written by: Johannes Roberts and Ernest Riera
produced by: Walter Hamada, John Hodges, and Bradley Pilz
directed by: Johannes Roberts
rated: R (for strong bloody violent content, gore, language, and some drug use)
runtime: 89 min.
U.S. release date: January 6, 2026

There’s a subgenre of horror films called “natural horror”, in which animals or plants threaten humans. At their best, there’s Hitchcock’s “The Birds” and Spielberg’s “Jaws”. After those two, there are hundreds of movies out there with varying levels of quality – for every “Sharknado” there’s a “The Day of the Triffids”. There’s an audience for everything.  After I saw “Primate”, the latest from English writer/director Johannes Roberts (“Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City” and “The Strangers: Prey at Night”, and the “47 Meters Down” movies), the gratuitously gory movie about a face-ripping and head-bashing chimpanzee, I was left horrified.

I wasn’t horrified because of the movie I just watched, which was pretty bad, but because two adults brought two little children to this bloodfest. This was on a Monday for one of those AMC Screen Unseen – actually, Scream Unseen, so these adults knew full well they’d be taking these children to an R-rated (possibly HARD R-rated, which it indeed was) horror flick. That left my stomach in knots more than any of the gruesome deaths found in “Primate”.

The movie isn’t out to hide its intent, immediately opening with a title card defining “Hydrophobia” (aka “Rabies Syndrome”). Essentially, in infected animals, the rabies virus attacks the nervous system, causing painful spasms in the throat that make swallowing water terrifying, leading to hydrophobia, which can cause dehydration and death. The cold open that follows sets the tone for the brutality to come. We’re introduced to the titular antagonist of the movie, chimpanzee Ben, who has gone full-out feral. One human is down, and we know it’ll only be the first.

Cut to hours earlier, when we meet a trio of young women in their early twenties boarding an airplane for a flight to Hawaii. They are the type who squeal when they greet each other, which is annoying in general, but even more so when you’re in a confined fuselage. They meet two bros their age on the plane, and you hope and pray that either the plane will crash or we will not see these dudes again, but we know neither will happen.

College student Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah, “Dexter: New Blood”) is heading back to Hawaii for summer break, where her hearing-impaired father and author, Adam (Troy Kotsur, “Coda”), resides with her younger sister, Erin (Gia Hunter, “Sherlock & Daughter”), and their pet chimpanzee, Ben. Erin holds some resentment toward Lucy because her older sister has been away for so long, but that’s how college works. Lucy is traveling with her BFF, Kate (Victoria Wyant, “Foundation”), and another friend Kate invited, Hannah (Jessica Alexander, “The Little Mermaid”), along with Kate’s older brother, Nate (newcomer Benjamin Cheng).

When they arrive at the family’s swanky modern-style cliffside property, they learn that Dad will have to head into the city for a couple of days for a book signing. This leaves them home with Ben and the place all to themselves…so, naturally: party.

But first, there are a couple of other things we learn during this time of introductions and expositions: Lucy and Erin’s mother died about a year ago from cancer, and she’s the one responsible for rescuing Ben, since she’s a linguist studying communication between primates and humans. Ben primarily communicates via a tablet that gives him audible speaking options, such as “Lucy! Bad!”

While Adam uses ASL (American Sign Language) and a special whistle that’s extremely cringy for chimp ears. This will undoubtedly be required later on to get Ben in line. It’s all part of a sequence of obvious foreshadowing from Roberts, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ernest Riera.

It’s quite odd that Lucy doesn’t immediately divulge to her friends before they arrive that there’s something different about their home. You know, the fact that they live with a male chimp. Has she never had friends over before?

Before Adam leaves, he makes sure his daughters are aware that Ben had killed a mongoose (we learn in a text exchange that a mongoose had made its way into the chimp’s outdoor enclosure and bitten him). Not to worry, he’ll call someone to come out and administer some antibiotics to the primate. Are you kidding me? You’re okay with leaving your kids alone with a chimp that’s possibly contracted rabies?

The Gen Z pals abruptly realize that the once gentle chimp is now a rabid primate unable to respond to regular forms of communication. After he severely injures one of them, they barricade themselves in what appears to be the safety of the property’s swimming pool, because chimps can’t swim. Of course, being in the pool conveniently keeps them away from their phones, preventing them from calling for help. Ben may now be a drooling savage, capable of ripping them apart, but he’s no dummy. He’ll find a way to get to them and smash their faces in, especially since they can’t stay in the pool forever.

For some viewers, the fact that Roberts gets right to it with the gore will be just what they signed up for. Forgive me, but I’d like a little foreplay with my horror. “Primate” could’ve at least given us more time with Ben before he goes ape, so we could be more invested in his terrifying behavioral shift. There needs to be a degree of believability for viewers to buy into the conceit, and considering this movie doesn’t bother to provide any theme or lesson, its simplicity is definitely not a selling point.

One big question with “Primate” is how Roberts and his crew got a chimpanzee to evoke such disturbing menace and remove human jawbones with such aplomb. They use a combination of practical visual effects work and the work of Miguel Torres Umba, a Colombian actor and movement specialist who actually got into an ape suit to portray the four-foot menace. Umba’s work is fine here, but compared to other motion-capture ape performances – think what Andy Serkis and Toby Kebbell did in the recent “Planet of the Apes” movies or Terry Notary in that disturbing scene from Jordan Peele’s “Nope” – what’s missing is the reality of an expressive personality to connect with.

The only interesting moments in “Primate” revolve around Kotsur’s Adam character, specifically in how Roberts presents a deaf perspective in a horror movie. This is especially true in the movie’s third act, when all hell breaks loose at the family’s cliffside property. The Oscar-winning actor adds a needed variety and a unique presence to the movie, and Roberts captures how deafness certainly hinders one’s chances of survival when a rabid ape goes savage in your home. Unfortunately, Kotsur is surrounded by flatly portrayed characters, most of whom are the kind of walking victims you’d find in any slasher flick.

“Primate” offers very little apart from the urgency and tension of bland humans struggling to survive a rampaging ape. If all you want is violent attacks and brutal kills from a chimp, this is your movie.

RATING: **