The Housemaid - Primate

It's a two for one review.

IMBD

Started my January movie-going year with The Housemaid.

For months now I've seen previews of this movie. Aside from staring two very beautiful women, there was something strange going on. A mystery to solve.

Sydney Sweeney was acting too perfect and tossed her glasses to the side after the interview, she was sus to me. Then they showed clips of Seyfried freaking out and acting very very strange.

I didn't read the book, so didn't really know what to expect with it. I will say one thing...this is NOT a movie you want to watch with your mother sitting in the seat next to you. Especially if said mother is super religious and super Catholic.

There were a few scenes that fit the R rating. Saw all of Sydney Sweeney, and I do mean ALL of her during several racy scenes. You have Sweeney in a role like this, you're going to use her.

The mystery of what was going on was interesting. Seyfried was all over the place. Telling Sweeney to do one thing, but then say she never said that later. It builds and it builds until...the reveal.

Once you see it, it all makes sense. It was quite the plan.

Brandon Skelnar plays the husband of Seyfried. The last time I saw him was in the decent thriller Drop. Both times, played the seemingly decent and almost perfect guy. But like many, he has his secrets too.

You don't truly see the twist coming until it all comes together. It makes sense and sets up a sequel. Because these days, you have to have a sequel. Especially since the book has them. It comes down to box office numbers though. Good news, it did well and a sequel is planned.

Interested in seeing where it goes in the next one. This first one was enjoyable, though the acting was a bit stilted by Sweeney and Seyfried was a bit over the top, but given her role in all of it, fit the character.

Worth a watch or a read if you're into a good mystery.

4/5

Now to the first horror movie of the year...Primate!

Ben. Bad. Ben. Bad Monkey.

The premise is simple. A group of college co-eds journey to Hawaii. One of the co-eds, Lucy, is home for spring break. Her father is a writer, heading out for a few days for a quick book tour. Her mom, who passed due to cancer a while back, took care of a chimp named Ben. Trained to communicate with a pad, Ben's part of the family.

Unfortunately, Ben gets bit by a rabid animal and gets infected.

Poor Ben goes the way of Old Yeller and becomes vicious. Being a smart chimp, he begins to stalk and attack the girls and Lucy's sister.

That's the movie. That's all of it.

The tension is done well, but there wasn't much in the way of true scares. Just the build of and deaths of the characters by a chimp that's rabid.

The sound design worked with the father who was deaf. When he was walking through the dark house near the end, you heard what he heard...nothing. Absolute silence as the monkey stalked in the background. You were just waiting for it to attack.

For a simple premise it worked, there just wasn't much meat to it. This isn't a movie you have to rush out to see. You can even let it breathe on streaming before giving it a watch if you like horror movies, because there are better ones out there.

Rough start in the horror category, but so was Bagman. There's more stuff coming that should be better this year. We shall see. As for this one?

2/5