Carnosaur 2

Carnosaur 2 is a 1995 action horror film, and the sequel to the 1993 film Carnosaur. It is the second of the Carnosaur film series. It stars John Savage, Cliff DeYoung, Rick Dean, Ryan Thomas Johnson, Arabella Holzbog, and Don Stroud. The film is about a team of technicians who go to the Yucca Mountain nuclear mining facility to investigate problems concerning power and communications. They discover that the facility has been overrun by cloned dinosaurs. The film's plot shares many similarities with the 1986 film Aliens.

Carnosaur 2
VHS cover
Directed byLouis Morneau
Produced byMike Elliott
Written byMichael Palmer
StarringJohn Savage
Cliff DeYoung
Rick Dean
Ryan Thomas Johnson
Arabella Holzbog
Don Stroud
Music byEd Tomney
CinematographyJohn Aronson
Edited byRoderick Davis
Distributed byNew Horizons
Release date
  • February 1995 (1995-02)
Running time
83 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Before its predecessor had completed production, Carnosaur 2 was already being planned by executive producer Roger Corman. Effects artist John Buechler returned for the sequel, which re-used his dinosaur models from the original Carnosaur. Filming took place during an 18-day shoot, including a week of filming at a power plant near Castaic Lake in California. Carnosaur 2 was released direct-to-video in mid-February 1995. It received mixed reviews; criticism was aimed at its special effects, although the cast was generally praised. The film was followed by a sequel, Carnosaur 3: Primal Species, in 1996.

Plot

At a desert facility called Yucca Mountain, an orphaned teenage hacker boy named Jesse is caught trying to steal dynamite. His uncle Joe, a worker at the site, stops him. That night, an animal appears at the facility's mess hall and kills everyone but Jesse. When communications from the facility cease, a repair team of civilian technicians are called on to investigate, as the site had been experiencing power issues. The team are led by Major Tom McQuade of the Department of Defense. McQuade explains that Yucca Mountain is a military operated uranium mine, usually off limits to civilians. However, the facility has a schedule to keep, and the group was the closest team available on such short notice. The investigators find the place deserted; three go to the control room to try to reboot the computer system, while the other three form a search party. They locate Jesse, catatonic and in a state of shock, and take him to the control room. Jesse reminds team member Jack Reed of his own young son, who died in a fire.

The team wants to leave, feeling unsafe about the situation, although McQuade orders them back to work. The team realizes that the issues with the communications equipment cannot be resolved from the control room, concluding that they must venture down into the facility to find the cause of the problem. Although the lowest levels are classified, the team proceeds to investigate them as well, despite objections from McQuade. Helicopter pilot Galloway and computer expert Moses stay in the control center with Jesse. When an animal kills team member Kahane, the rest of the crew flee the lower floors. Jesse, listening to their radio chatter, realizes what happened and flees the room just before a Deinonychus[1] appears and eats Moses. Galloway flees to the helicopter and starts it up. Before the crew can reach her, a Deinonychus in the back seat attacks her. During a struggle, the helicopter is inadvertently lifted. The dinosaur kills Galloway and the helicopter crashes, stranding the crew.

The group returns to the control room. They demand answers from McQuade, who reluctantly tells them about the dinosaurs' origins: two months earlier, a biotech firm had been working with fossilized DNA and genetic experiments, finding a way to recreate dinosaurs. The government had sent in a team to contain the situation, and dozens of eggs were discovered and were stored at Yucca Mountain. The dinosaurs later hatched and killed the facility workers. Jesse informs the team of the facility's dynamite, and they decide to use it to blow up the plant and its dinosaurs, despite McQuade's objections. Demanding further answers from McQuade, he tells the team that the lower levels of the facility are a repository for atomic waste, including dozens of warheads. Radiation is now leaking from a containment unit, damaged by the dinosaurs, and a repository failure will occur in less than two hours, potentially setting off the warheads.

Jesse devises a plan to crash the computers to send the site into emergency mode, which should get an evacuation squad to rescue them. Once the plan is put into place, the group begins making its way back to the surface. They use dynamite to hold off any dinosaurs while getting to the elevator. A Deinonychus breaks into the elevator and eats Rawlins. Monk is injured; he and McQuade blow themselves up to kill the remaining Deinonychus.

Jesse and Reed continue onward, but Reed suffers a long fall and is injured. Jesse runs outside to find the evacuation team waiting, but they refuse to retrieve Reed. Jesse runs back in himself and encounters a Tyrannosaurus rex.[1] Avoiding the animal, Jesse helps Reed get to the rescue helicopter then runs back and grabs the remote detonator to trigger the remaining dynamite, just as the T. rex bursts out of the building. Jesse gets in a forklift and uses it to wrestle the dinosaur, eventually pushing it down a nearby elevator shaft. Jesse and Reed are flown off, and Jesse detonates the rest of the dynamite, destroying the facility and preventing a meltdown.

Cast

Production and release

Before the completion of Carnosaur (1993), executive producer Roger Corman already wanted a sequel. Carnosaur 2 writer Michael Palmer said, "Everybody felt the [first] film would do well, and Roger wanted to be ready with a sequel."[1] Effects artist John Buechler said that because Carnosaur was the most successful film ever made by Corman and his company New Horizons, they "had to make a sequel."[2] Palmer's first draft of the script was finished in three weeks, and it underwent two rewrites.[1] The film's ending battle, with a T. rex against a forklift, is a recreation of its predecessor's finale.[2] While Carnosaur is considered a horror film, Palmer wrote the sequel as an action film,[1] although some reviewers consider it a horror film as well.[3][4][5] The sequel's plot has many similarities to the 1986 film Aliens, directed by James Cameron.[1][2]

Carnosaur 2 was directed by Louis Morneau, who originally was going to direct the first film, but had to pass because of commitment to another project. For the cast, John Savage and Don Stroud were Morneau's first choices. The film's budget was similar to its predecessor, which had a reported budget between $800,000 and $1.5 million. Like the original film, shooting lasted 18 days. This included a week of filming at a power plant near Castaic Lake in California. Steadicam was used for a large portion of the filming. Shooting typically lasted 12 to 16 hours a day, and some scenes involved explosions, fire, smoke, and water.[1]

Buechler and Magical Media Industries returned to create the special effects for Carnosaur 2, which re-used the same dinosaur models from the first film, saving the production team money. The dinosaurs had been made with foam latex, which has a limited lifespan. The dinosaurs' mechanical parts also did not move as accurately, as a year had passed since the models were created. The dinosaurs received touch-ups for Carnosaur 2. The Deinonychus were portrayed through puppetry and a creature suit;[2] the latter was altered to make the animal look more like the raptors in Jurassic Park.[1] Miniature effects, created by Anthony Doublin, were also used on the film. Buechler had more freedom on Carnosaur 2 compared to its predecessor.[2] After filming, a week of post-production work was spent working on the dinosaur effects.[1]

Originally, Corman planned to release the film theatrically in autumn 1994,[6] although it eventually was released direct-to-video in mid-February 1995.[7] It was released on DVD on April 18, 2000.[8]

Reception

The Houston Chronicle wrote that the film "takes an exploitation-film approach to Jurassic Park. That is to say, it's cheap and shamelessly derivative. Yet it also sports a fine cast, including two-time Oscar nominee John Savage, and is galvanized by the scrappy resourcefulness and unpretentious spirit that low-budget filmmaking allows."[7] The New York Daily News considered Carnosaur 2 an improvement over the original film, and praised the cast, especially Savage and Stroud.[9] Missoulian criticized the special effects but praised Savage's performance, and wrote that the film was done with "energy and a bit of style and a tiny bit of wit".[10] J.R. Taylor of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B+" and called it an "Aliens rip-off".[11]

Brian J. Dillard of AllMovie rated it one star out of five and criticized the dinosaur effects, while stating, "The best that can be said of Carnosaur 2 is that it gives good gore."[3] TV Guide considered the film derivative and predictable, rating it two stars out of five. It wrote that Morneau and the cast "do what they can, but their efforts are further hamstrung by the lack of menacing monsters." TV Guide stated that the dinosaurs "look no more realistic than they did in the first film, but at least Morneau appears to recognize this, and films their attacks in quick flashes for the first half of the movie."[12]

Critic John Kenneth Muir, in 2011, rated it one and a half stars out of four, and noted the similarities with Aliens. He considered the film an improvement over its predecessor, calling the sets "decent" and stating that the cast performances were largely acceptable. He also made note of Rawlins' death: "Before this scene, she had 'final girl' written all over her, so her death is authentically surprising."[4]

In 2013, critic Mike Mayo wrote that the acting was above average, and that Morneau "keeps things moving quickly enough that the plot lapses and less-than-stellar special effects aren't fatal." Mayo also stated that the film's dialogue has "that gritty quality" that made Cameron's early films "so much fun."[5]

References
  1. Shapiro, Marc (January 1995). "Carnosaur 2: Still Not Extinct". Fangoria. pp. 55–58. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  2. Berry, Mark F. (2015). The Dinosaur Filmography. McFarland. pp. 50–52. ISBN 978-1-4766-0674-3. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  3. Dillard, Brian J. "Carnosaur 2". AllMovie. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  4. Muir, John Kenneth (2011). Horror Films of the 1990s. McFarland. pp. 366–368. ISBN 978-0-7864-8480-5. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  5. Mayo, Mike (2013). The Horror Show Guide: The Ultimate Frightfest of Movies. Visible Ink Press. pp. 59–60. ISBN 978-1-57859-460-3. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  6. "B-movie producer's 'Carnosaur' to beat 'Jurassic Park' to home-video release". Akron Beacon Journal. April 26, 1994. Retrieved November 17, 2020 – via Newspapers.com. Corman, a B-movie legend since the 1950s, plans a theatrical release of Carnosaur 2 this fall and its video release in February 1995.
  7. "Fine cast plays food in latest 'Carnosaur'". Houston Chronicle. February 16, 1995. Retrieved July 13, 2017 – via NewsLibrary. "Carnosaur 2," premiering on video this week [...].
  8. Gross, G. Noel (August 15, 2001). "Carnosaur 2". DVD Talk. Archived from the original on August 30, 2001.
  9. "Corman Conjures Better 'B' Beastie". New York Daily News. February 16, 1995. Retrieved November 17, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "The B Report". Missoulian. March 3, 1995. Retrieved November 17, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. Taylor, J.R. (February 10, 1995). "Carnosaur 2". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  12. "Carnosaur II". TV Guide. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
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