Primate Review

Most people don't have the time, money, or energy to watch many movies, so when you do get a chance to watch something, you want it to be worthwhile. That's why Rotten Tomatoes exists: to give a snapshot of whether a movie is worth your time. But does it always work? I'll be watching all of Rotten Tomatoes’ Certified Fresh movies from this Wikipedia list, and we'll see if these movies are really worth the hype.

Movie 10 of 2026:

Primate, directed by Johannes Roberts, is a horror movie about a chimpanzee named Ben (Miguel Torres Umba) who contracts rabies and goes on a murderous rampage. This is a premise that I felt could go either way, between so wild it's entertaining or so bad that I couldn't stand it. I'd say this had elements of both, but definitely leaned more toward entertaining.

Our protagonist/final girl is Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah), who has returned home to Hawaii with some friends so they can party while her dad, Adam (Troy Kotsur), is on a work trip. I did like how we established right away that Lucy and her sister Erin (Gia Hunter) have felt pretty neglected due to their dad's work schedule and their mom's passing away. It immediately makes sense why they are so attached to Ben, who was studied by their linguist mother and became part of the family. I appreciated that there was more going on with the characters than just wild teenagers wanting to party, although they certainly did like to party.

What really makes this movie memorable is the use of practical effects. The vast majority of the blood and gore effects looked practical, and they were perfectly effective for an R-rated horror movie. What specifically got me was whenever Ben would literally rip someone's face off. If there had been too much CGI, this really would have felt like your typical jump scare schlocky horror, but that attention to detail helped set it apart.

The plot isn't really anything too special. It mostly reminded me of the 2023 movie Slotherhouse, which I suppose isn't a bad thing. It's ridiculous enough that you can put it on with your friends if you want something to laugh and scream at. The acting was fine for what this movie is; however, I do think Oscar-winning Kotsur should be in some more serious films, but I'm sure this was fun to make. It certainly did well at the box office, at least.

I'm a big horror fan, and I honestly probably won't even remember this movie in a week, but I didn't have a bad time watching it. I liked seeing where we were going and what Ben would do next. It doesn't necessarily seem like something that would be as fun on a rewatch, though. The star was definitely the practical effects, and Ben surprisingly looked very good and scary, which is probably because they used an actor instead of CGI. Overall, it won't be the best horror movie of the year, but certainly won't be the worst either.

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 78%

Is it worth the hype?:

This one feels appropriately hyped. While the story was a bit forgettable, the effects certainly weren't lazy. It's about as fun as you would expect a movie like this to be. I probably wouldn't watch it again, but I had an alright time with it. Give it a try if you like silly horror and practical effects, or just watch Slotherhouse.