Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | Film | January 12, 2026
There is not much to the plot of Primate. It is Cujo with a monkey and a bigger body count. That’s it. That’s the movie. Storywise, the most interesting thing about it, honestly, is how the film manages to separate a bunch of college kids from their phones while they are under attack from a rabies-infested ape. Writer and director Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down) smartly makes that problem central to the plot. Much of the movie is spent watching the characters attempt to evade the killer monkey while also trying to reach their cell phones, which are scattered around or charging in various rooms of an isolated home built into the side of an oceanside cliff.
The cast is made up mostly of unknowns, with the notable exception of Troy Kotsur (CODA), a deaf actor whose inability to hear is cleverly and effectively woven into the action. The CGI ape is serviceable but never especially convincing. There is nothing particularly remarkable about the production values, the performances, or the screenplay.
But it is gnarly.
A movie does not need to be inventive or original to be effective, and Primate is effective as hell, largely because of the kills. This rabid monkey does not mess around. The ape is a full-on psycho, and simple kills are not part of its skill set. It seems committed to making every death as violent and bloody as possible, and the key to the movie’s grisly success is the sound design. When a woman fleeing Ben, the pet ape who contracts rabies from a mongoose, tumbles down a flight of stairs, you hear every bone break. When Ben repeatedly smashes her skull with a rock, you hear the skull crack. You hear the brain matter splatter. It is rough.
And also, great.
The violence is so sudden and visceral that it is hard not to recoil or flinch, as though the movie screen itself were attacking you. Is it scary? Not really. Are there a few decent jump scares? Sure. Mostly, though, the movie is crunchy. Watching Primate feels a little like getting punched in the face, in a good way. Once it gets going, and the first 40 minutes of setup are a little tiresome, it becomes an all-out assault on your eyes and ears. You see the violence, but you hear it, too.
And this is why Gen X still shows up for horror movies in droves. Films like Primate are not just movies; they are experiences best enjoyed with an audience. Skip the fancy recliner seats. Find a packed theater where you are forced to share space with strangers. It is a blast if you have the stomach for it.
