Primate Review
Although the entire world has entered into the new year, it seems like the entertainment industry is still trying to get a feel of what 2026 will be like. Sure, while there’s a few films that we’re anticipating to watch in the next few months, there has to be a baseline of what’s coming. For the horror genre, that baseline already seems to be made through Paramount’s first film of 2026: Johannes Roberts’ Primate. Given how horror dominates the first few months of every year, Primate seems like an acceptable and welcome opener.
Primate follows Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah) and her friends taking a summer vacation at her dad’s (Troy Kotsur) island home. At their home, Lucy’s sister Erin (Gia Hunter) takes care of their family’s surprisingly smart chimpanzee, Ben. However, when Ben gets infected with rabies and starts going crazy, Lucy, Erin, and their friends get locked into a fight for their lives.
To state the obvious, if the trailers didn’t give it away that this is indeed a horror film, the kills are absolutely gruesome. Particularly, the zoom-ins on the gore really accentuate the painfully-looking practical effects. From Ben simply chewing deeply into Erin’s leg to a “frat bro” getting their jaw completely ripped off, Roberts doesn’t play around when it comes to highlighting those scenes. In general, there’s a satisfying blend between tense moments of build-up and actual jumpscares, but some of the setups make the timings of these scenes a bit apparent.
What’s done more often than not is that the “build up” scenes really love to use a blur effect to keep things out of frame. Although Stephen Murphy’s linear cinematography allows the danger of Ben to feel hidden, yet predatory, it may feel overdone by the time the film ends. It does its job in creating that ominous environment, also due to Primate’s primary setting of this beach home. However, the overall tone of the third act somewhat hinders the effectiveness of the camerawork.
This is mostly because of how the film tries to reshape who Ben is. The primary reason why Ben goes all bananas (pun intended) in the first place is because of him being bitten by an infected mongoose. In the beginning, the film makes it clear that he’s supposed to have some sort of intelligence, which changes when he gets infected. While it’s expected that Ben would obviously be more ravenous because of this, it takes a bit of a bizarre turn over time.
Initially, Ben acts as this monster not to be reckoned with as Lucy and her friends try to “tame” Ben through several different plans. There’s a bit of fun, yet shocking, moments, like Ben using some hanging pool lights to attack or carefully watching Lucy and Kate (Victoria Wyant) not realizing that Ben’s watching them overhead. Yet, in some moments, the film utilizes Ben into some of these off-putting ways. Notably, it happens during a bizarre sexual attempt near the final act that’ll definitely throw some viewers off.
One can assume that this is because Primate isn’t taking its story as seriously as it wants to. Of course, there are some story beats that try to make you feel emotional. The main beat involves Lucy and Erin trying to rekindle their sisterhood after being separated for so long because of Lucy’s schooling. There’s another beat where Lucy is jealous of Kate’s other friend Hannah (Jessica Alexander) for getting with their “boy” friend, Nick (Benjamin Cheng). Most of these beats are either kept in the background, for the former, or thrown overboard, for the latter, when it starts to get really chaotic.
However, that seems to be the thing with Primate: it’s one of those films where, if you don’t think about the story too much, you can enjoy it. The film is simply carried by the bloody action, which is made very clear from the opening kill. The pacing of the film also keeps things quickly moving, barely giving room for some of those beats to hit just right. Although there are some things that are happily kept, including the brief moments of family bonding between Lucy, Erin, and their father, those elements only create a small foundation that has a lot of further potential.
Primate does its job in being an entertaining and gory horror film to welcome the new year with enough space to explore that idea of communication and connection.
Primate is now playing in theaters.
Rating: ★★★½
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Christopher Gallardo is a freelance entertainment writer and critic. While not running The Reel Roller, Chris can be found writing reviews and breakdowns on all things films and TV. Outside of entertainment writing, he’s currently taking classes for a Bachelor’s of Science with a minor in Digital Media & Journalism. Plus, he loves Percy Jackson, animated films and shows, and Fallout! Follow Christopher on Instagram & X.