Publication Date: 01-11-2026

Primate (2026) review

Dir. Johannes Roberts

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★

For those of us who watched that terrifying scene involving a chimpanzee in Jordan Peele’s Nope and thought, “this could be its own movie,” Johannes Roberts has granted our internalized wish.

Primate is the obligatory, inaugural horror movie of the new calendar year. It’s an efficiently paced and plotted thriller that pits a rabid chimp against a crop of horny, rock-brained twentysomethings and doesn’t dare pull the okedoke on you by cutting away from the ensuing brutality. There’s not a great deal here, and by the time the snow melts, you might need to be reminded it exists, but there is certainly a version of this movie that’s insufferable, and that’s thankfully not the one we get.

The titular animal is Ben, played by movement specialist Miguel Torres Umba with the aid of prosthetics and CGI so convincing, I assumed it was a real monkey (to quote Jay from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back: “I hate how fake Hollywood is.”) He’s the beloved pet of Adam (Troy Kotsur), a Deaf author who lives in a palatial, clifftop home in Hawaii. Ben was Adam’s late wife’s pet, whom she taught sign language, so he’s also a conduit of connection for the widow, and his daughters, Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah) and Erin (Gia Hunter).

One evening, Adam leaves for a book signing, with his daughters and their friends in control of the home. Ben winds up being bitten by a rabid mongoose, and the sight of water in the inground pool causes him to go berserk. The kids’ only point of safety from the chimp is in the pool, as monkeys cannot swim. Seeing as the pool is cliffside, Ben has them literally between a rock and a hard place. Characters’ phones are in different places in Adam’s home, and getting past Ben is a potentially lethal endeavor.

Roberts — whose pedigree for thrillers is vast, including The Strangers: Prey at Night and the 47 Meters Down series — and co-writer Ernest Riera have a runway of 80 minutes, which feels self-imposed so as not to let the flame of tension die. Consequently, very little is done to distinguish Lucy’s crop of generic collegiate friends. It doesn’t really matter. Roberts and Riera rightly position Ben as the star of the show.

It’s a treat to see Oscar-winner Troy Kotsur, who shined in the Best Picture winner CODA back in 2021, back on screen. Kotsur has a world-weary look to him while also having impressed command over his facial expressions. He gives some gravity to a movie in which characters take a backseat to a monkey and the carnage he causes. The kills are gnarly; there’s one involving Ben attacking a stranger in Lucy’s bed that is liable to be one of the best of the year, with the disgusting act he commits at its conclusion being the cherry on top.

While at times a little too dark, Stephen Murphy makes great use of the incredible home from a photography standpoint. There are various staircases, large rooms, nooks, and crannies, a plethora of which well-utilized. He clearly loves playing with space and locational specificity. The cool teal hue of the pool illuminates the Hawaiian darkness, and adds menace to Ben’s snarling face. Dora the Explorer is employed as a jump-scare. Primate is nimble with no frills, but it still has some small elements of surprise that delight like a solid work of natural horror should.

Starring: Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander, Tory Kotsur, Victoria Wyant, Gia Hunter, Benjamin Cheng, and Miguel Torres Umba. Directed by: Johannes Roberts.