Johannes Roberts on PRIMATE: Old-School Horror, Practical Effects, and a Very Bad Chimp
- creepykingdom
- 22 hours ago
- 3 min read
By Shannon McGrew
In Johannes Roberts' latest film, PRIMATE, we meet a group of friends returning home to Hawaii after a school break. However, shortly after returning, their tropical vacation turns into a terrifying, primal tale of horror and survival when it becomes apparent that there is something very wrong with Ben, their pet chimpanzee.
For the upcoming release of PRIMATE, Creepy Kingdom’s Shannon McGrew spoke with co-writer/director Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down, The Strangers: Prey at Night). During their chat, they discussed everything about the inception of PRIMATE to the film's retro horror roots, and turning a pet chimpanzee into pure nightmare fuel.
Hi, Johannes, it’s so great to see you again! I’m thrilled that we get to chat about PRIMATE, so how did this film come to be? What inspired it?
Johannes Roberts: The initial spark of it started about 10-15 years ago. My mum had a swimming pool, and I was watching her dog go round and round it, barking at nothing. It was just one of those things where I was like, I wonder what would happen if the dog had rabies? I love Cujo, I love Stephen King’s 80s movies and books, so it just sparked that idea. At some point, it changed into a chimpanzee from a dog.
Speaking of the chimpanzee, affectionately known as Ben, was he CGI, practical, or a combination of both?
Johannes Roberts: We decided pretty early on that the way to get the emotions from “he’s cute” to “what’s happening to him?” to “f*ck this guy,” was to do it practically. It’s a very retro movie, and it’s a movie that was born out of love for John Carpenter and Stephen King of the 80s, so it’s all practical.
We did an open casting for an actor to play [Ben], and this guy named Migues Torres came in. He had never done anything before, and he was insane. He ran up the wall, and then ran down, jumped on the wall, jumped down, and then started hooting and hollering. He’s only five feet tall, but he was terrifying. This company, called Millennium in England, built this beautiful suit [for him to wear]. Then we had different sculpted heads. We had puppeteers moving the eyebrows and the mouth. It was complex, but beautifully old-school. It was really old-school filmmaking, but it was so much fun.
One of the more impressive aspects of the film was how you utilized Troy Kotsur’s deafness to build tension through sound. Was that something that was already baked into the script, or did that evolve during production?
Johannes Roberts: Initially, the father role wasn’t in it at all, and then that became a thing during pre-production to explore that side. When we were looking at casting the role, Troy came up. CODA had obviously been a big thing, and I really liked [the film]. It just felt so organic because the movie’s about communication and linguistics. He came on, and, obviously, I had to change the role to work with a deaf actor. I had never worked with a deaf actor before, so it was really nerve-wracking, but he’s the most charming, sweet guy, and he really helped me work out what we needed to do to the script. He was so open about what this would do to the horror side of things, which enabled me to play crazy set pieces that are so much fun. He really got into all of that.
As a devout horror fan, I was all about the practical gore effects. What was the process like for that? Do you have a favorite kill from the movie?
Johannes Roberts: I love the opening because it’s probably the most technically difficult one of the whole movie, because it’s full of puppet work. It was great to be able to have the permission, well, I don’t know if we ever got the permission, but nobody ever stopped us from going so old-school and so extreme, and to have the team around me that could pull this off.
I love hearing the reactions to [all the kills]. The red room is great, but the cliff scene is so old-school, like what we are doing in that sequence, and the reaction from the audience, you can feel it rippling down the cinema, so that’s probably my favorite one. I love seeing people react differently to different parts. It’s so organic and fun to see people enjoy the ride.
PRIMATE arrives in theaters on January 9, 2026.