One of the more memorable opening movie scenes in recent memory belonged to Jordan Peele’s 2022 sci-fi/horror film Nope. In the scene, a sitcom about a family with a pet chimpanzee has its set thrown into utter chaos when the animal star goes crazy from some sudden sounds and attacks his human castmates. Although this plays a vital thematic role in the movie, the rest of Nope doesn’t explore this terrifying situation around rogue chimpanzees as pets. We’ve had to wait a couple of years for a movie that does, but Primate is here.
Primate is about a young Hawaiian woman named Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah from Dexter: New Blood) who comes home from college with her friends Kate (Foundation’s Victoria Wyant) and Hannah (Fallen’s Jessica Alexander). The trio is planning on staying at Lucy’s family home along with her hearing-impaired author father, Adam (Troy Kotsur from Coda), and her resentful little sister, Erin (Gia Hunter from Sherlock & Daughter). Also present is the family pet, a chimpanzee named Ben. And things turn horrifying when Ben suddenly winds up with rabies.
Writer/director Johannes Roberts is mostly known for the 47 Meters Down shark movie franchise and the modern slasher The Strangers: Prey at Night. And that’s pretty much the gist of Primate. It falls somewhere between a creature feature and a slasher movie. Actually, it skillfully combines the two; it’s essentially a slasher movie with a rabid chimp as the killer. It’s Cujo meets Scream (there’s even a fun Scream homage in there for the attentive horror fans). The story, written by Roberts along with his 47 Meters Down writing partner Ernest Riera, doesn’t have many surprises. But, it is what it is, and it knows exactly what it is.
And for what it is, it’s a pretty solid film. It’s an economical little horror movie, full of tension, suspense, jump scares, and a whole lot of brutal, over-the-top kill scenes. Ben does about as much damage to his human victims as one would expect a powerful primate to do. Heads are bashed in, faces are ripped off, and jaws are torn apart, and Roberts shows most of the brutality without flinching. The effects hold nothing back. Primate is not for the squeamish.
And speaking of the effects – unfortunately, the Ben in Primate is not a real chimp. Although some of his scenes are practical puppetry, for most of the film he’s done with CGI, motion captured by mime Miguel Torres Umba and vocalized by voiceover actor Ben Pronsky. Ben looks good in that Planet of the Apes kind of way, and Torres Umba’s mocap performance does make him feel like a real chimp – and a formidable threat. He’s a terrifying antagonist, and not every movie can have an animal performance as good as the one in Good Boy. Even Cujo was played by a guy in a dog costume for some of his scenes.
Which brings us to the psychological horror that is kind of missing from Primate. In true slasher style, none of the characters are developed very well, and that includes Ben. The girls talk about how he’s a member of the family, but the movie does little to show it, so when he goes rabid, there’s not much sympathy for him. We’re getting Cujo the movie instead of Cujo the book (those who have seen and read both will know the difference). Ben is a complete villain instead of being seen as a tragic figure. Which, again, that’s the slasher style.
Primate doesn’t reinvent the wheel. And it doesn’t try to. It’s not quite the situation that’s depicted in the sitcom scene from Nope, and that’s a bit disappointing. But that’s a movie someone else can make at some other time. Even as derivative and simple-minded as it is, Primate is entertaining enough.
GRADE: B-
Rating: R for some drug use, language, gore, and strong violent content
Running Time: 1 hour 29 minutes
Release Date: January 9, 2026
Studio: Paramount Pictures
