January is usually a pretty quiet month at the movie theatre; some even say January is where a studio dumps a movie that they have no faith in. I have to be honest, had Primate not been the only new thing at my theatre the weekend I went to see it, I probably would have waited for streaming. This is most certainly one of those cases where the trailer pretty much sums up what the movie is.
Where to Watch Primate
Primate was released on January 9, 2026. You can expect it to become availanble for streaming on Paramount+.
The Movie Review
Primate is a movie about a killer ape. That right there is pretty much all you need to know about the plot, but it does have a little more complexity than that. Lucy is returning to her home in Hawaii with two of her friends, Kate and Hannah, for a break from school. Her dad is going away for work, so Lucy, Kate, and Hannah are in the house alone, along with Nate, Kate’s brother, and Erin, Lucy’s younger sister.
Meet Ben the Chimpanzee in Primate
Oh, there is one more important person in this family, and that is Ben. Ben is a chimpanzee and a very smart one who has been taught sign language. You can tell from the early scenes with Ben that he has a kind soul, and he is a real part of the family. The friend group is all likable enough, but I never felt all that connected to any of the characters, to be honest with you.
How the Horror Begins
Well, things go off the rails really fast. A mongoose got into Ben’s enclosure, bit him, and this caused Ben to get rabies! Ben starts to get more and more aggressive, and the kids are then in a fight against him for survival. Hey, this is about as predictable as you can get, and if you liked the look of the trailer, I am pretty sure you would have fun here. However, this would be a pretty average kind of movie, except for one major thing that it has going on.
Primate Gore Effects and Horror Highlights
What I am talking about here is the gore. This movie starts with an insane and very gory scene, and it is awesome. There are not tons of these over-the-top gory scenes, but when they happen, they certainly leave an impact. You are pretty much waiting around for the next super gory scene to happen, well, that was the way I was watching the movie anyway. It looked like most of this was practical effects as well, so bravo to the entire special effects staff of this movie, as that alone makes it worth checking out.
Tension, Survival, and Character Reactions
To be fair, in addition to the gore, there are some pretty intense scenes where you truly do feel and fear for the characters. The thing here is that while I did not connect with the characters, you still did not want to see what sadistic kind of death Ben had in store for him… well, kinda, you did also want to see just what gory thing was going to happen next. I think these scenes would have had even more impact if I had connected with the characters more.
Final Thoughts
It is pretty awesome that Primate has been a decent hit, my theatre had a decent turnout, and as I write this, it is still on a few times per day, so it must be doing decently well. If you are stuck for something to watch in January and February, you can certainly do worse than this. If you are reading this and it is already on streaming, 100 percent give it a try, just be warned, you may not want to be eating while you do!
