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Primate poster

Film · 2025

Primate

Directed by Johannes Roberts · starring Victoria Wyant, Charlie Mann and Johnny Sequoyah

  • 1 h 29 min
  • 18
  • Horror
  • UKUSA
  • Released in the UK 29 January 2026
  • 6.8 AverageMovieNCo
  • 5.6 Users1 vote
  • 8.0 Critics1 review
Where to watch Rate it

Synopsis

After returning from university to spend a few days at her family home, Lucy tries to readjust to a routine that no longer fully belongs to her. The reunion includes her parents, old neighborhood friends, and Ben, the chimpanzee who has been part of the family since she was a child: a strange but normalized presence, treated more like an eccentric member than a wild animal. To celebrate Lucy's return, they organize a pool party that soon becomes a turning point. During the night, Ben contracts rabies, unleashing a rapid and brutal transformation.

The next morning, the chimpanzee becomes unpredictable, violent, and lethal, shattering any illusion of human control over him. Trapped in the pool area—the only open space that still offers some visibility and defense—Lucy and a small group of friends are forced to improvise a precarious enclosure while the rest of the house turns into hostile territory. The water, garden furniture, and everyday objects transform into survival tools.

As the hours pass, the chimpanzee's siege not only tests their physical ingenuity but also the emotional tensions and bonds among them. Animal terror mixes with guilt, responsibility, and the uncomfortable question of the limits of domestication. In that enclosed space, Lucy must confront both the immediate threat of Ben and the awareness that the danger was always there, ignored out of habit and affection.

Where to watch Primate

All the options

Available now in the UK:

Availability checked on 8 November 2026.

The essentials

Runtime
89 min1 hour and 29 minutes
Budget
$21m18hz production
Box office
$25.1m1.2 times its budget
Rating
18Suitable only for adults
How long is Primate?
1 hour and 29 minutes (89 minutes).
When was Primate released in the UK?
It was released in the UK on 29 January 2026.
Who directed Primate?
Johannes Roberts.
Who is in Primate?
It stars Victoria Wyant, Charlie Mann, Johnny Sequoyah and Jess Alexander.
Where can I watch Primate?
In the UK it is available with a subscription on Paramount+ and with a channel on Apple TV and a channel on Now.
How much did Primate make?
It took $25.1 million in US. It cost $21 million.
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Cast

Full cast (15)
Director
Johannes Roberts
Writers
Johannes Roberts
Producers
Johannes Roberts

Photos and posters

All 10 photos

Reviews

All 3 reviews
5.6 1 vote

What the critics say 8.0, from one outlet

  • 8.0 The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/profile/benjamin-lee-film "There’s a great deal of unpretentious B-movie fun to be had in this brief, brutal and slickly made creature feature". Read
  • The WrapWilliam Bibbiani "Johannes Roberts’ excellent, ultraviolent thriller with Oscar winner Troy Kotsur goes totally bananas". Read
  • Los Angeles TimesAmy Nicholson "I’m not foaming at the mouth over the death of cinema or what have you. Honestly, “Primate’s” kills are great. The problem is the dead space between them when we realize we’re bored sick". Read

Box office

Weekend by weekend
  • Budget $21m
  • US $25.1m
  • UK £1.1m

Trivia

All 7 facts

  • Hawaii

    Hawaii is the only state in the US where there is no rabies.

  • Illegal

    It is actually illegal to own a pet chimpanzee in Hawaii.

  • Practical effects

    The chimp effects in the movie are mostly practical, director Johannes Roberts said: Ben is played by an actor, Miguel Torres Umba, and the filmmaking team used prosthetics and puppetry to make him into a convincing, frightening animal. "We did build all these animatronics, sculpts and stuff there's like a million different things we used there. If any of you have seen a behind-the-scenes of Cujo, seen all the different varieties of things that happened on that, [it's] that kind of thing. I could go on for ages about how the different crazy things we bought, but for me, the big thing was, he had to have a personality. I wanted, in a sense, almost Freddy Krueger."

  • Troy Kotsur

    Troy Kotsur confirmed that he asked Johannes (the director) to conceal the prop of a character's mutilated corpse until shooting so his reaction would be genuine.

  • Deaf

    Troy Kotsur, who plays Lucy's deaf father Adam, is himself deaf.

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