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Chimpanzees look cute and act funny, right? You might not think so after seeing Paramount Pictures’ Primate, which debuted on opening night of the 20th anniversary of Fantastic Fest.
The film festival, which calls Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin home, holds the distinction of being the nation’s largest genre-film festival. Its 20th edition featured horror, sci-fi, fantasy, restored classics, and documentaries about those genres and their filmmakers and stars.
And opening night did not disappoint.
Ben Can Bite
The first theatrical showing of Primate before a public audience must have made the filmmakers happy. I was surprised and impressed by several aspects of the film, as were other audience members I spoke with. Main question: Can a chimpanzee be scary? In the case of the chimp in this film, named Ben, a big yes to that.
Directed by Johannes Roberts, the film stars Johnny Sequoyah (Dexter: New Blood) as Lucy and Academy Award winner Troy Kotsur (CODA) as her father, Adam.
Lucy returns home from college on summer break to visit her dad. Adam, however, is called away for a professional obligation, so Lucy, her older brother, and a couple of her friends decide to hold a pool party at the empty house. Unbeknownst to them, something has happened to Ben, and he has turned dangerous, trapping them in the pool.
Scary? You Bet!
Two things make this film special.
During the Q&A after the film, Troy Kotsur shared some interesting information about the evolution of the story.
Kotsur, who won the 2022 Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Oscar for CODA, is the first deaf actor to win an Oscar. He explained that in the script for Primate, the father character was not originally deaf. This aspect of the character was added and, as you’ll appreciate when you see this film, having a screaming, bloodthirsty threat behind you that you cannot hear adds most effectively to the terror.
The second aspect of the film that adds to its frightening nature: believability. The film does follow quite closely to the screenplay-writing expectations for this type of film. If you’ve ever studied screenwriting manuals from Save the Cat, you’ll watch the film and think, “Oh, yeah, Monster in the House.” A couple of times I anticipated what was going to happen next.
But despite this, because the sequence of events is completely plausible, it scares you. There are no witches, no ghosts, no voodoo. Everything that happens could happen. Twice I found myself gripping my backpack on my lap tightly because of fright. I later shared this with another attendee at Fantastic Fest and he said that he felt the same kind of fear-induced tension.
Show Me the Chimp
Paramount Pictures’ sharing of Primate at Fantastic Fest was its first showing before a public audience. The film premieres in theaters in January 2026.
For information about next year’s Fantastic Fest, check their social media on Facebook, their X page, and Instagram .
