Acclaimed filmmaker Johannes Roberts returns to the director’s chair with a new take on terror as a gentle pet becomes a deadly stalker in Primate. An adrenaline-fueled, terrifying ride packed with old-school thrills, Primate is pure, unforgettable horror at its best.
Primate is directed by Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down, The Strangers: Prey at Night), from a script by Johannes Roberts and Ernest Riera (Nowhere, 47 Meters Down).
Photo Credit: Gareth Gatrell
Filmmaker Johannes Roberts has built a reputation as a master of mayhem in films where killer sharks, zombies, demons, and slashers threaten the innocent and the guilty alike
His latest movie, Primate, promises to be the most shocking, bone-chilling tale he has told thus far, as a group of teens are terrorized when their pet chimp suddenly turns on them. Amping up the visceral terror with old-school, in-camera special effects and jaw-dropping surprises, Roberts is taking horror to new and ever-bloodier heights.
The director and co-writer of Primate calls the movie his love letter to the first horror film he ever saw: Cujo. “For me, it opened up a whole new kind of horror based in real situations, not vampires and monsters,” Roberts explains. “I instinctively understood the way that the director Lewis Teague and the cinematographer Jan de Bont were manipulating the audience — I knew right then that I wanted to direct films like that.”
Stephen King’s classic story about a St. Bernard turned serial killer had Roberts wondering what might happen if a different kind of family pet developed a taste for murder. Chimpanzees, he learned, are intimidating animals. The charming, pink-faced infants that people fall in love with mature into 150-pound beasts that can revert to their primal instincts in seconds.
“Chimpanzees can be evil, terrifying creatures in real life. They hunt other animals and even other chimps for food. They fly into rages,” he says. “The more research I did, the darker the picture became.”
With their brains and brawn, Roberts knew a chimp would be the perfect device for his next film. “I love the horror genre, both as a director and a movie fan,” he says. “As an audience member, I love being scared in a safe environment. As a filmmaker, it allows me to play in a fantasy world that is a lot of fun, where the director’s job is manipulating the audience. The goal is to get them to jump and scream all together. It’s a very communal, theatrical experience.”
Primate marks the fourth collaboration between Roberts and his longtime co-writer, Ernest Riera, who, even after countless viewings, still flinches while watching the movie. “And I know exactly what’s going to happen and when,” he says. “I believe this is the most frightening film Johannes and I have ever written. Ben begins as such a sweet, relatable character. His transformation feels unnervingly real. His evolution isn’t just credible — it’s devastating. You know he can only get worse, yet part of you can’t help but hope. When that hope is stripped away, that’s when a truly unique kind of dread takes hold.”
After the script was written, Roberts hoped it would land in the right hands so that he could get his film made the way he envisioned it
Thankfully, producers Walter Hamada, John Hodges and Bradley Pilz came onboard and were supportive of his creative approach from the start. Hamada, whose resume includes the horror classics It and The Conjuring, has loved the genre since he saw The Shining as a kid. “I thought it was a genius idea and, as I dove into the script, I found that Johannes and Ernest had done something a little different,” he says. “Ben is smart. He has knowledge. He can communicate. He is stalking people in the way that Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers did. It’s part creature movie, but it’s also a classic slasher movie. It’s a great combination of both genres of horror movies.”
Hamada was energized by the positivity Roberts brought to set every day. “Movie shoots are difficult and a director is the captain of the ship. Johannes brings an enthusiasm and a positivity every day. He’s a collaborative filmmaker and he’s really fun to watch on set,” he says. “When the actors are in the pool, he goes in the pool. He doesn’t need to be in the pool. He shouldn’t be in the pool, but he can’t help himself! He wants to be in the action and he’s right in there with his monitor off-camera directing from the water.”
Hodges found the director’s enthusiasm infectious. “Johannes loves this genre,” he says. “He was in his element with this script. The cast, the crew and certainly I felt like we were making something that sits up there with all these films that he reveres.”
The producer adds, “I was excited by the unique antagonist in Primate, as well as the chance to take the legacy of great horror movies of the past to that next level. We’ve created a domestic horror story. There are no ghosts or sci-fi entities. The set and the family are realistic, but the situation is elevated and intense. We did not shy away from the horror or the blood to deliver on our promise.”
The filmmakers doubled down on the immediacy of the story with a crucial decision early in pre-production. Whenever possible, they used practical, in-camera effects created on set, rather than relying on high-tech visual effects in post-production. They went as far as to have top effects house Millennium FX develop a custom-designed “monkey suit” for actor and movement specialist Miguel Torres Umba to wear as Ben in a stunning live-action performance.
“We chose practical effects because it is such a visceral movie,” Roberts says. “Primate is a proper old-school horror movie.
After all the movies I’ve made, I have never felt so scared in my gut. Put simply, itis terrifying. It has playful moments but it’s a white-knuckle ride from beginning to end. This kind of mayhem done in camera heightens the tension. You feel the shock of it all. It’s wall-to-wall horror.”
With his vision for an old school, blood-and-guts creature feature realized, Roberts believes that it will have a huge impact on an audience accustomed to CGI. “It really is the kind of old-school filmmaking I’ve always dreamed of doing,” he says. “The technical aspects made it a pretty tricky movie to bring to life but the immediacy of the danger makes it harder-hitting than anything I’ve seen recently. I think the fact that we’ve gone practical with Primate will have a huge impact on the audience. It touched the actors in ways that using VFX could never do. It’s scary for the actors, and that will translate to the audience. They are going to feel there’s a creature that could do you harm. You’ll never get that with CGI alone.”
In retrospect, Hodges admits it was a bit of an audacious gamble. “This is not how movies are necessarily made today,” he says. “It only happened because of all the people that came together: the folks at Paramount who believed in us, Johannes who directed this, and Ernest who wrote this with him. The cinematography, production design, costumes, makeup, everybody gave their all and it shows on screen.”
Ultimately, what makes horror truly terrifying isn’t just the creatures, the jump scares, or the gore — it’s when it feels real, says Hamada. “What makes a horror movie truly scary is that it is grounded in a reality. The idea of someone that you love turning on you is universal and is what makes this film so frightening.”
When Lucy Pinborough (Johnny Sequoyah) returns home to Hawaii after her freshman year in college, she is looking forward to a carefree holiday with pals Hannah (Jessica Alexander), Kate (Victoria Wyant) and Nick (Benjamin Cheng), her sister Erin (Gia Hunter), and the family’s beloved pet chimp, Ben. With her father Adam (Academy Award® winner Troy Kotsur) called away on business, Lucy and the girls are looking forward to decompressing by the pool at the family home, a luxury hideaway tucked into a secluded cliffside. Docile Ben, who was brought up as a treasured sibling of the Pinborough girls, is happy to see Lucy home at last, but the chimp soon becomes uncharacteristically aggressive. As his hostile behavior escalates, Lucy realizes too late that something is seriously wrong with Ben.
Born in Cambridge, England, JOHANNES ROBERTS (Directed by, Co-Written by, Executive Producer) began his career directing independent, low-budget horror films before breaking into mainstream studio films. He first gained attention with the claustrophobic thriller F (2010), followed by the supernatural tale The Other Side of the Door (2016), produced by 20th Century Fox. Roberts earned international recognition with 47 Meters Down (2017) which he wrote and directed, a surprise box-office hit and the highest grossing independent film of the year. Roberts then directed the cult favorite The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018) and then went on to write and direct the sequel 47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019). Roberts recently wrote and produced the third film in the 47 Meters series which will be released next year by Lionsgate. In 2021, Roberts wrote and directed Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City for Sony Pictures and Screen Gems, a film adaptation that blended elements of the first two iconic Capcom video games.
ERNEST RIERA (Co-Written by) launched his writing career at 16, publishing short fiction in a local magazine. He most recently co-wrote the Netflix dystopian survival film Nowhere. The film was a global success, becoming the most-watched content (series or movie) worldwide during its first two weeks and ranked as the most consumed non-English language Netflix content globally during its third week. By the end of 2023 it became the most-watched Spanish language film and second most-watched non-English language film in Netflix history. Ernest is best known for co-writing 47 Meters Down the highest-grossing independent film in 2019, and its sequel. He also wrote the 2016 Twentieth Century Fox ghost film The Other Side of the Door. Highlights of his many optioned scripts include an adaptation of Stephen King’s Heart of Atlantis and Brit List finalist 13 O’Clock. In the documentary field, he co-wrote and co-directed the Netflix Original The Last Dolphin King which premiered at IDFA in 2022. He also wrote Overbooking, which was one of the highest-grossing theatrical documentaries in Spain in 2019.
