I’ve seen nearly every horror movie out there, and I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve had to close my eyes during a death scene. Primate earned that reaction from me. If you’re a hardcore horror fan looking for something that will genuinely make you squirm, Johannes Roberts has delivered exactly what you’re craving.
Let me be crystal clear about what you’re walking into: Primate is brutally graphic. When Ben, the family’s pet chimpanzee, contracts rabies and turns violent, the kills aren’t quick Hollywood deaths. They’re slow. They’re methodical. Ben literally rips people apart, and Roberts doesn’t cut away. The practical effects are top-notch, and the camera lingers on the carnage in ways that even seasoned horror fans might find challenging. I closed my eyes during one particularly gruesome scene, and trust me, that doesn’t happen often.
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I’ll admit, I was worried going in. I’m a massive animal lover, and knowing this was about a beloved family pet turning violent had me bracing for heartbreak. Thankfully, the fact that it’s a chimpanzee rather than, say, a dog, made it easier to watch. Don’t get me wrong—it’s still tragic—but something about chimps being less domesticated than dogs gave me just enough emotional distance to enjoy the movie without ugly crying in the theater.
Troy Kotsur, fresh off his Oscar win for CODA, is the standout here. Playing the deaf father adds an entirely new dimension to the horror. Roberts brilliantly uses silence during Kotsur’s scenes, creating moments where we can hear the chimp approaching but the character can’t. It’s a simple technique, but in Kotsur’s capable hands, it becomes genuinely terrifying. The rest of the cast is serviceable, but Kotsur elevates every scene he’s in.
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Yes, the characters make some questionable choices. But here’s the thing: when you’re facing down a rabid, 200-pound ball of muscle and rage that used to be your family pet, I’m willing to bet rational thinking goes out the window. Unlike a lot of horror movies where dumb decisions feel like lazy writing, Primate earns them. The characters’ frame of mind makes sense given the impossible situation they’re in.
Roberts keeps the tension cranked up from start to finish, aided by an old-school horror score that never lets you relax. The music choices feel like a love letter to classic creature features, giving Primate a timeless quality even as it delivers modern-level brutality. At 89 minutes, it’s lean and mean—no wasted scenes, no unnecessary subplots. Just pure, unadulterated survival horror.
Johannes Roberts continues to prove he understands creature horror. If you loved his work on 47 Meters Down or appreciated what he did with The Strangers: Prey at Night, you’ll see his signature style here—tight pacing, practical scares, and a willingness to go darker than most mainstream horror directors dare.
Primate exceeded my expectations in every way. It’s rare that a horror movie genuinely surprises me anymore, but Roberts pulled it off. If you can handle extreme gore and you’re looking for something that will actually make you uncomfortable (in the best way), grab your bravest movie buddy and check this one out. Just maybe sit on the aisle in case you need to look away.
Grade: A
There are extra scenes during, or after, the end credits of Primate.
| Rated: | () Some Drug Use | Language | Gore | Strong Violent Content |
| Genres: | Horror, Thriller |
| USA release date: | 2026-01-01 |
| Movie length: | |
| Starring: | |
| Director: | Johannes Roberts |
| Writer(s): | Johannes Roberts, Ernest Riera |
| Language: | en |
| Country: | US |
Plot
Home from college, Lucy reunites with family including pet chimp Ben. Ben contracts rabies during a pool party and turns aggressive. Lucy and friends barricade in pool, devising ways to survive the vicious chimp.
RunPee.com owes RunPee Sis a huge debt of gratitude. She sees any movie needed with no complaints and has done so for ten years (even basing Thanksgiving and Christmas family festivities around the seeing films). In 2015 Sis ran the entire RunPee enterprise herself, while RunPee Dan, Jilly and Mom went traipsing off to Europe. Sis is the spider in the web holding the RunPee family together — besides being a funny, well rounded person, and a joyous pleasure to be around. Her favorite films start and end with horror (which thank goodness she’s happy to see, since most of us don’t have the stomach for it) — but also likes silly comedies, sad dramas, and musicals of all types. If you’ve used a Peetime for a scary film, you probably have RunPee Sis to thank for it.
Favorite movie genre: Horror, horror, and more horror. The more disturbing, the better. Period.
I went into this very suspect….because all of the traitors had showed very limited clips of the movie and more people’s reaction to the movie and that is usually a ‘plain folks’ propaganda trick movies use to get people to the movies and the movie be a huge disappointment!
However…I agree, this was a good scary movie! I did have one critique though, just nit picking, the daughter who got bit by Ben, I think they exacerbated the wound for shock affect because if she had lost the amount of blood that was shown, she would have bled out because that was an artery! Using the guy’s shirt as a tourniquet was their way of covering it in the story but not with that blood loss! At any rate, this was better than most recent scary movies!
Also, they called him ‘Ben,’ as I watched this movie I was thinking “Cujo, but with a Chimp” but naming him Ben made me think of an older movie by the same name about a boy who had a pet rat that just happened to be leading a rat invasion.
Just a thought!