Director Johanne Roberts (The Strangers: Prey at Night, 47 Meters Down) is back with an intense new horror film, and I had the honor of attending the premiere at Fantastic Fest this week. Primate follows a group of friends staying at remote mansion for a summer pool party and reunion, when their pet chimp develops rabies and goes on an unhinged and violent killing spree, turning a tropical vacation into a nightmare of survival. The film stars Johnny Sequoyah, Troy Kotsur, Gia Hunter, Victoria Wyant, Jessica Alexandar and Benjamin Cheng as the victims at the mercy of the rabid pet chimp known as Benny. The film was written by Johannes Roberts and Ernest Riera (47 Meters Down, Nowhere, The Other Side of the Door) and is produced by Walter Hamada (Executive Producer of The Conjuring , IT, and Lights Out) and John Hodges (Night Shift and Cypher).
The film begins with a tense and gnarly opening, that doesn't dare skip on the gore. The message is clear moments this film that this chimp isn't monkeying around, he's out for blood. We then cut to our group of friends setting out for their ideallic summer vacation after a long semester of college, the film plays into all the pre-massacre fanfare of promiscuity, drugs and alcohol in a stint that isn't without its charm. Sequoyah's character brings heart to the film, with her character coming home to her busy author of a father (Troy Kotsure) and her disappointed younger sister (Gia Hunter). Where in many horror films this would be the moment of having to eat your vegetables before getting to the meaty kills, there's some genuine heart here and you can tell the actors have a real familial bond.
One neat anecdote I learned from my red carpet interviews with the cast is that the Kotsure's character was intentionally written to not be deaf but after casting Kotsure, a deaf actor, they wrote in a particular intense and well done scene into the film. This scene ended up being one of my favorites in the film.
When the blood splatter does kick off, it goes for the throat. Over the course of the film we see Benny go from a happy family pet to a merciless killing machine, getting more and more violent and devious to the point of being able to taunt and play with his victims, this film is Cujo on steroids. There's the sad tragic aspect of an innocent animal becoming a violent beast and the intensity that comes with it, but so much more violence.
It's also worth mentioning that this film is darkly comedic. There were more than few moments where our audience erupted with laughter, whether it was nervous laughter or laughs of twisted glee vary from scene to scene. Nonetheless its obvious this film has a funny bone, even if its deep down and covered in blood. I also want to award this film more brownie points after Roberts had told me the film was entirely practical, from the blood and guts to an actor in a chimp suit, this film went the extra mile with practical effects and it pays off.
Another aspect of the film I particularly enjoyed was the score, it was very John Carpenter liked and synth heavy, and was super reminiscent of Roberts 2018 film The Strangers: Prey at Night (my personal favorite film of his), another layer of this being a love letter to classic animal turned monster horror pictures. I also noticed similarities to Roberts other bodies of work, namely the 47 Meters Down films as being in the water plays a massive role in the story, and the cinematography used in these sequences felt like remnants of his work on 47 Meters Down.
Overall, Primate is a bloody and tragic film in the vein of classic animals gone mad exploitation horror of the 70s and 80s. It's got more than enough brutality and blood to satisfy all the gore fans out there and I can count on one hand the moments I wasn't tensed up and on edge, so much tensity you can tear through it in a rabid rage. Don't sleep on this one horror fans, and try to make an effort to watch it with an audience. Afterall, misery loves company, and I can't think of anything more dreadfully miserable than having to survive against a rapid chimpanzee.
Primate is tentatively set to release in theaters on January 9th, 2026.
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