re made to feel for this family right from the start, and root for them, because there was a high chance we’d have sided with the monkey instead. Any ending where the animal is killed or put down is not a happy one. Do not get me wrong. But does the family being reunited and being the only survivors make this a happy film? No, because though this means Lucy and Erin are closer to their father than ever before, it also means they have another missing piece.
Trauma can manifest in different ways for different families. In the case of the Pinboroughs, Lucy ended up leaving home when her mom died to handle the grief by putting distance between herself and all those old memories. She wasn’t able to come back at all, because she wouldn’t be able to handle her grief. I think, as the elder daughter of the household, she also feels like she has to be the emotional backbone to the family, which she also doesn’t feel like she’s capable of being, hence running away from her grief and problems. But we can imagine the death of the chimp is going to have a different effect on the family, because while they loved Ben, these last few hours are going to trauma bond the trio.
Additionally, I know this is a very rich family; I mean, they literally have a chimpanzee in Hawaii in their very remote glass mansion. Clearly, they had nothing to worry about, financially, but now that 5 kids and a vet are literally dead, they’re likely going to get in trouble, right? This can’t end well. Sure, it wasn’t their fault that a rabid mongoose bit the chimp; it’s still their chimp, though, and a bunch of kids died on their property. There must be some legal trouble coming their way. But I guess they’re rich enough to handle it. Still, this will probably either ruin the father’s reputation or make him even richer, because everyone knows this is the perfect plot for another book (which will eventually be turned into a film).
What Is Silent Scream?
The book Adam writes in the films is titled “Silent Scream.” While we don’t actually know what the content of these books is, we do know that he’s getting a movie deal, and things seem to be going well for him, but he doesn’t seem to be very happy. While the most obvious answer is that this title is meant to foreshadow what’s going to happen, I think it’s just a reminder that even if you live in the most expensive, luxurious house, you will end up with zero help if it’s this isolated and remote. Yes, Adam is deaf, so he can’t hear any of the screams when he arrives at the house. But there’s a metaphorical meaning to these words as well. Erin and Lucy are probably dying on the inside, but Adam can’t hear them screaming because he’s too busy focusing on work and ignoring all the signs that things aren’t okay.
Is Lucy A Final Girl?
The tropes this film plays with are unmissable, and the fact that a rabid chimp can think well enough with his brain to come down silently on his prey or know where to look in a wardrobe is just plain dumb. The title of the film is literally “Primate,” but this rabid animal doesn’t seem to be rabid at all; Ben just seems to be absolutely bonkers and primed to go on a killing spree. There’s something way too human about it, and it’s really disarming to watch him go after these people the way he does. The cases that stand out the most are those of frat boy Drew and Hannah. In Drew’s case, Ben acts like a proper serial killer. Not only is there a definite sexual undertone in how he forces the boy into a submissive position (with Drew even joking he ought to buy him dinner first), but he then tears his jaw off his face, just so he can mock him for talking too much in an entirely human gesture. With Hannah, you have the classic horror trope of the promiscuous girl becoming a victim of male rage, even though Hannah doesn’t even do anything that promiscuous—she dresses a bit skimpier than the other girls, and she’s not opposed to getting together with Nick, though he was the one who made the first move. Her death in the car was presented with all the dynamics of the violence of a sexual assault, too, with the way she was dragged and held in place by Ben, much bigger and much more animalistic.
In contrast to these “flawed characters,” Lucy comes brimming with final girl energy. She’s also in shorts, but not scandalous; she talks to the boys who flirted with them on the plane, but she has her eyes on her childhood sweetheart; and she’s already dealing with loss and a responsibility that she’s been shirking. You know right from the start that it’s got to be a woman at the end, and right after Erin is injured, you kind of know she’s going to make it; the only question is whether her sister’s going to sacrifice herself to guarantee it, or if she’s going to make sure she survives because she knows how much Erin needs her? When it’s Lucy and Kate in the closet after the TV starts playing Dora the Explorer, it’s a shot straight out of The Shining, and you already know one of the two has to die pretty soon, but you almost don’t expect it to be Kate, given her brother was the first of the kids to kick the bucket, though Nick’s own aggression was partly to blame. But it’s inevitable, and though you’re relieved when Lucy does make it through to the end, you’re not sure enough about it not to feel your heart jump a little when the cops end up playing around with Ben’s soundboard and scaring her. Also, it’s not impossible Lucy was named after the “missing link” ape who was discovered in the 60s.
Was Lucy’s Mother’s Research Worth It?
You can’t deny that the idea behind the research Lucy’s mother did with Ben is fascinating. Maybe Ben was just a far more intelligent chimpanzee than usual, but the fact that he was able to develop a relatively complex vocabulary as a result of the time they spent together is really impressive. In real life, some chimpanzees have been taught sign language, and they can name all sorts of objects, but verbs are a different story, and perhaps too complex a concept for them to grasp. The fact that Dr. Pinborough was married to the hearing-impaired Adam probably helped her be exposed to sign language in an everyday setting, and work out how to teach Ben better. A chimpanzee being able to learn how to speak human language probably has implications for how hominid brains work as a whole, and maybe even when it comes to education programs targeting the intellectually challenged and developmentally disabled. It’s tragic that it had to come at the cost of the lives of 5 kids and a vet, and it could have been avoided just by not having Ben live in a mansion in Hawaii rather than at a research facility. But it’s clear he was almost a son to the Pinboroughs, so maybe that was never an option.
