"Driven To Extinction, Back For Revenge!"	Year of Release: 1993 Directed by: Adam Simon Executively Produced by: Roger Corman Running Time: Approx. 83 minutes Rating: R Listing on the A.K.A. Page: Nope! A Second Opinion: Badmovies.Org Buy it on DVD at: Amazon.com or Movies Unlimited.com. My Rating:

Dr. Jane Tiptree- Diane Ladd! A female mad scientist who's, well ... mad! She releases a self-created virus, that causes women to give birth to dinosaurs. Tiptree hopes that this will wipe out womankind (so men can't breed) and reinstate dinosaurs as the dominant species. She herself dies while giving birth to a "carnosaur."

'Doc' Smith- Drunken caretaker and nightwatchman of a stone quarry. Why his name is Doc beats the hell out of me (it's never really explained either). He takes out the T-Rex near the film's end, with the aid of a small skiploader. He also manages to acquire the anti-viral serum that could save humanity but some stupid government soldiers blow him away and toast his corpse with a flamethrower.

Ann "Thrush"- Member of some kind of Greenpeace organization (which I will from this point on call Greenpeace anyway). She and her environmental cohorts continuously sabotage the machinery at the rock quarry, that is until they all get eaten by the Deinonychus. Luckily she escapes the man-eating lizard puppet and falls in love with Doc. She suffers Doc's fate with the added bonus of having the Tiptree virus (no a huge egg doesn't pop out of her ... area).

Sheriff Fowler and his wife- The sheriff takes out the Deinonychus with a shotgun blast at dangerously close range. As he hovers over the beast to finish it off, it puts it's foot through his back and out his stomach. The poor sheriff then offers the coup de gras right before he dies. His wife gets sick and is shot by soldiers while in Dr. Raven's care.

Dr. Raven- Local doctor who provides plenty of expository feedback throughout the movie. He's blown away by soldiers.

Fallon- Government official who's apparently the head of the Secret Projects branch. He pops in every now and then in scenes where high ranking government officials are trying to find a cure for Tiptree's virus. He provides expository info. and proves the value of a goat's embryonic fluid.

Fryer- Clint Howard! A chicken rancher who ends up as dino fodder!

Jesse- Owner of the poultry plant that Tiptree now works at. He's devoured by the T-Rex.

The Greenpeacers and other unimportant characters- They die in a variety of ways. The Greenpeacers are all munched by the Deinonychus. The rest suffer the same fate or get riddled with bullets.

The Deinonychus and the T-Rex- The "Carnosaurs" spoken of in the movie title. The Deinonychus does most of the dirty work, disembowling and eating anything in it's path. It's reign of terror ends after it tries to snack on Sheriff Fowler. The T-Rex has a small role but gets to cause a little carnage near the end. It's killed with a skiploader that's piloted by Doc. Though the mighty beasts are slain, a Carnosaur offspring is born of Dr. Tiptree. (Note: Deinonychus is pronounced Dy-no-nye-kus)

Ah yes, I remember when I first saw this movie. I was about 14 or 15 years old and the movie was scheduled to be on HBO at about 1 A.M. I was sent to bed, but I awoke with a horrible pain in my legs, so to console me my mother gave me some Tylenol_tm and let me watch Carnosaur. Needless to say, my mom was in hell. I was a bit disappointed with the movie though. I had read Harry Adam Knight's (a.k.a. John Brosnan) novel before seeing it and the book was infinitely better. Knight's novel featured a little over a dozen different species of dinosaur, ranging from huge predators like the Tarbosaurus, to the docile plant eating baby Brachiosaurus. But I'm not here to discuss the book, I'm here to tell you about the movie.
Yes, this film was made to capitalize on the assumed success of Jurassic Park (I say assumed because this was made and came out before Spielberg's flick). The movie begins with scenes from the inside of a poultry plant and I must say it is disturbing. All those chickens hanging upside down, getting plucked and beheaded, it's simply creepy. After that we meet Dr. Tiptree, geneticist extraordinaire. She is working for the Eunice Corporation to supposedly develop a super chicken. Faster, bigger, stronger, meatier, crispier when deep-fried. What she was really doing is creating a super virus to put into the chickens. Said virus causes women to become preganant with a dinosaur. When giving birth, the woman would die and quite possibly the husband too if he were close enough to the newborn.
One such dinosaur is born in a chicken coup (how did a chicken lay an egg that size?) and escapes from the poultry plant. The dinosaur, who's actual name is Deinonychus, goes on an eating spree. It seems like after each person it eats (or just kills and nibbles on when it's a bit peckish), the Deinonychus grows bigger. After nearly twenty minutes, it's a little larger than a man! In the meantime we meet 'Doc,' the caretaker at a stone quarry (which is owned by Eunice Inc.) that is constantly visited by Greenpeacers. Those little bastards keep sabotaging the heavy machinery and equipment at the quarry. This is how Doc first meets Ann, who prefers to be called "Thrush." Doc calls up Sheriff Fowler and the two of them go the Greenpeace camp near the quarry. Doc has a chance to turn Thrush in but he changes his mind.
Soon a frienship starts between them, which later turns into a romantic relationship. Meanwhile, the Deinonychus is still doing what it does best. It takes out three drunken teenagers, one of which turns out to be Jesse's daughter. When he confronts Dr. Tiptree, she lures him into the jaws of the Tyrannosaurus Rex! Damn mad scientist feminist! Anyway, Dr. Raven the local medical practicioner starts piecing together what may be going on. His findings soon end up in the hands of Fallon, and some government interest is sparked on the happenings in Nevada (which is where this movie takes place).
At this point, the puppet version of the Deinonychus is at the quarry. The hapless Greenpeacers have chained themselves to all the construction equipment, leaving them wide open for attack. The Deinonychus makes short work of them, biting off limbs and such (pay attention when the screen goes green [DINO-VISION] as the Deinonychus is chewing on a girl's leg. If you look hard enough, you can see some guy's hand yanking her leg. Seriously, just look up in the right hand corner). Well, Doc begins suspecting something is horribly wrong in this neck of the woods, so he sneaks into the Eunice poultry plant. He then holds Dr. Tiptree at gunpoint and forces her to reveal everything she knows. She tells him about the virus, how it was spread, what it does, and continuously tells him "it's too late!"
He even gets a free preview of what it does to a woman in a scene that makes me proud to be a man (in regards to my inability to bear children). When he asks her if there's a cure or a raw viral serum, she's reluctant to say anything at all, so Doc shoots a few incubated dinosaur eggs. And speaking of which, guess how these genetic dinos are created? Basically reptile DNA was spliced with the DNA from a variety of birds. You shove all that into a chicken egg and presto, you get instant dinosaurs (but kids, don't try it at home)! As I was saying, he shoots a few of Dr. Tiptrees "babies" and she finally gives in to his demand (and Doc is pretty persistant since Thrush now has the virus). Doc gets the serum that may save mankind, so he takes off hoping to get it to the proper authorities in time. He ends up being herded into the T-Rex pen just like poor Jesse. But Jesse didn't have a gun. Doc uses said gun to escape the jaws of death and rushes to Thrush's rescue.
Meanwhile, the government has condemned the area and is doing what it does best, namely killing people to control an outbreak. Not only that though, they've also concocted a plan to use artificial wombs to continue humanity's existence, if womankind is wiped out. And you know that Deinonychus that we're so fond of? It finally bites the dust. It tried to snack on Sheriff Fowler, but he proved to be quite quick on the draw. Though he mortally wounds the dinosaur, the sheriff soon finds out that the Deinonychus still has some kick left (<-- Pun). The sheriff gets too close and the prehistoric menace puts it's foot through his back and out his gut. Luckily Sheriff Fowler lives long enough to finish off the "carnosaur" (you know, the dinosaurs aren't even called that in this movie! What gives?!).
Say, do you remember that T-Rex? Well it managed to get loose! And it's going directly for the stone quarry where Doc and Thrush are (it's supposedly following it's instinctive route on the dinosaur highway. Don't ask just watch the movie). What's worse is that the government clean up crews are knocking off people left and right. Man, if you can't trust the government, who can you trust?! Well the T-Rex finally makes it to the quarry, and Doc decides to make it extinct. He and Thrush hop into two skiploaders. She's supposed to get away while Doc battles the huge "tyrant lizard king!" Doc doesn't fare too well and his skiploader gets flipped over (maybe if he were drunk, he would've done a better job?). Luckily Thrush turns around and distracts the T-Rex long enough for Doc to hop into her skiploader and take over.
He then proceeds to crash into the mighty lizard over and over again, causing deep slashes with each new attack. Finally the dinosaur has had enough, and keels over. It lays breathing on the ground for a bit, then dies (pretty sad to see since it's supposed to be the main attraction of this movie!). Doc grabs Thrush and takes her to his trailer where he administers some of that viral serum. He figures hey, if it works you're fine, if it doesn't, well, it won't change anything! Doc just so happens to have a CB radio in his residence. He hears the military talking back and forth so he calls in and tells them where he is. Bad move my friend. Before he can explain anything when the cavalry arrive, he's gunned down. Then a soldier walks in with a flamethrower and sprays a healthy dose of napalm all over the trailer, thus destroying the possible cure for the virus.
So the movie's message is that mankind's sheer ignorance and stupidity will be his downfall? I'll vouch for that! Now while I watched this movie, I noticed something. Maybe it was intentional (I think it was) and maybe not, but many of the characters have birds names! I double checked on the Internet Movie Database just to make sure I wasn't crazy. Here goes the list: Sheriff Fowler (because some birds are called fowl, I think it mostly refers to ducks though), Thrush, Siegel (sounds like Seagull), Dr. Raven (nevermore), Mallard (don't know who he was, but he's listed as a character), Vogel (German for "bird." Don't know what character he was either), and Lt. Colonel Wren. I don't know if I should applaud the writers or just shake my head in sorrow. Also, the majority of the creature effects were all thanks to John Carl Buechlar! Drawing a blank? Well he was the director and special effects supervisor for Troll and also Cellar Dweller. He usually does an effective job, but the effects in this were pretty damn bad. I guess puppets just aren't as effective in this day and age. Sorry John!

Guy 1: " ... Any extraneous organic matter. What the hell's extraneous organic matter?"
Guy 2: "That's my wife you're talkin' about. Strangely orgasmic matter."

Doc: "... Then call me Doc. Everyone else does."
Thrush: "Why's that?"
Doc: "Somethin' else I didn't do."

Fallon: "... Right. Attack of the killer poultry."

Green Peace leader: "Greetings green brother." (He says this to the Deinonychus right before it eats him.)

Doc: "So you're going to give the earth back to the dinosaurs?"
Dr. Tiptree: "Well, you might say that."
Doc: "That's really fabulous. It'd make a great theme park."