No, they did not use a real chimpanzee for Primate ’s killer chimp, Ben.

What the movie actually used

  • Ben is portrayed by a human creature performer, movement specialist Miguel Torres Umba, wearing a detailed creature suit with animatronics and prosthetics.
  • The production relied on practical effects (suits, puppetry) blended with some CGI to bring the chimp to life on screen.
  • Reports on the film explicitly note that no real chimpanzee starred in Primate ; the “chimp” is fully a performance plus effects.

Why they avoided a real chimp

  • Articles and interviews around the film highlight safety and ethical concerns with using real chimps, which are powerful, unpredictable wild animals, especially in violent horror scenarios.
  • Modern creature features increasingly favor trained performers in suits plus VFX, as it allows more intense action while avoiding the welfare issues of using great apes on set.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.