2026 Primate

• Director: Johannes Roberts
• Writers: Johannes Roberts, Ernest Riera
• Stars (Cast): Johnny Sequoyah, Troy Kotsur, Jessica Alexander, Gia Hunter, Victoria Wyant, Miguel Torres Umba
• Runtime: 89 minutes (1 hour 29 minutes)
• YouTube Link for Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffHBLjOsJ5Y
  

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

When a beloved and tame pet chimpanzee gets rabies, things go bad quickly. It becomes a game of who will survive as a group is trapped and the body count rises. The effects are mostly practical, which is appreciated, though the chimp is an actor in prosthetics most of the time, and it’s not a perfect illusion. There are comparisons to “Cujo,” with people trapped by a rabid animal. The violence is brutal, and the situation is tense. It was pretty good.

Spoilery Synopsis

We get some text explaining about the symptoms of hydrophobia/rabies and that there’s no cure after 48 hours.

Lambert opens a large cage and goes inside to give Ben the ape his snack. Ben’s not feeling well right now and rips the man’s face right off. As credits roll, we see news articles about a famous sign-language-using chimp.

36 hours earlier, Lucy boards a plane to go home for a visit to Hawaii with Kate, Hannah, Nick, and friends. Lucy’s dad will be away at work, so the group starts planning a party. Lucy’s father, Adam, is deaf, and he works with apes for sign-language. Her sister, Erin, is annoyed that Lucy’s been gone for so long. The little chimp, Ben, uses a machine to talk, and he’s very smart.

Hannah visits the pool and runs into Ben, who drools and stares at the water oddly. Adam takes Ben to his cage and finds a dead mongoose in there. He also finds that Ben’s been bitten by the thing.

Night falls, and all the teens do teen things. We get the scene with the man in the cage getting his face ripped off again that night. Kate runs into Ben in the kitchen, and he’s weird and scary now.

Everyone argues about what to do with Ben; Hannah wants to shoot him. They call Lambert and hear his phone ringing up in the enclosure. Ben then takes out a big chunk of Erin’s leg. They all jump in the pool to keep away from the crazy ape, but Erin won’t stop bleeding. Lucy figures out that Ben must have rabies. Soon, they all find themselves trapped in the pool.

The pool is situated on the edge of a cliff, and Nick tries to push Ben over the edge. It’s Nick who ends up going over, and it’s an impossible drop. Lucy tries to get to a dropped phone, but Hannah ends up partially scalped. They do manage to reach the two boys from the airplane on the damaged phone, but they don’t sound like the helpful type. And the phone ends up ruined at the bottom of the pool.

Meanwhile, Adam’s at a book signing and gets word that the mongoose that bit Ben had rabies. He thinks it’s a mistake, since there is no rabies in Hawaii.

The girls find that Ben has gone, so they get out of the pool and head back up to the main house. Lucy and Kate go inside for a phone and accidentally turn on the loud TV, which draws Ben. They hide in a closet and wait for him to go away. They make a run for it, but Ben catches up to Kate and smooshes her head with a rock.

Drew and Brad, the doofuses from the airplane, break in the front door, having no idea anything is going on. Ben hears them immediately, and Drew gives him some lip. Brad doesn’t fare any better. Hannah uses the distraction to grab a phone and car keys and go out the front door. She gets in the wrong car, though, so that’s not good. She calls 911 but doesn’t know the address. Ben, in the meantime, has the keys to her car and lets himself right in.

Meanwhile, Lucy and Erin are still trapped in the pool. Adam, aware that something’s possibly wrong, comes home early. Ben and Lucy fight right behind him, but he doesn’t hear a thing. Eventually, he finds Drew’s body and knows what’s happening.

Ben attacks the two sisters until Adam shows up with his whistle. Adam and Ben have a fistfight, but Ben is nearly unstoppable. Adam stabs the chimp with a broken wine bottle, and things calm down. Of course, Ben gets up and makes one final leap, but ends up dying in the process.

Lucy, Erin, and Adam all go to the hospital. The family who kept an illegal chimp in Hawaii and let it get rabies is fine, but all their innocent guests are dead… So, happy ending, I guess?

Brian’s Commentary

It’s “Cujo” with a chimp and swimming pool instead of a dog and VW. The ape is mostly done with practical effects, but I was surprised at how unrealistic and unexpressive it looked.

I thought the fake looking ape detracted a lot. CGI might actually have been better. Other than that, it used a lot of the usual horror tropes and ideas. It was… alright, but not great.

Kevin’s Commentary

Most of the chimp action is practical effects, which is generally appreciated over CGI. And much of that practical effect is Miguel Torres Umba in prosthetics – which I thought was very good but not perfect. Like Brian said, some top quality CGI, or motion capture like in the “Planet of the Apes” movies, might have been more effective.

It’s a great house, but a pool in a cave with only one way in and out doesn’t seem like a good idea.