Turns out, one (murderous) monkey can stop the show
Source: Paramount Pictures
You may recall a seemingly friendly chimp named Gordy going on a murderous rampage in Jordan Peele‘s polarizing 2022 Sci-Fi Thriller NOPE–well, this is isn’t that murderous monkey, but an entirely new pet chimp named Ben who starts off just as friendly as Gordy until something sets him OFF during a family vacay in Hawaii.
Source: Paramount Pictures
What starts off as a feel-good story about a vacationing family and their rescued chimp quickly spirals into bloody mayhem when Ben goes APE S*** on everyone in the vacation house.
Check out the terrifying trailer below:
Based on early buzz from its run on the festival circuit, it’s primed to make a splash at the box office on the first weekend of 2026.
If the trailer didn’t pique your interest, then a comparison to rapid killer dog classic Cujo AND sicko killer clown cult classic Terrifier certainly will.
Directed by Johannes Roberts, the buzzy Horror flick stars Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander, Troy Kotsur, Victoria Wyant, Gia Hunter, Benjamin Cheng, Charlie Mann, and Tienne Simon.
Source: Paramount Pictures
“The tricky thing was to create a chimpanzee that you don’t go, ‘Oh my God, these people are insane to have this monster in their house,‘ said Roberts in an interview with Bloody Disgusting.
“That was probably my biggest worry of the whole movie, which was that when we tested it that first time, the audience would go, ‘Yeah, this is scary. Yeah, this is great, but why the f**k do these people have a chimpanzee in their house?‘ And they didn’t.”
“Because once that goes into people’s minds, then it’s very hard to follow the rest of the movie. You needed to fall in love with Ben to a certain degree and then be terrified of him. So we really had to hit that sweet spot of how old he was, how scary-looking he was, and all that. An awful lot of thought process and design went into Millennium FX‘s side to create that ideal chimpanzee.”
Primate rampages into theaters Jan. 9, 2026.
