The movie Primate is a 2025 American natural horror film about a family’s adopted chimpanzee, Ben, who becomes rabid and turns a tropical vacation into a bloody fight for survival.

Core premise

  • Primate follows Lucy, a college student returning to her family’s modern home in Hawaii for the summer, where she reunites with her deaf father Adam, her sister, and their unusually domesticated chimpanzee, Ben.
  • When Ben is bitten by a rabid animal, his gentle behavior abruptly shifts into uncontrollable aggression, trapping Lucy, her friends, and her family in and around the house and its pool as they struggle to survive the night.

What the movie is “about”

  • On the surface, the film is a creature -feature throwback: “chimp gets rabies, chimp goes on a rampage,” with a straightforward, goal‑driven survival plot rather than a deep character drama.
  • Thematically, it taps into fears about trying to domesticate wild animals, the illusion of control in wealthy, glass‑box homes, and how quickly affection for a “pet” can flip into terror when nature reasserts itself.

Tone, style, and violence

  • The tone leans into mean, high-energy horror: reviewers describe it as a “January schlock” crowd‑pleaser with a Carpenter‑like score, nasty set pieces, and a relentless animal‑attack vibe.
  • The violence is very graphic, with reviews highlighting jaw‑ripping, face‑tearing, and increasingly gruesome kills that are designed to shock and energize a theater audience.

How the story plays out (spoiler‑lite)

  • After Ben turns violent, the kids end up barricaded around the property and especially in the pool area, trying small step‑by‑step plans to reach phones, tools, or escape routes, each plan escalating the chaos.
  • Communication is a recurring device: Adam uses ASL, the family signs with Ben, and sound (or the lack of it) becomes a tension tool as they try to stay quiet, outthink the animal, and survive until help might arrive.

Release and “latest news” angle

  • Primate is directed by Johannes Roberts and stars Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander, and Troy Kotsur; it premiered at Fantastic Fest in September 2025 and received a theatrical release in early 2026.
  • Early critical and forum reactions describe it as a fun, nasty, if somewhat simple animal‑attack slasher that delivers on its premise for horror fans who want a bloody, high‑energy theater experience.