Paramount Pictures invites audiences to confront their most instinctive fears with Primate, the latest film from acclaimed genre filmmaker Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down, The Strangers: Prey at Night). Set for South African theatrical release on 30 January 2026, Primate delivers a ferocious, emotionally grounded horror experience that transforms paradise into a pressure cooker of dread.
Returning home to Hawaii after her first year of college, Lucy Pinborough hopes for a restorative break surrounded by friends, family and familiar comforts. The Pinborough home is a modern cliffside sanctuary overlooking the ocean, secluded and seemingly idyllic. With her father away on business, Lucy reunites with her younger sister Erin, close friends Hannah, Kate and Nick, and Ben, the family’s cherished chimpanzee who has been raised alongside the girls since infancy.
But something is wrong. Ben’s once gentle, almost human presence begins to shift. His behaviour grows erratic, aggressive and frighteningly unpredictable. As Lucy slowly realises that Ben is no longer the animal she grew up with, the house that once represented safety becomes a trap and the line between love and survival begins to fracture.
Starring Johnny Sequoyah as Lucy, Jessica Alexander, Victoria Wyant, Gia Hunter and Benjamin Cheng, with Academy Award® winner Troy Kotsur delivering a deeply affecting performance as the family patriarch, Primate balances relentless suspense with genuine emotional weight. At its core, the film explores grief, fractured families and the devastating consequences of misplaced trust, making its horror feel unsettlingly real.
Produced by Walter Hamada (It, The Conjuring), alongside John Hodges and Bradley Pilz, Primate represents a deliberate return to tactile, practical filmmaking. Roberts made the bold creative choice to prioritise in-camera effects over digital shortcuts, enlisting world-renowned effects house Millennium FX to create a full practical chimp suit brought to life through an extraordinary physical performance. The result is a creature that feels disturbingly present, grounding the terror in physical reality rather than spectacle.
Roberts has described Primate as his most personal and intense film to date, drawing inspiration from classic creature features such as Cujo, where horror emerges not from the supernatural but from situations that feel horrifyingly plausible. The film blends the DNA of a creature movie with the stalking menace of a slasher, creating a hybrid that is both thrilling and deeply unsettling.
Visually, Primate contrasts sun-drenched luxury with encroaching menace. Shot on meticulously crafted sets, the film uses space, silence and confinement to build tension, turning open-plan architecture and pristine swimming pools into sites of sustained terror. The sound design and score further heighten the unease, amplifying the sense that danger is never out of reach.
More than a blood-soaked thrill ride, Primate is a film about the terror of familiarity turned hostile. It asks an unsettling question: what happens when the thing you love most becomes the thing that hunts you?
With its commitment to practical effects, powerhouse performances and Roberts’ unmistakable command of tension, Primate promises a harrowing theatrical experience designed to be felt collectively in the dark.
Primate opens in South African cinemas nationwide on 30 January 2026.