Primate review
Primate monkeys around and ends up delivering the best slasher movie in years.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Primate
Directed by Johannes Roberts
Written by Johannes Roberts and Ernest Riera
Starring Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander, Troy Kotsur, Victoria Wyant, Gia Hunter, Benjamin Chang and Charlie Mann
Primate Review
Following the expected opening kill scene (taken from a point later in the story), Primate nearly sends itself off track immediately. We are, of course, accustomed to filling out the first act of horror films with character introductions and ultimately meaningless banter. Primate has enough of it to make its opening twenty minutes or so a borderline chore to get through. It sets up character drama that you are unlikely to care about. A potential love triangle…tension between our main character and a new friend of a friend…annoying bros met on an airplane. Things that don’t exactly invite you in so much as get you ready for the killing to start in earnest.
It’s at this point that every horror movie, in particular a slasher movie, needs to make a choice. Are you going to make the various character arcs full of iffy dialog and even more questionable reasons to care the centerpiece of your movie? Or are you going to drop most of it and start killing people? I call it the Gremlins-effect. The Joe Dante classic sets up a ton of small town stories in its first act. Nearly every single one stops mattering as soon as the Gremlins are let loose on the town. It’s a brilliant way to signal a massive story change. Set-ups whose punchlines no longer matter because real trouble has arrived.
I’m happy to report that Primate follows that Gremlins roadmap…and it’s all the better for doing so. Not into the budding love triangle drama? Don’t worry. On side of that triangle is going to be thrown to their death long before you expect it to happen. There goes that story. Who has time to worry about that tension between new “friends” when everyone is fighting for their survival? And those annoying party bros? Well…they come back around in a clever fashion. A smart way to introduce characters who we do not care about when the mayhem is hitting its peak. Disposable people brought in just in case you wanted to root for the killer for a while.
That killer is the highlight of Primate. You probably already know that this is a killer chimp movie. What you may not be aware of is just how hard Primate commits to being an out and out slasher movie. It’s wonderful. Ben (the chimp) is bitten by a wild mongoose and contracts rabies. The once loving member of the family goes fully ape-shit and targets every living person he comes across. This includes Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah), returning home for the first time in a while. She’s accompanied by her best friend Kate (Victoria Wyant) and Kate’s new friend Hannah (Jesica Alexander). Lucy’s sister Erin (Gia Hunter) is the first to taste Ben’s wrath…getting bit and putting a ticking clock on getting her help with her rabies infection.
Ben stalks around the beautiful Hawaiian estate Primate is set in like a furry little Jason Voorhees. Scalps, faces and jaws are ripped. His fierce chimp strength bludgeons people to death. Basically, Primate is 80% shockingly effective slasher movie. That first 20% is more than worth wading through to get to what comes afterwards. The movie features some of the best slasher movie scenes in recent memory. Ben is an unstoppable killing machine. The only hope for survival for Lucy and friends is floating in the middle of a pool…because Ben can’t swim. It can only be a temporary solution, of course. There’s that whole Erin has been bitten by a rabid chimpanzee issue to deal with.
Trying to get her help leads to a bloody and fairly relentless night of mayhem. Don’t get too attached to anyone in Primate. Ben doesn’t care about their backstories or character arcs. He’s going to kill everyone he can get his hands on. And it’s glorious.
Academy award winner Troy Kotsur plays Lucy and Erin’s father. He heads out of town on business…but becomes aware that something is deadly wrong with his late wife’s chimp. Primate does some interesting things with his character being deaf. Screams for help go unheard while he makes his way through the home trying to figure out what has been going on in his absence. It’s reminiscent of the famous swimming pool scene from co-writer/director Johannes Roberts The Strangers: Prey at Night. Audio drops in and out depending on whose perspective we are experiencing. It’s a cool touch, and an interesting way to flip a scene upside down. Primate does some other cool things (including the usage of a pretty badass score) to keep the movie as taught and thrilling as possible. Once Ben breaks bad…Primate gets very, very good.
Scare Value
Primate takes an act to get into gear…but when it gets there it truly hums. This is the best slasher movie to come along in a while. Ben is a merciless killer. Fun practical effects and equally fun suspense sequences allow Primate to stake its claim as the first great horror movie of 2026. It’s the film’s commitment to being an unapologetic slasher that gives it its power. Fans of the subgenre will find plenty to enjoy here.
4/5
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