'Primate' Review: Paramount Comes Out Swinging in 2026 with Wild Horror Flick About a Nightmare Pet Chimp – Democratic Accent

'Primate' Review: Paramount comes out swinging in 2026 with wild horror flick about a nightmare pet chimp – Democratic Accent

January has a reputation for being a bad month at the movies. After a crowded theatrical window during the holiday season, January is the time for bottom-of-the-barrel releases and big screen gambles that frequently result in box office bombs. Which is why Paramount’s “Primate” will catch many by surprise, particularly horror fans. Set in beautiful Hawaii, the film centers around Ben (Miguel Torres Umba), a hyper-intelligent chimpanzee who was t…

Primate’s delightful gore weighed down by screenplay missteps

“I break out of prisons for a living.” “Godzilla’s hurting people, and we don’t know why!” Now, joining that pantheon of inexplicable movie lines is Primate’s one-sentence explanation for Lucy’s (Johnny Sequoyah) wealthy family having a pet chimpanzee. Nick (Benjamin Cheng) explains to Hannah (Jessica Alexander) that Lucy’s deceased mom was “researching breakthroughs in human and chimp communication.” Can you get a degree for that at Columbia? A…

‘Primate’ Director Breaks Down the Tension and Real-Life Inspiration for Ben The Chimpanzee

Some horror films aim to shock. Primate wants to keep you uneasy long before anything goes wrong. In an interview with Gayety, the film’s director unpacked the choices behind Primate’s sustained tension, its throwback horror DNA, and the real-life incident that informed one of the movie’s most unsettling sequences. The result is a creature feature that favors dread over excess and restraint over spectacle. A Homecoming Gone Wrong Set against the…

‘Primate’ Review: Old-School Animal Attack Horror Is a Breath of Fresh Air

Paramount Pictures Primate is a gruesome crowd-pleaser packed with old-school brutality, balanced out by just enough silliness and camp to keep things fun and moving right along. It’s the kind of horror movie that understands exactly what it is without apology or sacrifice. In a genre moment that can feel overloaded with dour trauma allegories and metaphor-first storytelling, this was some much-needed and well-timed pulpy, nasty mayhem. Personal…

Movie Fans Aren't Prepared For 2026's First Truly Nasty Horror Villain

2026 is just getting started, but Johannes Roberts' creature feature Primate has already delivered a truly sadistic horror villain.