Film Review: Primate
Something's Wrong With Ben
INTRODUCTION
This is a quick review of the newly released film Primate. Please note that this is just one of the many movies I will have watched each year, and my initial grade for this film may change over time, for better or worse. To stay up to date on my thoughts about other movies and any potential changes in my opinion on this one, follow me on Letterboxd.
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PLOT
Via Letterboxd: Home from college, Lucy reunites with family, including pet chimp Ben. Ben contracts rabies during a pool party and turns aggressive. Lucy and friends barricade in the pool, devising ways to survive the vicious chimp.
REVIEW
I’ve always found it a bit bizarre when a new film year begins and I realize that my entire slate for ranking movies and performances has completely reset; especially given that we’re still right smack in the middle of awards season, as films from the year you’ve technically said goodbye to are still getting their flowers. But it’s also exciting to wipe the slate clean and not have to compare the same movies to one another, or carry over the same judgments about how the year in film seems to be shaping up.
2026 kicks off for me with a new creature-feature horror flick from frequent genre director Johannes Roberts, Primate. As you might’ve guessed from the title, the film’s subject and “monster” is a primate, mainly a pet chimp named Ben. I couldn’t help but wonder how much the Gordy subplot from Nope played a role in this film’s conception, but to be fair, it also feels like a direct homage to Cujo, except instead of a broken-down car, the bottleneck centers around a pool hanging on the edge of a cliff.
If you know me, you know how much of a fan I am of creature features. I just wrapped up a weeks-long rollout of revised countdowns of my favorite films from each year in the 2020s, and there’s plenty of creature-feature representation in those lists. So while the first film of the year, almost always a horror flick, very rarely ends up being a strong start, I was kinda’ hopeful this would be an outlier, especially given some of the glowing reviews and the buzz it picked up coming out of film festivals late last year.
Well, now that I’ve seen it, and I may be in the minority here, I can’t say I was a fan of Primate. The concept on paper is intriguing, the film does genuinely have some cool creature-feature moments, the gore can absolutely make you wince in your seat, and the score is incredibly eerie, instantly starting the year off right when it comes to film music in 2026. Troy Kotsur also shows up as our protagonist’s father, which was fun to see, especially after his Oscar win.
That said, I’d be lying if I claimed I felt much of anything for these characters. It wasn’t even that I found them particularly unlikable, they just came off as complete blank slates with no real dimension beyond whatever role they were meant to serve. You’ve got the “final girl” who keeps surviving things other characters don’t, her sister who constantly needs protecting, the jock guys who are served up to the chimp in ways that felt extremely contrived, the best friend who you just know is going to keep putting herself in danger solely to keep the protagonist safe, and the unlikable girl you’re clearly supposed to find annoying and patiently wait to see get hers.
The plot itself is carried by so many contrivances that it repeatedly took me out of the movie. I found myself rolling my eyes at how events would play out in ways that felt overly predictable, forced, or clearly engineered just to keep the story moving and stretch it to feature length. The horror and gore have their moments, but there were times where it crossed into territory that felt like shock for shock’s sake.
Ultimately, what you end up with is a creature feature that has a solid concept, a strong score that sets the mood, and occasional glimpses of the movie I was hoping this would be. Unfortunately, the writing is paper-thin, the characters lack depth, and the story beats are so contrived that I left my screening feeling more underwhelmed than not. I give Primate an initial grade of C+.
“TL;DR”
Pros: An incredibly haunting and creepy score; Some great creature feature effects when it comes to the chimp; Nice to see Troy Kotsur in a major film role again
Cons: Characters are completely blank slates; The horror ratches up gore in a way that came off like shocking for shock’s sake; The entire runttim’s events feel very contrived, specifically the third act
GRADING
Nice review. The Hawaii backdrop felt like window dressing, and it was shot in a visually flat manner apart from some nice neon coloring. Pretty underwhelming tbh.