To kick off Fantastic Fest 2025, I got to chat with the team behind next years Primate, a horror film following a group of friends at the mercy of a rabies infested monkey.
Speaking with director Johannes Roberts:
1428 Elm: So to start, is there a particular reason you wanted to write a film like this?
ROBERTS: I love dangerous situations. Love to put a group of people through the most extreme situation and see how they will deal with that situation. And there couldn't be a more extreme situation than what I put my characters through on this. So that was that was the real challenge. But, really, to be honest, the idea of creating this nightmare but doing it without visual effects, without, like, CGI, but doing building it and doing all practical stuff, that was a pretty big challenge, and so I was kind of like, yeah. Okay. Bring it on to do something.
1428 Elm: I love that. And I love what you said about putting people to the worst because one of my favorite films from yours is The Strangers Prey at Night and that you put that family through absolute hell.
ROBERTS: Thank you I appreciate it.
1428 Elm: Kind of a sillier question, this movie is all about outsmarting and surviving against a rabid animal. Is there any particular animal you feel you could win in a fight against if it had rabies and you needed to protect yourself?
ROBERTS: I reckon a cat, a rabid cat and me. I think we'd win. I yeah. I don't think you're winning against a primate. But a smaller one. You know? I reckon a good kick. I'd probably take out a weasel or something. But I I'm not very good at surviving.
1428 Elm: Well, I think the odds are in your favor on that one. My money's on you.
ROBERTS: Yes.
1428 Elm: Do you have a particularly favorite monkey from a movie or TV show?
ROBERTS: Do you know what? I I have I've watched them all. I quite like Monkey Shines. I like that, I find a pretty creepy movie and Any Which Way but Loose is always great.
1428 Elm: I ask because monkeys have been used in horror infamously.
ROBERTS: Yeah. Yeah. Hell, yeah. I mean, there's a lot of bad monkey horrors.
1428 Elm: Lot of evil monkeys running around that are got to be taken care of. Now to wrap it up, is there something from one of your previous films that you specifically took and brought into this one?
ROBERTS: There's a lot of water in this one, and I had a lot of fun in, obviously, on the 47 (Meters Down) movies doing underwater and on The Strangers specifically, doing the swimming pool sequence, and there's a lot of swimming pool in this. So, yeah, there's definitely elements that have come from that into this.
1428 Elm: Again, that's a huge Prey at Night fan. I think I think the pool scene is one of the best horror sequences in the last decade or so. So that makes me very excited.
ROBERTS: Yeah. Good.
1428 Elm: Well, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today.
ROBERTS: Yeah. You too, man. Perfect. Thank you
I was also able to speak with the films stars, Johnny Sequoyah and Troy Kotsur.
KOTSUR: Nice to meet you. And where are you from?
1428 Elm: Oh, Dallas here in Texas, it's nice to meet you as well, sir. So to start, are there any aspects from your previous characters that you took to bring to this one?
KOTSUR: Well, originally, the script was written for a hearing actor, and then they decided to change it for an actor who happens to be deaf. So I thought that was really cool. And and I always like playing a hero, and I'm a father myself. And so this father is trying to save his family. And so I'm sure all fathers feel responsibility to save their family, and I pulled from that for my character. And, you know, my character in the film is a writer similar to Stephen King. And so, you know, imagine you're a busy writer with a busy life, and you're trying to reconnect with your family and your daughters. And you're trying to take care of business at the same time, but then all of a sudden, the situation arises, and you really have to protect your family
1428 Elm: Wow. Can I say, as a writer, I absolutely love that.
KOTSUR: You're next.
1428 Elm: Hopefully, I don't want any monkeys chasing after me. I'm going to wrap up with kind of a sillier question. This movie is all about outsmarting and surviving against a rabid animal. Is there any particular animal you feel you could win in a fight against if need be?
KOTSUR: Mongoose. I could beat the Mongoose.
1428 Elm: Okay. I like those odds. My money's on you beating the Mongoose.
KOTSUR: No one can beat a human, you know, without a question. For that kind of animal and that kind of behavior, I think any type of small animal where I'm about quadruple its size.
1428 Elm: That's wonderful. Well, thank you so much. I hope you have a great, festival.
Interview with Sequoyah:
1428 Elm: So to start, is was there a particular aspect of the script that made you want to take this on?
SEQUOYAH: Yeah. I mean, I had never done a horror film. So I think that was really appealing to me because I think it's such a different experience for an actor than most projects. You really get to experience every range of emotion. And so I, of course, was really intrigued by that, but I also just really connected with Lucy as a character. I feel like she's definitely a black sheep kind of in her in her world, and I tend to feel like that as Johnny. So I think there was a lot of ways that I connected with her. And I really liked seeing her journey throughout the story of dealing with grief. She's just lost her mother at the beginning of the film. And so seeing her kind of finding her strength towards the end, I think it's a really
1428Elm: I love that. Everyone loves a good character arc .Do you consider yourself a big horror movie fan?
SEQUOYAH: Yeah. I well, I feel like I'm more into psychological thrillers. In terms of the horror genre my favorite horror films are The Shining and Misery. Like, those are kind of the things that I tend to lean towards as a horror fan.
1428 Elm: For horror fans out there, describe primate in one word.
SEQUOYAH: I mean, bananas. Am allowed to say that?
1428 Elm: Yeah. I think so.
SEQUOYAH: I would also say it's a it's a excuse my French. It's a f***ing roller coaster.
1428Elm: Okay. Yeah, I haven't seen anything about I'm going in totally blind. So I'm hearing all this chitchat in on the red carpet today, and now I'm counting the minutes until the screening.
SEQUOYAH: Close your eyes and your ears. It's violent.
1428 Elm: Well, I'm excited. One last question to wrap it up. Do you have a favorite monkey from a movie or TV show?
SEQUOYAH: I grew up with Curious George. So I feel like I also grew up with, like, Dora the Explorer, so I feel like they were, like, very sweet monkeys. Nothing like this.
1428 Elm: Yeah. Nothing like this. I was talking to Johannes, and I mentioned, there's a lot of evil monkeys in horror. Like Monkey Shines and The Monkey from earlier this year.
1428 Elm: Those are my favorite scenes in the film right there. It's because they were the scariest. Gordy was scarier than the alien.
SEQUOYAH: Wow, you know his name.
1428 Elm: Yeah.
SEQUOYAH: I think that there's something very scary about it because it is literally the most primal part of ourselves. And so you're dealing with something that is completely unpredictable, but also has the intelligence, you know, that we stem from. So there's something very fascinating about them. They're very sad yet Terrifying.
1428 Elm: I'm excited for the movie.
SEQUOYAH: I'm so excited for you to see it.
Primate is tentatively set to release in theaters January 9th, 2026. Stay tuned for our review as well as more Fantastic Fest coverage.