I recently had the pleasure of working with Paramount Pictures on Primate at Sky Studios, Elstree.

Primate is a 2025 American natural horror film about an adopted chimpanzee. It is directed by Johannes Roberts, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Ernest Riera. It stars Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander, Victoria Wyant, Gia Hunter, Benjamin Cheng, and Troy Kotsur.

Primate is a small film, set inside of a Hawaii mansion where an author lives with his two children and their monkey, Ben.

Returning home to her family’s remote cliffside mansion, college student Lucy Pinborough expects a relaxing summer with her sister, her father, and their pet chimpanzee, Ben. However, after a chance encounter with a rabid animal, the once-gentle Ben undergoes a terrifying transformation. Trapped within the walls of their high-tech home, the family must outsmart a creature that knows their every move and shares their home, turning a place of safety into a bloody battleground. Right from the opening kill, it’s clear that the film’s effects team isn’t monkeying around. In genre terms, these are kills that exist halfway between a slasher and a zombie. Ben may be insane, but he still possesses a disturbingly cogent intellect.

Primate premiered at the Fantastic Fest and is in cinemas now.