Primate (2025) [Blu-Ray]

Director: Johannes Roberts

Cast: Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander, Troy Kotsur

Release Date: April 21, 2026

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 7.5/10
Disc Rating: 8/10

Synopsis:

Lucy’s tropical island homecoming was supposed to be beaches and best friends—not a fight for her life. When her family’s exceptionally clever chimp spirals into a savage rabid frenzy, the night explodes into terrifying chaos. With her father away and no help coming, paradise becomes a prison as Lucy and her friends fight to survive a deadly predator they once trusted. From the director of 47 METERS DOWN.

‘Primate’ joins Lucy who is returning home after some time away and looking forward to a relaxing weekend in her family’s luxurious home drinking and partying with friends. But when the family’s intelligent chimp is infected and turns rabid, he begins to hunt down and try to attack everyone in sight, leading to a deadly fight for survival in a secluded property with no help available. As the night becomes increasingly deadly, Lucy and her sister and friends must decide if they will wait to die or try to take a stand against the loving family member turned dangerous threat.

Directed by Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down, The Strangers: Prey at Night) from a screenplay written by Johannes Roberts & Ernest Riera (47 Meters Down: Uncaged), Roberts does a capable job at the helm of ‘Primate’ guiding along the brutal and at times shockingly gory thriller. The film’s cast includes Johnny Sequoyah (TV’s Dexter: New Blood), Jessica Alexander (TV’s The Beauty), Troy Kotsur (CODA), Victoria Wyant (TV’s Foundation), Gia Hunter (TV’s Sherlock & Daughter), Benjamin Cheng (in his debut role), Charlie Mann (The Watchers), Tienne Simon (All The Devils Are Here) and Miguel Torres Umba as Ben, with the majority each offering decent and fitting performances for the most part in their roles.

‘Primate’ is a rewardingly simple, intense and entertaining ride with a swift ninety minute runtime that’s in many ways a throwback to similar films from prior decades, with director Johannes Roberts showcasing a clear love of films along the lines of Cujo and doing a terrific job of never allowing it to lose its way or try to become something complex or extravagant. With an appropriately simplistic story and familiar premise it wisely gives fans precisely what they expect and desire while never overstaying its welcome by dragging the movie out unnecessarily.

‘Primate’ also serves up an almost surprisingly gory collection of kills that will have even the genre fans occasionally wincing unexpectedly in response as the chimp rips off faces and jaws just for starters, while utilizing a basic and visually pleasant setting that looks gorgeous and perfectly contradicts the events unfolding with its beauty and calm while the human characters are experiencing just the opposite. ‘Primate’ also benefits from a largely unknown cast of young stars that allow you to step out of the movie and get engaged in their terrifying ordeal and unlike many horror films with largely unknown casts these actors actually deliver capable and solid performances throughout. It all comes together into a simple, brutal and massively enjoyable ride that horror fans should have a blast with.

Overall, ‘Primate’ serves up a tense, entertaining and incredibly gory ride that’s far better than you might think and always manages to keep the tension and chaos unfolding at a fitting speed without making the mistake of trying to make the film into something unnecessarily unique or complex; instead fully investing in the gory and unsettling attacks occurring and never hesitating to get creative and disturbing with the carnage along the way. ‘Primate’ is definitely recommended for any horror fans who enjoy a great throwback to similar nature horror films of previous decades along with anyone that tends to appreciate a simple and brutal ride, with a refreshingly brief ninety minute runtime on top of it. If you’re intrigued and didn’t have the opportunity to catch it in theaters ‘Primate’ is well worth taking the time to check out via a rental or streaming. Those who have seen it and are contemplating a purchase of the Blu-ray release shouldn’t be at all disappointed with the results either.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Primate’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the film’s original 2.39:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks pretty fantastic as a whole and delivers a sharp, clean and nicely detailed presentation from start to finish that’s never plagued by any unexpected issues to be located throughout. Detail is solid on characters, scenery and the more brutal and gory moments, while colors remain clean and sharp with the cool blue of the pool and moonlight looking gorgeous while black levels remain largely rich, deep and problem free. Overall, this is a great high definition presentation that holds up well at every turn and shouldn’t have any trouble satisfying fans or first time viewers.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 channel compatible) soundtrack. Please note that this review pertains solely to the Dolby TrueHD 7.1 audio presentation. This multichannel soundtrack is far from lackluster in its own right and it offers a crisp, clean and frequently immersive audio presentation throughout. It repeatedly takes advantage of all seven available channels in order to send nature and action effects, along with crashing, screams and more throughout the various speakers, and always making certain that any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously remain clean and fully audible. Overall, this is a solid Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 compatible) soundtrack that nicely complements the fun and tension throughout and shouldn’t disappoint.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Primate’ features a handful of entertaining extras including an ‘Audio Commentary with Director Johannes Roberts and Producer Walter Hamada’, along with a collection of Behind the Scenes Featurettes that include interviews/comments with the cast and crew, plus behind the scenes footage and more. The included Featurettes are ‘Primal Terror: Directing Primate’ (running approximately 9 minutes in length), ‘New Blood: The Faces of Primate’ (running approximately 10 minutes), ‘Creating Ben’ (approximately 11 minutes) and ‘Designing Paradise’ (7 minutes).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Film Rating: 7.5/10
Disc Rating: 8/10

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‘Primate’ is Now Available to Own on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from Paramount Home Entertainment

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You can purchase ‘Primate’ on Blu-ray at Amazon HERE!

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