Primate Trailer, Fun Facts & Review
Primate Synopsis:
College student Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah) returns to her family's remote home for a visit with her friends. Their peaceful visit becomes a nightmare when the family's beloved pet chimpanzee, Ben, contracts rabies, turning him into a violent and aggressive killer. Trapped and isolated, Lucy and her friends must desperately fight for survival against the devastating primal rage of their former companion.
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Release Date: In theatres January 9th, 2026
Primate Fun Facts:
Inspired by Classic Horror:
Director Johannes Roberts mentioned that the idea for a killer chimpanzee in the movie Primate came from famous horror classics, specifically mentioning Stephen King's Cujo (about a killer dog) and Christine (about a possessed car).
From the House of Horror:
This movie is the first one made under a production agreement between Paramount and Walter Hamada, the former leader of DC Films. Hamada is one of the producers on the film and is famous for his work on big horror series, such as The Conjuring movies.
Academy Award Winner:
The movie features Academy Award winner Troy Kotsur (known for CODA). Kotsur is the first male deaf actor and second overall (after Marlee Matlin) to win an acting Oscar. In Primate he plays Adam, Lucy's hearing-impaired father.
Fantastic Fest Premiere:
The movie premiered at the Fantastic Fest in September 2025 before its wide theatrical release on January 9th, 2026. This early showing suggests the studio believed the movie would be well-received by dedicated horror fans.
The Pool Safe Spot:
The filmmakers decided to use the family's pool as an important location and a safe spot for the characters because of a real fact about chimpanzees: chimps cannot swim and often drown in deep water. This means the pool is one of the only places where the characters are safe from the enraged chimpanzee.
Quick Production:
Filming started on September 16th, 2024, and finished quickly, just a few months later, on November 4th, 2024.
Primate Review:
Directed by Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down), Primate is a new horror movie about a beloved pet chimpanzee that turned into a calculated killing machine. It is a short, intense film that starts the year off right. Sometimes a simple story can turn out to be the most thrilling and scariest in the horror genre.
The story is about a college student named Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah) returning to her family's secluded cliffside home in Hawaii. She’s joined by a group of friends who mostly become victims that are savagely hunted by the rage chimpanzee named Ben.
Ben is the center of the story. He is a highly intelligent chimpanzee subject that Lucy’s late mother used for linguistics research. Ben "talks" by using a special digital soundboard, which Roberts uses very effectively to make the movie feel extremely chilling. The happy reunion suddenly turns into a nightmare when Ben is bitten by a rabid mongoose. The infection spreads rapidly, transforming Ben from a beloved pet into a calculated, violent killer.
In a time when people are tired of seeing computer-generated images (CGI), Primate feels new and exciting. Instead of a digital effect, Ben is played by an actor named Miguel Torres Umba wearing a suit. Due to the real physical performance of Ben's character, the chimpanzee feels heavy and present in a way that digital effects usually can't match.
Oscar winner Troy Kotsur is outstanding in his performance as the deaf father, Adam. He makes the character feel very serious and important as he uses sign language to communicate with his daughters, which gives the film a lot of heart. One very tense scene is filmed so the audience "hears" only what he hears, which is the best technical part of the entire movie.
Director Roberts proves again that he is the master at creating dreadful water scenes. The most important sequence takes place at the pool, using the fact that animals with rabies are afraid of water. This creates tension among characters that are trapped in the pool and water scenes that look stunning at the same time.
This is a very violent movie rated R for adults only. Characters are killed in creative ways that are bloody and violent. In the movie, director Roberts shows the bloody sequences of how much damage an infected primate could do to a person.
The extra characters in the movie do not have much depth. These characters exist in the story only to be killed off to make the movie gruesome and bloody. Instead, they focused entirely on how the chimpanzee hunts and kills the victims with the primal rage.
Primate is a simple horror movie made with a decent budget that looks elegant and luxurious. The run time is only about 89 minutes, and it gets right to the point. The movie is bloody and designed to scare you with an intelligent, fast-moving chimpanzee filled with rage. It is a great start to the horror movies coming out in 2026.