Primate: Movie Review

Cast: Johnny Seqouyah, Troy Kotsur, Jessica Alexnader, Victoria Wyant, Gia Hunter, Benjamin Cheng, Miguel Torres Umba
Director: Johannes Roberts

Primate sets out its stall in its opening moments.

As a vet walks into a chimp enclosure, he's guided to a darkened part of it where an unknown force awaits...

Johannes Roberts' creature horror mixes elements of horror and odd moments of comedy, but in truth, it's a lack of development in the human side of things which proves to be a minor flaw in a largely enjoyable but forgettable ride that leaves it feeling lesser than it could.

As Lucy (Johnny Seqouyah) returns to her Hawaii home after the death of her animal linguistics mother, family tensions are strained. Her deaf father (Troy Kotsur) is obsessed with his book career rather than his family; her sister is distant, and the family ape Ben (yes, really) is about to have a really bad day after a mongoose bite.

Coupled with the fact a group of friends are at their home for the holidays, things go south quickly when it's clear Ben (Umba) has rabies and turns on them all, trapping them and leaving them fighting for their lives...

As the carnage picks up, the director makes great fist of the fact that Ben can't communicate (outside of a device which at one point, he uses to taunt them with the word 'dead' being repeatedly said) and becomes a killing machine that's mute in the vein of the shape from Halloween. (In fact the soundtrack seems to channel that iconic score in parts.)

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But as with some horror films, you're not here for the character development and while there are a few moments of the cast doing stupid things, the kills are particularly brutal and viciously executed - even though a lack of depth prevents you directly caring.

However, there's a commitment to the atmosphere and an impressive continuation of a killer that can't be reasoned with or stopped which makes Primate effective in the moment in cinema.

Embracing the horror genre tropes and a terrific scene from a deaf point of view that is chilling in its execution, Primate proves it's not just here to ape around with horror conventions - it's here to deliver some killer blows too.

Primate plays in the Terror-Fi Film Festival in Cheistchurch, before a New Zealand-wide release on January 22, 2026.