Primate review

PRIMATE: 

THIS MONKEY-THEMED HORROR MOVIE IS APESHIT IN THE MOST ENTERTAINING WAYS! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

There’s something wrong with Ben in Primate

 

            A lovable chimp gets rabies and becomes the most violent and relentless serial killer ever in Primate, the new horror film from Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down, The Strangers: Prey at Night, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City). You bet your ass I was gonna see this after I saw the trailer regardless of how good or bad it would turn out. 

            A horror movie about a monkey going on a violent rampage after getting rabies, this was either going to be really fun or the dumbest fucking shit I’ve ever seen in my life. Either way, I was ready to have a good time with this film and it’s actually pretty solid. 

            Yes, we have a good January horror movie release for 2026 though this actually would have been the rare time where I’d be fine with it being insanely and hilariously bad, but I’m glad it wasn’t. This was an entertaining sit and it’s a film that seems very aware of how absurd its premise is and jumps straight into the blood-soaked madness while also working in a few creepy sequences and decent enough human protagonists. 

            The film follows Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah-Among Ravens, Believe, Dexter: New Blood), a college student returning home to Hawaii to reunite with her friends and deaf novelist father, Adam (Played by actual deaf actor Troy Kotsur-The Number 23, No Ordinary Hero: The SuperDeafy Movie, CODA). However, when the family’s pet Ben the Chimpanzee gets rabies from a mongoose, the once sweet chimp goes feral and turns this reunion into a nightmare. 

            The film also stars Jessica Alexander (Get Even, Glasshouse, The Little Mermaid (2023)) as Hannah, Kae Alexander (The Bad Education Movie, Ready Player One, Black Bag) as Yoko, and Rob Delaney (Catastrophe,Deadpool 2 and 3, Bombshell) as Dr. Lambert. 

            Overall, Primate is a silly, bloody throwback to those animals gone berserk horror movies like Cujo and Monkey Shines mixed with the opening sequence of Jordan Peele’s Nope. It’s not exactly a very story-driven or emotionally deep movie, it just gives you its wild premise and rolls with it, the result for me was a gory fun afternoon at the movies. 

            In this age where most films would probably use CGI for the monkey, it’s refreshing to see this movie actually use a person in a suit to portray Ben which helps make the kills more visceral and the reactions more natural. As amazing as Peter Jackson’s King Kong or the motion-capture apes in the recent Planet of the Apes movies are, I guarantee it wouldn’t be nearly as effective to have computer generated apes smashing the shit out of people, ripping their jaws off, biting them, etc. so mad props to the costume designers and Miguel Torres Umba, the actor playing Ben onscreen. 

            Speaking of which, I am so happy this film was a hard R and not an unfortunate victim to the PG-13 butchering because the kills in Primate are messy. Constant blood splatter at the hands of a rabid monkey as early as the opening scene of this 80-something minute film (Does not waste any time at all) and manages to be both disturbing and hilarious in how gory and gruesome it gets. 

            The movie is legitimately funny at times and not just because of the novelty of watching a monkey essentially be a slasher movie villain, there’s a great bit involving car keys and one of the people trying to escape that gets a genuine laugh right before the kill. There are also these two fucking bros that come in later on in the movie and are completely out of the loop on what’s going on and the film decides to follow them for a short bit leading to hilarity and gore, that’s all I’ll say. 

            With the exception of Troy Kotsur as the deaf father who gives an amazing performance through sign language and facial expressions, everyone else is fine. The actors portray their parts well, but the characters are pretty one-note and stock, I wouldn’t call them one-dimensional though, just nothing spectacular. 

            Not sure what else to say, Primate is a pretty easy film to talk about even in great detail, it’s a fun horror movie with over-the-top and gory kills and a truly “bananas” premise. I had a good time in the theater with this movie and I’m glad to say it’s easily Johannes Roberts’ best film as a director, still less terrifying than Deep Roy in a monkey suit from Going Bananas and not as good as Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey.