There exists a surprisingly robust tribe of moviegoers who will cheerfully watch a dozen humans meet their doom on screen but will immediately clutch their pearls if so much as a fictional hamster looks nervous. Humans? Expendable. Animals? Absolutely not. But toss that rulebook out the window the moment the creature in question is the one doing the terrorizing. Suddenly, it’s all popcorn and delighted shrieks. Enter the newest entry in the “animals behaving very, very badly” cinematic universe: the 2026 horror romp PRIMATE.

According to IMDb, the plot is “A group of friends’ tropical vacation turns into a terrifying, primal tale of horror and survival.” Which is a polite way of saying: paradise goes sideways, things get bitey, and no one is getting their flight fare back. It’s a tidy little summary that tells you everything and nothing at the same time—like a fortune cookie written by someone who really loves creature features.

Directed and co-written by Johannes Roberts—yes, the same mastermind behind 47 Meters Down, the movie that convinced half the planet to avoid the ocean—PRIMATE stars Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander, Victoria Wyant, and a cast of humans who presumably regret taking tropical vacations forever. Despite glowing reviews and a box office that shrieked louder than its title character, the film nearly skipped theaters entirely and was destined for a quiet VOD life. The Dark Discussions Podcast crew dives into whether that would’ve been a tragedy, a mercy, or simply the natural order of things when dealing with murderous wildlife on the big screen.