Primate (2026)
Directed by: Johannes Roberts
Premise: A college student brings her friends to her isolated family home where her father keeps a chimpanzee as a pet. The ape gets rabies and begins attacking everyone.
What Works: Once Primate fully transitions into a horror film it mostly succeeds. Filmmaker Johannes Roberts previously helmed the shark thriller 47 Meters Down and its sequel and he does this kind of animal attack horror well. When the ape becomes violent, the teenagers take refuge in a swimming pool and try to figure out a path to safety. That is a compelling idea and the filmmakers work through this part of the story with some intelligence. Primate is fundamentally a slasher film and the conventions of the genre are done well. The house is dark and large with open spaces; the filmmakers use the layout of the house effectively, creating spaces for the ape to hide and attack from. The ape is played by actor Miguel Torres Umba who wears prosthetics. The illusion is convincing. The ape comes across as a full character but a chimpanzee, not a human, and the simian is lit in a way that makes him look monstrous. Primate uses sound very effectively. The father is played by deaf actor Troy Kotsur and the filmmakers use his deafness to their advantage with stretches of silence that create dread.
What Doesn’t: Primate is slow to start. After a flash forward opening, the first third of the picture takes its time setting up the characters and putting them in place. That’s standard practice in most slasher films but Primate does not feel like it is building up to the violence. The opening is just requisite character set up and there’s little sense of a mounting threat. The human characters of Primate are not interesting and none of the drama between them is compelling. There is a love triangle but that is dropped as soon as the terror begins. Some aspects of Primate are not credible. The ape has obvious signs of rabies but no one notices until it’s too late. A veterinarian shows up to examine the ape but he arrives in the middle of the night and goes into the cage alone which of course doesn’t go well. The moviemakers also skip over the story’s emotional component. The ape is a pet and part of the family but Primate doesn’t really address that aspect of the premise and the emotional implications of this Old Yeller scenario.
Bottom Line: Primate is an acceptable animal attack movie. The opening is a bit of a drag but once it gets going Primate is an effective horror picture.
Episode: #1085 (February 1, 2026)