Primate (2026)
On February 16, 2009, worldwide news was made when Travis, a 13-year old chimpanzee who had lived with a couple in Connecticut, brutally attacked and mauled Charla Nash. This came 4-years after worldwide news was made after St. James Davis and his wife, LaDonna, were viciously attacked by a pair of chimpanzees while they were visiting their pet chimp, Moe, in an animal sanctuary after he was seized due to Moe's tendency to bite. According to the Animal Welfare Institute, since 1990, there have been over 300 documented dangerous incidents involving primates kept as pets. The concept of keeping primates in captivity has been one to fill cinema screens since the dawn of the medium, with Tod Browning's 1925 film, The Unholy Three, offering what could be the first cinematic portrayal of a pet ape committing murder, as one of the film's villains, Hercules (Victor McLaglen), is killed at the hands of a humongous chimpanzee. Further examples can be found in 1933's King Kong, 1986's Link, and 2022's Nope. HBO's 2024 documentary series, Chimp Crazy, also sheds light on multiple other true incidents, making the clear claim that chimpanzees have no place being kept as pets. This argument has been almost universally agreed upon by experts, but still, something about living with primates evokes a sense of connection and wonder for many who continue to find ways to own them despite stricter laws, great financial costs, and a looming promise of violent incidents.
It is a natural outcome that this fascination and well-documented danger would once again find its way to the horror genre with Johannes Roberts's Primate, kicking off the year with a new tale of chimp horror. Set in a remote mansion in Hawaii, Primate follows the Pinborough family, whose lineup includes a pet chimpanzee named Ben, played by Miguel Torres Umba using practical effects. While Lucy Pinborough (Johnny Sequoyah) is excited to share her home with her friends after being gone for years, patriarch Adam (Troy Kotsur) is as busy as ever with book signings and other business to attend to. This is why Adam fails to act when he notices Ben has started to act strangely, and discovers he has been bitten by a mongoose. Adam asks his vet, Doug (Rob Delaney), to check on Ben as he leaves for his book signing, but this kicks off a night of horror as Ben kills Doug and unleashes hell on the remaining family members, as he is now rabid and is experiencing extreme aggression.
With the deep documented history and layers to the subject of owning chimpanzees, it feels like Primate has found a slam dunk of a perspective to use to realistically find horror that also made a statement with substantial emotion. For those who own primates, they are not simply pets but are often considered members of the family. This makes sense given how easy it is to anthropomorphise the behavior of chimpanzees with their facial resemblance to humans. Travis's owner, Sandra Herold, described her fight against her chimpanzee by saying, "For me to do something like that, put a knife in him, was like putting one in myself" before describing Travis's reaction as being that of him saying "Mom, what did you do?" when she stabbed him. Herold faced severe depression after the event, saying, "I'm, like, hollow now. He slept with me every night. Until you've eaten with a chimp and bathed with a chimp, you don't know a chimp". Instead of playing to these emotions or the context of the villain it is creating, Primate leaves nearly all this on the table as it decides to boil the film down to be an incredibly standard addition to the animal attack genre.
If there is one film that feels comparable to Primate, it is 2016's Terrifier. Rather than worrying about developing characters with meaningful arcs or trying to find a deeper thought in its 89-minute runtime, Primate operates with its primary focus being on evoking a reaction through gruesome imagery and bloody violence. The experience, according to this guideline, is a success as it is hard to imagine anyone not feeling grossed out or disturbed by the brutality displayed throughout the film, as Ben literally rips apart his victims. The film is overly mean in these sequences, offering no empathy for its largely innocent cast of characters, constantly relishing in just how nasty it can get. While there is undeniably a base of horror fans who will find similar enjoyment in the torture and mutilation of these characters, for many, the experience is going to be immediately off-putting, as there is nothing outwardly fun or rewarding about seeing one-dimensional characters who have done minimal wrong be put through incredibly realistic physical trauma. It also doesn't help that even with the film's shorter runtime, it takes almost 30 minutes for the chaos to begin, feeling forcibly drawn out to reach feature-length.
If there is one shining light from these sequences, it would be the effects. It is commendable to see a project like Primate commit so heavily to the use of practical effects for both the violence and the creature throughout its feature. While Ben's design is incredibly off when compared to a real chimpanzee, it creates a jarring sense of the uncanny valley for anyone who has a basic understanding of the size and look of a real chimp, it still is impressive to see a film work so hard to avoid the CGI slop that has plagued the modern film industry. As years pass, the effects of Primate will continue to hold up, and for those who do enjoy the ride the film is offering, it is clear that the effect would be cut drastically had the feature relied more heavily on cheap visual effects.
While the screenplay by Johannes Roberts and Ernest Riera leaves plenty to be desired with how unwilling it is to seek any sense of depth, it also lacks both logic and consistency. The film is almost comedic in its setup as it cuts multiple times to Adam at his book signing, too busy to become aware of the horrors unfolding at home. This comedic energy is absent from much of the film, but it will have random moments where it reappears, such as a sequence when a character attempts to flee via vehicle, only to look outside and see Ben standing, taunting them with the keys; a weird action for an out-of-control chimpanzee to pause and display in the middle of their rampage.
Perhaps worst of all, Primate commits the biggest sin of the animal attack genre by removing a sense of urgency for the characters to act, making their risky struggle for escape feel contrived. The film opens with text explaining the history of rabies, which causes its victims to become irrational at the sight of water. This causes Ben to be unable to get to our protagonists as they take refuge in the family's pool. Even as they fall asleep, there is no reason to believe that Ben would ever be able to get to them, meaning the clear best strategy for survival is to wait in the pool until Adam or other help arrives. Of course, that would not make for a thrilling movie, so the characters do not use this strategy and instead try to leave, leading to the bloodshed the film needs. The best films of this genre find a way to force characters out of their safety. From the heat in Cujo to the rising tide in The Shallows, this is an important part of crafting a feature like this, but it is yet another area where Primate does not even attempt to find a solution.
Outside of the effects, it is hard to find any area where Primate actually feels like it is putting in effort. It isn't that Johannes Roberts cannot craft a more logical and rewarding animal attack film; he is also the filmmaker responsible for 47 Meters Down, which, despite plenty of flaws, did accomplish far more of the foundational elements of genre filmmaking than Primate. Instead, it feels Roberts simply doesn't care to do more with the film. He doesn't care to write compelling characters or create logical scenarios. He doesn't care to make any statement on the relevant subject matter he is engaging with. He doesn't care because, as seen with Terrifier, there is a pathway of success that can be found by doing the bare minimum and creating shock content. However, this is only going to work for so many, and it feels disappointing to see a capable filmmaker reduce what could have been such a masterful use of the horror genre into something so one-note and off-putting. Primate feels like the death of a filmmaker who desired to do more, but backed off when they were met with disappointing results and criticism. For Primate not be a directorial debut but instead be the 13th film from a director feels shocking, considering how little the film manages to accomplish. If Primate is the film to set the tone for the direction of filmmaking in 2026, it is going to be a very long year.
It is a natural outcome that this fascination and well-documented danger would once again find its way to the horror genre with Johannes Roberts's Primate, kicking off the year with a new tale of chimp horror. Set in a remote mansion in Hawaii, Primate follows the Pinborough family, whose lineup includes a pet chimpanzee named Ben, played by Miguel Torres Umba using practical effects. While Lucy Pinborough (Johnny Sequoyah) is excited to share her home with her friends after being gone for years, patriarch Adam (Troy Kotsur) is as busy as ever with book signings and other business to attend to. This is why Adam fails to act when he notices Ben has started to act strangely, and discovers he has been bitten by a mongoose. Adam asks his vet, Doug (Rob Delaney), to check on Ben as he leaves for his book signing, but this kicks off a night of horror as Ben kills Doug and unleashes hell on the remaining family members, as he is now rabid and is experiencing extreme aggression.
With the deep documented history and layers to the subject of owning chimpanzees, it feels like Primate has found a slam dunk of a perspective to use to realistically find horror that also made a statement with substantial emotion. For those who own primates, they are not simply pets but are often considered members of the family. This makes sense given how easy it is to anthropomorphise the behavior of chimpanzees with their facial resemblance to humans. Travis's owner, Sandra Herold, described her fight against her chimpanzee by saying, "For me to do something like that, put a knife in him, was like putting one in myself" before describing Travis's reaction as being that of him saying "Mom, what did you do?" when she stabbed him. Herold faced severe depression after the event, saying, "I'm, like, hollow now. He slept with me every night. Until you've eaten with a chimp and bathed with a chimp, you don't know a chimp". Instead of playing to these emotions or the context of the villain it is creating, Primate leaves nearly all this on the table as it decides to boil the film down to be an incredibly standard addition to the animal attack genre.
If there is one film that feels comparable to Primate, it is 2016's Terrifier. Rather than worrying about developing characters with meaningful arcs or trying to find a deeper thought in its 89-minute runtime, Primate operates with its primary focus being on evoking a reaction through gruesome imagery and bloody violence. The experience, according to this guideline, is a success as it is hard to imagine anyone not feeling grossed out or disturbed by the brutality displayed throughout the film, as Ben literally rips apart his victims. The film is overly mean in these sequences, offering no empathy for its largely innocent cast of characters, constantly relishing in just how nasty it can get. While there is undeniably a base of horror fans who will find similar enjoyment in the torture and mutilation of these characters, for many, the experience is going to be immediately off-putting, as there is nothing outwardly fun or rewarding about seeing one-dimensional characters who have done minimal wrong be put through incredibly realistic physical trauma. It also doesn't help that even with the film's shorter runtime, it takes almost 30 minutes for the chaos to begin, feeling forcibly drawn out to reach feature-length.
If there is one shining light from these sequences, it would be the effects. It is commendable to see a project like Primate commit so heavily to the use of practical effects for both the violence and the creature throughout its feature. While Ben's design is incredibly off when compared to a real chimpanzee, it creates a jarring sense of the uncanny valley for anyone who has a basic understanding of the size and look of a real chimp, it still is impressive to see a film work so hard to avoid the CGI slop that has plagued the modern film industry. As years pass, the effects of Primate will continue to hold up, and for those who do enjoy the ride the film is offering, it is clear that the effect would be cut drastically had the feature relied more heavily on cheap visual effects.
While the screenplay by Johannes Roberts and Ernest Riera leaves plenty to be desired with how unwilling it is to seek any sense of depth, it also lacks both logic and consistency. The film is almost comedic in its setup as it cuts multiple times to Adam at his book signing, too busy to become aware of the horrors unfolding at home. This comedic energy is absent from much of the film, but it will have random moments where it reappears, such as a sequence when a character attempts to flee via vehicle, only to look outside and see Ben standing, taunting them with the keys; a weird action for an out-of-control chimpanzee to pause and display in the middle of their rampage.
Perhaps worst of all, Primate commits the biggest sin of the animal attack genre by removing a sense of urgency for the characters to act, making their risky struggle for escape feel contrived. The film opens with text explaining the history of rabies, which causes its victims to become irrational at the sight of water. This causes Ben to be unable to get to our protagonists as they take refuge in the family's pool. Even as they fall asleep, there is no reason to believe that Ben would ever be able to get to them, meaning the clear best strategy for survival is to wait in the pool until Adam or other help arrives. Of course, that would not make for a thrilling movie, so the characters do not use this strategy and instead try to leave, leading to the bloodshed the film needs. The best films of this genre find a way to force characters out of their safety. From the heat in Cujo to the rising tide in The Shallows, this is an important part of crafting a feature like this, but it is yet another area where Primate does not even attempt to find a solution.
Outside of the effects, it is hard to find any area where Primate actually feels like it is putting in effort. It isn't that Johannes Roberts cannot craft a more logical and rewarding animal attack film; he is also the filmmaker responsible for 47 Meters Down, which, despite plenty of flaws, did accomplish far more of the foundational elements of genre filmmaking than Primate. Instead, it feels Roberts simply doesn't care to do more with the film. He doesn't care to write compelling characters or create logical scenarios. He doesn't care to make any statement on the relevant subject matter he is engaging with. He doesn't care because, as seen with Terrifier, there is a pathway of success that can be found by doing the bare minimum and creating shock content. However, this is only going to work for so many, and it feels disappointing to see a capable filmmaker reduce what could have been such a masterful use of the horror genre into something so one-note and off-putting. Primate feels like the death of a filmmaker who desired to do more, but backed off when they were met with disappointing results and criticism. For Primate not be a directorial debut but instead be the 13th film from a director feels shocking, considering how little the film manages to accomplish. If Primate is the film to set the tone for the direction of filmmaking in 2026, it is going to be a very long year.