{"id":73794,"date":"2025-09-19T17:34:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T17:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/73794\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T17:34:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T17:34:07","slug":"weve-seen-primate-the-first-big-horror-movie-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/73794\/","title":{"rendered":"We’ve Seen ‘Primate,’ the First Big Horror Movie of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve seen into the future. Each January, Hollywood provides a few horror movies<\/a> to kick off the new year and, in 2026, one of those movies is Primate. It\u2019s a down-and-dirty, sub-90-minute horror movie about a killer chimpanzee starring Oscar winner Troy Kotsur<\/a>, which just had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2025<\/a>. And, we think, slotting it in early January is perfect because the film meets, but doesn\u2019t quite exceed, expectations.<\/p>\n

Directed by Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City), Primate is an original story about a family who has a pet chimpanzee. Really, just saying that kind of tells you exactly what to expect because clearly it\u2019s such a terrible idea (owning a chimp, not making a movie about it). Even so, things seem okay. The oldest daughter, Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah), comes home to Hawaii after being away and is excited to spend time with her father (Kotsur) and little sister. She also brings a few friends along for the trip and even meets a few party guys on the plane back. The stage is set for an epic return to the island.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Lucy reconnects with the family\u2019s pet chimp, Ben (played at times in a suit by Miguel Torres Umba). For a wild animal who lives in their home, Ben seems nice enough. Thanks to their late mother, Ben has been with them for years. He\u2019s loving, playful, and communicative. Just another member of the family. What they don\u2019t count on, though, is Ben catching rabies, which is when all hell breaks loose.<\/p>\n

By the time that happens, Primate has taken more than its fair share of time to set up these characters, Ben included. We know Mom died of cancer. We know Lucy cut herself off to deal with the grief. We know Dad threw himself into his work, etc. There\u2019s a lot to explore there, but the movie takes such a drastic shift in tone and narrative that almost all of that is largely forgotten. It\u2019s jarring, but thankfully, that drastic shift in tone from summer drama to intense, violent killer animal movie works because Roberts really puts all his attention into that second part.<\/p>\n

To keep things focused, Primate keeps all of the action isolated to the family home. And, for a large part of that, it\u2019s even more centralized around the pool area. Having those focal points makes the action feel very grounded and suspenseful. Just when you think there isn\u2019t a new way for Ben to terrorize the characters, he finds one. The kills, of which there are many, are exceedingly gross and satisfying, too. Which, in turn, works to take the at-first sweet, cute, sympathetic Ben character and make him the monster he needs to be. At the start, it\u2019s easy to feel bad for the sick animal, but once he starts ripping people\u2019s faces off, all bets are off. It also helps a lot that the creature was brought to life using mostly physical effects. That gives the movie a nice, nostalgic feel, even though it\u2019s clearly modern.<\/p>\n

Plus, because chimpanzees are so smart\u2014and Ben in particular, since he\u2019s been largely domesticated\u2014Primate\u00a0has a welcome level of unpredictability. Now, it\u2019s not hugely surprising at any point. It mostly follows basic horror movie tropes, such as characters making bad decisions, wild coincidences happening, etc., which can get a little frustrating and repetitive. But because the killer is this rabid, yet smart, animal, there are some fun and unique moments peppered throughout that keep things propulsive.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, while Primate isn\u2019t without flaws, it works more than it doesn\u2019t. It\u2019s a little basic, a little underbaked, but it keeps you engaged. It also helps that it\u2019s paced well at under 90 minutes. No one is doing career-defining work here either, but they don\u2019t have to. The performances fit the story, the kills are gory, and overall, you feel like you\u2019re watching something that\u2019s just fun enough. It\u2019s an average horror movie, but coming out in that usually underwhelming January release window, average is good enough. It\u2019ll be a fun way to kick off next year.<\/p>\n

Primate had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2025 and will open wide on January 9, 2026.<\/p>\n

\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019ve seen into the future. Each January, Hollywood provides a few horror movies to kick off the new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[18,117,39444,19,17,50470,327,46168,50471],"class_list":{"0":"post-73794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-fantastic-fest","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-johannes-roberts","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-primate","16":"tag-troy-kotsur"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}