PRIMATE (2026)

Genre: Thriller/Horror
Director: Johannes Roberts
Cast: Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander, and Troy Kotsur, Victoria Wyant, Gia Hunter, Benjamin Cheng, Charlie Mann, Tienne Simon 
Runtime: 1 hr 29 min
Rating: M18 (Violence and Gore)
Released By: UIP
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 22 January 2026

Synopsis: In PRIMATE, a group of friends’ tropical vacation turns into a terrifying, primal tale of horror and survival.

Movie Review:

If your idea of horror fun is of a rabies-infected chimpanzee terrorising a bunch of college kids, including smashing their chests or heads in, tearing their jaws out and ripping their faces off, then ‘Primate’ might just be the movie for you.

As stripped down as his Mandy Moore shark thriller ’47 Metres Down’ was, director and co-writer Johannes Roberts’ ape goes ape-shit horror confines our hapless and largely clueless protagonists at a luxurious home nestled into a Hawaiian cliffside surrounded by lush rainforests.

That is the abode of Lucy’s (Johnny Sequoyah) family, which she is returning to visit her deaf writer father Adam (Troy Kotsur) and younger sister Erin (Gia Hunter) after completing her freshman year. Just so we get a bit more ape fodder, Lucy has also invited her lifelong friend Kate (Victoria Wyant) to join her for the trip back home, and Kate in turn has asked the shallow, pushy Hannah (Jessica Alexander) along.

Thanks to Hannah, we get the pleasure of two other rowdy frat boys, Drew (Charlie Mann) and Brad (Tienne Simon), to join the party at some point in the movie; and just to whet your appetite, let’s just say one of them gets his jaw torn off and the other ends up being bludgeoned with a shovel. Lucy, Kate and Hannah are also joined by Kate’s brother Nick (Benjamin Cheng), whom Hannah comes on strong with despite clearly picking up Lucy’s longtime crush on him.

All that setup is basically to tee up who gets chomped on first and who gets to live till end, once their family chimpanzee Ben (played by movement specialist Miguel Torres Umba, with the help of practical effects artistry from Millennium FX) goes on his rampage after being bitten by a rabies-infected mongoose. For what it’s worth, Ben has been living with Lucy and her family after being rescued by Lucy’s late mother, and the former linguistics professor had not only taught him American Sign Language but also how to communicate his feelings through a tablet.

Because the only place in the whole house that Ben doesn’t dare enter is the infinity pool, our teenage protagonists spend a good bit of time treading water, while waiting for Adam to fear the worst and return from the book tour he so coincidentally happens to leave for the night Ben goes berserk. Seen another way though, it is as graceful a presence as it gets for the Academy Award-winning Kotsur (from ‘Coda’), whom we hope gets more befitting material than this very soon.

Aside from Kotsur, no other actor leaves much of an impression. Roberts’ objective here is to keep his creature feature lean and mean, and while he does succeed with landing plenty of jump scares and nasty jolts, it does mean that there is hardly a character we feel sympathy for, not even the chimpanzee whose ruthlessly savage turn is not of his volition. By extension therefore, none of the actors are given much to work with, and know mostly to look scared and run when they are told.

Truth be told, as effective as it is, ‘Primate’ is as forgettable as it gets once the lights come on. It is as elemental and stripped down as the very notion of a rabies-infected chimpanzee terrorising a bunch of college kids, and if ‘chimp crazy, chimp kill’ for a good one and a half hours isn’t your thing, then you should heed your primal instinct to stay far, far away.

Movie Rating:

(As stripped down and elemental as its premise of a rabies-infected chimpanzee terrorising a bunch of college kids, 'Primate' is a lean, mean horror and nothing more)

Review by Gabriel Chong