Primate is directed by Johannes Roberts director of The Other Side Of The Door (2016), 47 Meters Down (2017), The Strangers: Prey At Night (2018), 47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019), Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City (2021) and a few others. 

Primate is a very solid start to 2026 when it comes to theatrical released films, it’s a very simple killer animal film with a very mean edge to it that helps it stand out. Combine that with a fantastic synth score that is very John Carpenter like and some gnarly kills with decent acting and you have yourself a quite fun experience. 

The performances are solid, not everyone here sticks the landing but Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander and Troy Kotsur do great here. Even with the limited screentime Kotsur has he is still able to leave this connection to the viewer which makes you care about his care. Sequoyah and Alexander are fun here as well, there is not a whole lot going on here in the character writing department. But the film does make up for it by stacking up what follows. 

Primate’s secret weapon is its gnarly kills and its beautiful 80s like synth score. Starting with the kills they are quite brutal from the opening scene all the way to end, have this extra sense of darkness added to them due to Ben the chimpanzee being unpredictable. Much like in real life chimpanzees are very unpredictable, making this all the more haunting and shrouded in this air of mystery of what’s going to happen or what is he going to do? Of course if you have seen any killer animal film you probably do know what’s going to happen, but even then, it still works in the film’s favor simply due to how much the kills show the brutality of it all. 

The score is what makes this film so effective, it’s a synth 80s score that feels very John Carpenter like and it compliments the film’s atmosphere wonderfully. The score is from Adrian Johnston who funnily enough also did the score for one of director Johannes Roberts previous films The Strangers: Prey At Night (2018). Which also had a wonderful score that fit the atmosphere, Johnston does that again here with Primate. It has that feel of 80s B movies you would catch on a random tv channel, when you combine the score with the film’s atmosphere and suspenseful moments you get some truly fascinating results that end up being a ton of fun. 

The film does admittedly take a bit to get going, there are definitely some scenes here that the film could have easily went without using. However that does not take away from the film’s buildup and atmosphere that never takes you out of the film, you can almost overlook the film taking a bit to get going simply due to it’s atmosphere feeling dark and rich. 

Overall Primate is a fun time, it’s got the kills, score and acting to back it up. Plus Ben the chimpanzee is fun here as well. 

Primate is currently in theaters. 

7/10 B