Sometimes i feel that we forget the importance of B movies in the movie industry in general. We wouldn´t have classic films such as Jurassic Park or Waterworld without B movies from the past. Even though these two films have a big budget you can tell they are inspired by B movies that we grew up watching on VHS. Some might say that B movies are not that important and i disagree with that, because let´s be honest and say it like it is. Without B movies you wouldn´t have a lot of classic films made that clearly borrowed ideas from low budget films and just put more money into the projects with bigger Hollywood stars. I will always defend B movies as long as i live because we need them in our lives, they keep the legacy going of fun cheesy entertainment that i grew up watching through my local VHS rental stores back in the 80´s and 90´s. I used to rent a lot of fun B movies back in those days and i did see some really terrible films. However, i did see some unique ones as well that i could easily recommend for delivering something special. For example how many of you remember The Cannon Group classic known as American Cyborg: Steel Warrior from director Boaz Davidson ( who is actually executive producer on The Expendables 4 or as the cinema title is Expend4bles ). You could say that American Cyborg: Steel Warrior is almost like the 1989 classic Cyborg with Jean-Claude Van Damme mixed with influences from the 1984 classic The Terminator. Interesting fact is that this film is the final movie that legendary movie production duo Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus released through The Cannon Group in cinemas. I bought the uncut German DVD release years ago and i still watch it now and then. Speaking of B movies one legend who directed several B movie classics and also produced several great films is the man known as Roger Corman. I remember his film The Tomb Of Ligeia that i watched on VHS back in the 80´s and i especially remember the sequel Watchers II from 1990 that he produced with Marc Singer in the lead role. Unfortunately Roger Corman passed away this year and i wanted to show my respect by doing a review of one of the films he was an executive producer on and considered to be a B movie classic. We are of course talking about the 1993 B movie Carnosaur from director Adam Simon. I first saw this film back in 1994 on VHS rental at the VHS rental store Videomix and have not seen it since then. 31 years later is the film Carnosaur still a classic or has this film aged a lot and lost some of it´s charm along the way?
Dr. Jane Tiptree ( Diane Ladd ) work with genetically modified chickens in her laboratory. When a chicken transport is out on the highway one of her chickens hatches a reptilian creature, which kills the driver and escapes. People in the small town of Climax, Nevada begin suffering from a mysterious illness with flu-like symptons. That´s not their biggest problem though, the reptile creature is looking for more flesh.
I learned that producer Roger Corman knew author Michael Crichton who wrote the novel Jurassic Park. His book was released for the first time back in 1990 and i wouldn´t be surprised if Roger Corman was inspired by this novel when he decided to work on Carnosaur. The film Carnosaur is actually inspired by the novel Carnosaur by Australian author Josh Broshnan, but if you dig into this novel you can see that there are some big differences from the novel and Carnosaur. Without going into too many details let´s talk about the film adaptation of Carnosaur. It becomes very clear that this is a love letter to the monster movies of the 50´s and 60´s. You see the puppet dinosaurs walking around just like old school monster films and we even get some very gory scenes that you might not expect. We even get some fun characters as well that for some reason match very well in a film like this. The most odd part of this film is to see a woman giving birth to a dinosaur when an dinosaur egg pops out of her, we find out this is a part of Dr. Jane ( played by legendary actress Diane Ladd ) attempt to exterminate the human race through her laboratory where she create dinosaurs. The plot is very simple and you don´t really need a lot of details explained. This film works best is the fun dinosaur attack scenes and crazy characters such as "Slim" Friar played by legendary actor Clint Howard ( who i remember from the Charlie Sheen classic The Wraith ) and Sheriff Howler played legendary by actor Harrison Page. The shoot out scene between Sheriff Howler and the dinosaur is one of my favourite scenes in this film. Of course you can tell this is a low budget film and it may not be perfect, i still feel that Carnosaur is fun for just trying to be a simple cheesy monster film. If you just want to have a simple B movie that will most likely entertain you i believe Carnosaur is a good choice for your popcorn night. Director Adam Simon deliver a film that doesn´t take itself serious at all and knows what audience this was made for. Carnosaur is sweet like a slice of apple pie, once you taste it you just want more.
Rating: DDD
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