“Primate,” a gory natural horror movie with plenty of action scenes, is in theaters on Friday.

Johnny Sequoyah plays Lucy, who fights to survive after Ben, her family’s adoptive pet chimpanzee, is bitten by a mongoose and becomes rabid.

The 23-year-old actress said that her role involved a lot of physicality.

“I did like three weeks, almost a month ... of stunt training before we even started filming, so really understanding the basics of how you fake a fall ... It was an incredible experience just to be able to learn that art form,” she said.

Oscar-winner Tory Kotsur, who was born deaf, plays Adam, Lucy’s father, who was away on a book tour when Ben turned into a gruesome serial killer.

Adam, the widower of a linguistic researcher who had been teaching Ben sign language, becomes the hero of the movie.

“I need to make a sacrifice to protect and save my family, and I am sure there is a mutual understanding with all fathers who have to experience that responsibility to protect their families,” Kotsur signed. “You come into this unexpected situation, and how can you handle it? Being a character that happens to be deaf, I think it’s a fresh perspective.”

English filmmaker Johannes Roberts, the movie director, co-wrote the macabre story with Ernest Riera.

A small person, animatronics, and CGI helped to bring Ben to life.

“When that movie goes for it ... sort of 30 minutes in, when it goes, it just is so full on that it felt like I needed to get the audience ... let them know that this movie is not going to mess around,” Roberts said.

It’s about an hour and 30 minutes long. Three dozen Rotten Tomato users had given the rated R movie a 92% on the Tomatometer on Wednesday afternoon.

For fans of rated-R horror films, there is also “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” to look forward to. The second film in the trilogy is set to be released in theaters with early screenings Jan. 15.

The official trailer

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