Carnosaur
Tags: cult, violence

Plot synopsis:
In a small town in the American Southwest, a mysterious illness befalls its citizens. Dr. Jane Tiptree (Diane Ladd), a scientist working for the Eunice Corporation, is secretly breeding a strain of extra large and fertile chickens by splicing their DNA with that of different animals. The sponsors of the corporation become suspicious of her research, but cannot legally interfere. One night during transportation of the chickens, a mysterious creature hatches from a chicken egg, kills the drivers and escapes into the night.
Doc Smith (Raphael Sbarge) is an alcoholic security watchman protecting digging equipment from environmental activists, though he befriends one of them named Ann Thrush (Jennifer Runyon). Meanwhile, the creature, which turns out to be a juvenile Deinonychus, goes on a killing spree, killing two truck drivers and a group of teenagers. One of the dead teenagers was the daughter of Jesse Paloma (Frank Novak), an employee for Tiptree. Afraid of the truth about her research being leaked, she lures Paloma into a laser-protected Tyrannosaurus pen, where it consumes him.
Thrush and the other activists begin to protest by handcuffing themselves to the digging equipment. However, the grown Deinonychus appears and slaughters the activists while Thrush watches in horror. Doc finds Thrush in shock and brings her back to his trailer, where she is attacked by the Deinonychus but survives. Doc locates a truck belonging to the Eunice Corporation. Pretending to be the dead driver, he talks to Tiptree on the radio and makes his way to her facility. Meanwhile, Sheriff Fowler (Harrison Page) discovers a dinosaur embryo in a carton of eggs and brings it into a lab to study.
Doc sneaks into Tiptree's lab and holds her at gunpoint, telling her to show him her experiments. She reveals that the infected chicken eggs are responsible for the town's mysterious illness, as they contain a lethal virus that kills men and impregnates women with dinosaur embryos, which kill the host when birthed. The goal of this is to spread the virus around the world, effectively driving the human race into extinction and letting the dinosaurs rule the Earth once more. When news of the town's deaths reaches the Eunice sponsors, they trace it back to Tiptree. The government infiltrates the town and has it placed under quarantine. In order to sterilize the situation, all civilians, infected or not, are shot and killed on sight.
Fowler investigates a disturbance at a puppy kennel where he is attacked by the Deinonychus. He fatally wounds and kills the creature, but not before being impaled by its sickle claw and succumbing to his wounds. Back at the lab, Tiptree reveals a serum that can cure the illness. Doc steals it tries to escape, accidentally ending up in the Tyrannosaurus pen. Tiptree releases the dinosaur from its laser bounds and it chases Doc. He escapes and the Tyrannosaurus breaks out of the facility. Tiptree is revealed to have infected herself with the virus, and dies as a baby dinosaur rips its way through her stomach.
Doc returns to Thrush, who has fallen ill to the virus. Before he has a chance to inject her with the serum, the Tyrannosaurus makes its way to the construction site. Doc battles the creature with a skidsteer but is nearly killed. Thrush joins in with another skidsteer and impales the dinosaur, killing it. Bringing Thrush back into the trailer, she succumbs to the virus and Doc is shot and killed by government soldiers, who then burn his and Thrush's bodies.

Review: Which Tiptree is planning to destroy the world by unleashing an lethal virus and letting Dinosaur ruled the world once more.Directed by Adam Simon (Brain Dead) made an watchable but forgotten horror/sci-fi effort by that was made in the wake of Steven Spielberg's Big Budget "Jurassic Park".
The movie doesn't bother me anymore, but I do find it very enjoyable and has a great re-watch value to it.Diane Ladd has created a disease that only effects females.
After a series of strange deaths rock their small desert town, a group of friends tie the incidents to a scientist's genetically-engineered dinosaurs running amok in an attempt to pave over society and race to stop them.This here turned out to be quite an enjoyable and cheesy rip-off at times.
With the shower of blood on display, we also get plenty of limbs ripped off, dismemberments and decapitations, which is found in the movie's highlight sequence where it attacks a group of protesters chained to a series of trees and it swoops down to chomp on them in quite vicious manners, leading to a big action chase but with all the gore on display, even coming up with a realistic manner of doing so with muscle and tissue visibly shown to be pulled away from the victim makes for an impressive visual.
While this does have a slew of problems with regards to its special effects being obviously a man's hand in a puppet being whisked through the scenery to simulate it's advancement through the area, these moments of utter cheese work to create a sense of charm with the film that's almost impossible to top, even though the story has a ton of continuity problems, a downer of an ending and several other problems.
The only reason everyone on this page hates this movie was because the special effects couldn't compete with Jurrasic Park.
They may say they disliked it for other reasons, but in reality, they are just kidding themselves and trying to find flaws that aren't there so they look like they aren't effects-hungry morons who can't enjoy a film unless it has at least 10 minutes worth of CGI.
Carnosaur is one of the only films that the genre falls into "horror" and "dinosaurs." From beginning to end it's a true cult-classic for a those few die hard fans that are out there.
At no time was I taken out of the movie by a poor effect.It begs comparison to Jurassic Park, of course.
The dinosaur effects are laughable at best, but overall it's better scripted than the average Roger Corman slaughterama, and Dianne Ladd gives an over-the-top performance that alone makes this one worth watching.
The dinosaur on the cover looked just awesome (again, at the time and to my kid eyes), as I had never before seen a live-action dinosaur beyond old black and white movies (side note: When I saw Jurassic Park for the first time later that very same year, it blew my little mind).
The plot is pretty confusing (as usual) but soon very hungry and angry dinosaurs are eating people alive in hilarious trash scenes.The effects are OK and you'll love this if you like trash cinema.
I think people just hate the critters of Carnosaur because they were spoiled by the special effects of Jurrasic Park.
Reading about Carnosaur, I was expecting a terribly cheap movie and for it to be blatantly derivative of the Steven Spielberg classic Jurassic Park.
While far from a good movie, and certainly nowhere near as fun, thrilling or intense as Jurassic Park, I was expecting far worse than what I saw.
The only thing sadder than this movie is that I felt the need to watch it again nearly 20 years later to confirm, "Yeah, it still sucks." The film does have some bright spots in that the dinosaur attacks are gory and there are some funny Coca-Cola product placements.
Sounds fair to me."Carnosaur" is loosely based on a novel by John Brosnan about a mad scientist (Diane Ladd) who is disgusted by the human race's destruction of the planet and plans to wipe it out with a killer virus while genetically engineering dinosaurs so that they can take over the planet once again.I was really surprised that film critic Gene Siskel, who had given the Oscar-winning masterpiece "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991) a negative review found this movie appealing and gave it a marginally positive review.
The film was made on a low budget and you can tell by the bad acting (excluding Diane Ladd, of course) and the poor special effects.
Some things made the movie a little tedious (the romantic plot between Thrush and Doc, Clint Howard's character, etc.) but I found this an overall enjoyable cheesy gore-ride of fun weirdness.Watch if you are used to horrifically cheesy movies.4/10.
The story does not make sense, the characters are horribly developed, the "special effects" looks like one of those dinosaur "Made in Paraguay or China".
CARNOSAUR was producer Roger Corman's attempt to cash-in on Steven Spielberg's JURASSIC PARK, which would be released later in the year.
Overall the film does manage to get a good feel of those 1950s monster movies where there's really not much of a story and instead of one we just get a monster running around killing people.
A film like this really needed to deliver for its lack of effects and story but instead we're just given a watered down version of a horror movie..
carnosaur came out a little after Jurassic park,and the idea was there make a movie a little like Jurassic park on a meager budget,some of the Dino effects are awful to OK.the t Rex looks OK in some scenes .
there's really disgusting gore effects like people getting arms bitten off and etc;Jurassic park had laura dern,carnosaur has her mom;Diane ladd as a scientist experimenting with Dino DNA and chicken eggs.its lowbrow stuff.Clint Howard makes an appearance as a local also stars beautiful blonde Jennifer Runyon as an extremist.the movie is sick, not funny and a depressing mess.i usually like roger corman movies but not this one.i think the sequels were a little better,the last one was pretty good it was called raptor and it starred Corbin bernsen,and Eric (not as famous as his sister)Roberts and sexy Melissa brasielle.
to quickly cash in on Steven Spielberg's great Jurassic park on a low budget dinosaur movie is terrible.the cast is wasted in this.Raphael sbarge(the hidden 2)also stars.after seeing carnosaur you may not look at chicken eggs the same again.trash o Rama,so bad its real bad..
This is by far one of the worst movies I have ever seen and it has left a lasting impression on my mind, because it is so bad!I don't understand how or why any sane person could write or direct such a terrible film.
This is by far one of the worst movies I have ever seen and it has left a lasting impression on my mind, because it is so bad!I don't understand how or why any sane person could write or direct such a terrible film.
There wasn't one character which I liked or cared about, there was hardly any character development, the dialogue is cheesy (as can be expected with this genre), the acting is laughable and melodramatic, the music is boring, the direction is bad, the makeup is fake and the dinosaurs...they look okay on the cover, but in the movie they move robotically and you'd have to be blind to not notice the cheap animatronics involved.
There wasn't one character which I liked or cared about, there was hardly any character development, the dialogue is cheesy (as can be expected with this genre), the acting is laughable and melodramatic, the music is boring, the direction is bad, the makeup is fake and the dinosaurs...they look okay on the cover, but in the movie they move robotically and you'd have to be blind to not notice the cheap animatronics involved.
Go rent "Jurassic Park" if you want to see a great movie with lots of dinosaurs.P.S.
Go rent "Jurassic Park" if you want to see a great movie with lots of dinosaurs.P.S.
What can I say except that I'm a sucker for a cute dinosaur puppet that is supposed to strike fear into the hearts of *adult* audiences watching this(?) Through a series of unlikely but, of course, since it's a Corman-produced cash-in on Jurassic Park (which had the wherewithal to be released a month *before* that movie came out) we have to buy into it events, a scientist who has been tasked with looking into gene experiments involving chickens somehow (ahem, fixes tie) hatches a plan to...
something, I don't remember now, and then halfway through the movie he becomes the noble hero who will save everyone from the dinosaurs with the use of his construction cranes.There are some stretches where we're watching dull scenes where the military are trying to figure out what to do - Ned Bellamy, who one might remember from Shawshank Redemption, is the main guy leading that charge which, eventually, will be like scenes from The Crazies on steroids - but when it gets back to the dinosaurs, or Diane Ladd who is acting as if she is in a legitimate movie (that is until near the end which...
I don't know whether or not Siskel was being tongue-in-cheek with his sincere 'Thumbs up' (really, how many Corman movies, much less those released during the Concorde years, did he praise like that so it could get on the damn box cover), but I know I was laughing nearly until tears during any scene with a dinosaur in it.It's also apparently based on a book which I'd have to assume makes Crichton look like HG Wells..
I was pretty excited when I found Carnosaur on VHS at the local outlet.I don't know what I was expecting.I don't think I was expecting anything GREAT but I wasn't expecting anything bad either.It was more bad than anything.I read on IMDb that there's a part 2 & 3.After watching this movie I can't believe they made a sequel & even more amazing, a third.I LOVE bad movies so if I had a chance I'd watch them though.If I didn't, I know I wouldn't watch them at all.I read a few reviews saying Carnosaur is just a Jurassic Park rip off since they both came out at the same time but I say who knows?
It was released the same year as Jurassic Park and it was probably over-shadowed by that more popular film.This film had an interesting plot element though - a genetically manipulated dinosaur (a T-Rex) escapes from a bioengineering company and causes chaos and havoc on the town (according to IMDb).I love dinosaurs and grew up watching cartoons and movies about them.
In this film there's only one way dinosaurs can be brought to screen and that's via puppetry , usually glove puppets which gives the impression Rod Hull's on a murder spree with reptiles Does this make CARNOSAUR a bad movie ?
Lol I watched the rating on youtube and they both thought the movie was awful but the story was quite interesting and the bad guy (ladd) was something new and exciting.Now i must say that anyone that watches this please do not take it seriously, and don't come in with high hopes.
The Muppets got new dinosaur friends (they are just puppets after all) and they get mad and break away from the group and start killing people.I thought this movie was seriously a joke cashing in on Jurassic Park like Shaun of the Dead did after the Dawn of the Dead remake craze.
But this movie was serious and came out before Jurassic Park even.Plot: Women give birth to green dinosaur puppets who then get mad and attack people whose limbs seem to pop off easily like Mr. Potato Head (they are kept together by red bubblegum).I can't take this movie seriously.
If you want to watch a bad movie to laugh at, this is the one for you.The only reason it scored so highly with me is it is funny as hell.4/10..
Cheap dinosaurs and so called "special effects" is all you're gonna get in this cheap, low-budget, wannabe Jurassic Park campy B-flick.
Of all the really bad movies including dinosaur flicks, This one is the worst of it's kind!
With cheesy special effects & bad acting you know it's likely to be a Corman produced film.
You can tell that most people simply had fun while making this movie and didn't took it very serious at all.Also I must say that I very much prefer the old fashioned special effects, complete with fake looking puppets and a guy in a suit, over some incredibly fake looking CGI effects, that you are likely to see in movies of this sort now days.Don't expect much gore or other great horror elements though.
It is a story about genetic design of dinosaurs, one little raptor, and later a T-Rex (that squeals like crazy), the special effects are freaking funny and dinosaur puppets, toys, whatever they used in the film were just...
The cheap, but interesting special effects are the only saving grace for this lousy rip-off of the `other' 1993 dinosaur movie.
Okay, let's talk wisely...my hypothesis about the word Carnosaur is the following: Carn stands for Carnivor and Osaur stands for Dinosaur...okay...but here's a proof that this film is for a retarded and stupid audience; everybody who knows at least a little about dinosaur knows that some of them were carnivors...but what they tried to do with that title is to teach idiots that carnivor dinosaurs have existed...yeah...but only the staff of this movie is stupid enough to think they seem intelligent by saying this...right....so, I say that people who do a bad job like this (that means everyone who worked on this piece of ****) should be fired or should at least try another job...the special effects were awful, the scenario too, the acting was absolutely laughable, and the directing was so bad that it was funny...I was making more intelligent videos than this crap when I was 6!
Can her plans be halted or is it too late already...Written & directed by Adam Simon Carnosaur is a Jurassic Park (1993) rip-off from beginning to end & was obviously made to cash in on Spielberg's monster sized hit by executive producer Roger Corman (who else?).
It's by no means a good film, it's very silly, it's tries to do far too much considering it's meagre budget & you can't help but keep thinking about Jurassic Park as you watch it.
Basically Carnosaur is a cheap & gory Jurassic Park imitator which I found quite watchable, it's far from the best film ever made but I also think it's far from the worst.Director Simon was working with a low budget & it shows, there's no real style & the Dinosaur effects are plain embarrassing.
The special effects are among the worst I've seen, the sets cheap, it's not that well made or put together & the acting could have been better but at least he tried to get as much money as possible on screen even if the film falls short on several occasions.Carnosaur is a terrible film if you look at it from a normal film-goers perspective, however never let it be said that I'm not an individual because, crazy as it may sound, I actually quite liked Carnosaur.
Great Fun for Anyone Who Likes Dinosaurs and Indie Films on a Budget.
This film may not have had the budget or the big name actors found in Jurassic Park, but I find myself watching this movie over and over unlike Jurassic Park.
The gore is also way above what is found in Jurassic Park, and that is probably a selling point for me as well.The people in this film obviously worked hard at making it, even if they didn't receive the $20 million salaries.
In fact the budget for the entire film was around $1.2 million, and in limited release grossed about $1.7 million, which is what Roger Corman was best at.Chicken DNA plus Diane Ladd = dinosaurs hatching from chicken eggs, and women infected with virus that induces them to give live dino-birth.
DARPA conspiracies and Clint Howard gets eaten by dinosaur, and a very silly looking T-Rex make this film one of the all time low budget greats..
I also tried my hardest not to make too many comparisons between this film and the mega-budget Jurassic Park, despite more than a few nods made to the movie in the script ("It would make a great theme park!", Diane Ladd being the mother of Laura Dern, a main cast member in Jurassic Park and a cool-acting black cop who seemed to be modelling himself on Samuel L Jacksons role.)In 'B' movie standards, this film should rate quite highly (I'm sure its Oscar material compared to the later 'B' flick 'Dinosaur Island', and at least this film generates a bit of an effort, some of the supposed 'great' films out there have a far higher budget and still fare worse than Carnosaur.The narrative is simple: a mad scientist develops mutant chicken eggs that hatch deadly dinosaurs that grow big!
I like those kinds of movies, where it's so obviously bad that it doesn't try to hide how low the budget for it was.
The Bad News: I don't know why people are saying that Diane Ladd did a good job in this movie.
But the movie does have it's dark moments, such as Diane Ladd (whose daughter starred in the other dinosaur flick that came out around the time this did.
Man, the people that watched this Jurassic Park rip-off, and actually thought it was good, what were you smoking and where can I get it?
Cormen's Jurrasic Park Big Rip Off. Roger Cormen has two kind of monster movies, great and crap.