Carnosaur 2
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''Carnosaur 2'' is a 1995
action Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...
horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...
directed by Louis Morneau, and the sequel to the 1993 film '' Carnosaur''. It is the second installment in the ''Carnosaur'' film series. It stars John Savage,
Cliff DeYoung Clifford Tobin DeYoung (born February 12, 1945)According to the State of California. ''California Birth Index, 1905-1995''. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California. At Ancestry.com is an Ame ...
, Rick Dean, Ryan Thomas Johnson,
Arabella Holzbog Arabella Laura Holzbog (born 1 October 1966) is a British-American actress and visual artist, occasionally credited as Arabella Tjye. Early life and education Born in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England, Holzbog is the daughter of Thomas Jerald ...
and
Don Stroud Donald Lee Stroud (born September 1, 1943) is an American actor, musician, and surfer. Stroud has appeared in over 100 films and 200 television shows. Early years Stroud is the son of vaudeville actor Clarence Stroud (of "The Stroud Twins" team) ...
. The film is about a team of technicians who go to the
Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, as designated by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act amendments of 1987, is a proposed deep geological repository storage facility within Yucca Mountain for spent nuclear fuel and other high-level radioact ...
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''. Before its predecessor had completed production, ''Carnosaur 2'' was already being planned by executive producer
Roger Corman Roger William Corman (April 5, 1926 – May 9, 2024) was an American film director, producer, and actor. Known under various monikers such as "The Pope of Pop Cinema", "The Spiritual Godfather of the New Hollywood", and "The King of Cult", he w ...
. 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 Castaic Lake (Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''Kaštiq'') is a reservoir formed by Castaic Dam on Castaic Creek, in the Sierra Pelona Mountains of northwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, near the town of Castaic, California, C ...
in California. ''Carnosaur 2'' was released
direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strat ...
on February 15, 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 the
Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, as designated by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act amendments of 1987, is a proposed deep geological repository storage facility within Yucca Mountain for spent nuclear fuel and other high-level radioact ...
, 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, unknown animals appear at the facility's mess hall and kills everyone except Jesse. When communications from the facility cease, a repair team of civilian technicians are called in to investigate, as the site had been experiencing power issues. The team are led by Major Tom McQuade of the
Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...
. McQuade explains that Yucca Mountain is a military operated
uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...
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. 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 ''
Velociraptor ''Velociraptor'' (; ) is a genus of small dromaeosaurid dinosaurs that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous epoch, about 75 million to 71 million years ago. Two species are currently recognized, although others have been assigned in th ...
'' appears and kills Moses. Galloway flees to the helicopter and starts the engine. Before the crew can reach her, a ''Velociraptor'' 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 their way back to the surface, using dynamite rigged with tripwires to hold off the dinosaurs while getting to the elevator. A ''Velociraptor'' breaks into the elevator and kills Rawlins. The elevator's cables snap and it crashes. After they escape the elevator, Monk is injured as he accidentally activates a tripwire while fleeing from a ''Velociraptor''. Too injured to walk, Monk and McQuade blow themselves up to kill the remaining ''Velociraptors''. Jesse and Reed continue onward, but Reed trips over a wire and dangles from a platform, eventually suffering a long fall. Jesse makes his way to the surface and finds the evacuation team waiting, but they refuse to retrieve Reed due to the facility's imminent explosion. Jesse runs back in himself and helps Reed, and they narrowly avoid a ''
Tyrannosaurus rex ''Tyrannosaurus'' () is a genus of large theropoda, theropod dinosaur. The type species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' ( meaning 'king' in Latin), often shortened to ''T. rex'' or colloquially t-rex, is one of the best represented theropods. It live ...
'' on their way to the rescue helicopter. Jesse runs back and grabs the remote detonator to trigger the remaining dynamite. The ''T. rex'' bursts out of the building and kills one of the rescue team members. Jesse gets in a
telescopic handler A telescopic handler, also called a telehandler, teleporter, reach forklift, or zoom boom, is a machine widely used in agriculture and industry. It is somewhat like a forklift but has a boom (telescopic cylinder), making it more a crane than ...
and uses it to battle the dinosaur, eventually pushing it down a large elevator shaft. The helicopter takes off, and Jesse detonates the rest of the dynamite, destroying the facility and preventing a meltdown.


Cast

* John Savage as Jack Reed *
Cliff DeYoung Clifford Tobin DeYoung (born February 12, 1945)According to the State of California. ''California Birth Index, 1905-1995''. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California. At Ancestry.com is an Ame ...
as Tom McQuade *
Don Stroud Donald Lee Stroud (born September 1, 1943) is an American actor, musician, and surfer. Stroud has appeared in over 100 films and 200 television shows. Early years Stroud is the son of vaudeville actor Clarence Stroud (of "The Stroud Twins" team) ...
as Ben Kahane * Rick Dean as "Monk" Brody * Ryan Thomas Johnson as Jesse Turner *
Arabella Holzbog Arabella Laura Holzbog (born 1 October 1966) is a British-American actress and visual artist, occasionally credited as Arabella Tjye. Early life and education Born in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England, Holzbog is the daughter of Thomas Jerald ...
as Sarah Rawlins * Miguel A. Núñez Jr. as Ed Moses * Neith Hunter as Joanne Galloway * Guy Boyd as Joe Walker * Michael James McDonald as Evac Helicopter Pilot


Production and release

Before the completion of '' Carnosaur'' (1993), executive producer
Roger Corman Roger William Corman (April 5, 1926 – May 9, 2024) was an American film director, producer, and actor. Known under various monikers such as "The Pope of Pop Cinema", "The Spiritual Godfather of the New Hollywood", and "The King of Cult", he w ...
already wanted a sequel. ''Carnosaur 2'' writer Michael Palmer said that everybody felt the first film would do well, and Roger wanted to be ready with a sequel. Effects artist
John Carl Buechler __NOTOC__ John Carl Buechler (pronounced ''Beekler''; June 18, 1952 – March 18, 2019) was an American special make-up effects artist, film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He was best known for his work on horror and science-fictio ...
said that because ''Carnosaur'' was the most successful film ever made by Corman and his company
New Horizons ''New Horizons'' is an Interplanetary spaceflight, interplanetary space probe launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institut ...
, they had to make a sequel. Palmer's first draft of the script was finished in three weeks, and it underwent two rewrites. The film's ending battle, with a ''T. rex'' against a forklift, is a recreation of its predecessor's finale. While ''Carnosaur'' is considered a horror film, Palmer wrote the sequel as an action film, although some reviewers consider it a horror film as well. The sequel's plot has many similarities to the 1986 film '' Aliens'', directed by
James Cameron James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker, who resides in New Zealand. He is a major figure in the post-New Hollywood era and often uses novel technologies with a Classical Hollywood cinema, classical filmmaking styl ...
. ''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 Donald Lee Stroud (born September 1, 1943) is an American actor, musician, and surfer. Stroud has appeared in over 100 films and 200 television shows. Early years Stroud is the son of vaudeville actor Clarence Stroud (of "The Stroud Twins" team) ...
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 Castaic Lake (Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''Kaštiq'') is a reservoir formed by Castaic Dam on Castaic Creek, in the Sierra Pelona Mountains of northwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, near the town of Castaic, California, C ...
in California.
Steadicam Steadicam is a brand of camera stabilizer mounts for motion picture cameras invented by Garrett Brown and introduced in 1975 by Cinema Products Corporation. The Steadicam brand was acquired by Tiffen in 2000. It was designed to isolate the ...
was used for a large portion of the filming. Shooting typically lasted 12 to 16 hours a day. 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 Foam latex or latex foam rubber is a lightweight form of latex containing bubbles known as cells, created from liquid latex. The foam is generally created though the Dunlop or Talalay process in which a liquid latex is foamed and then cured in a ...
, 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 ''Velociraptors'' were portrayed through puppetry and a
creature suit Creature suits are realistic costumes used to disguise a performer as an animal, monster, or other being. They are used in film, television, or as costumed characters in live events. Unlike mascots, they are often made with a high degree of reali ...
; the latter was altered to make the animals look more like the raptors in ''Jurassic Park''. Miniature effects, created by Anthony Doublin, were also used on the film. Buechler had more freedom on ''Carnosaur 2'' compared to its predecessor. After filming, a week of
post-production Post-production, also known simply as post, is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording indivi ...
work was spent working on the dinosaur effects. Originally, Corman planned to release the film theatrically in autumn 1994, although it eventually was released
direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strat ...
on February 15, 1995. It was released on
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
on April 18, 2000.


Reception

The ''
Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. ...
'' wrote that the film "takes an exploitation-film approach to ''
Jurassic Park ''Jurassic Park'', later referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton, centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of De-extinction#Cloning, cloned dinosaurs. It bega ...
''. 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". The ''
New York Daily News The ''Daily News'' is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in Tabloid (newspaper format ...
'' considered ''Carnosaur 2'' an improvement over the original film, and praised the cast, especially Savage and Stroud. ''
Missoulian The ''Missoulian'' is a daily newspaper printed in Missoula, Montana, United States. The newspaper has been owned by Lee Enterprises since 1959. The ''Missoulian'' is the largest published newspaper in Western Montana, and is distributed through ...
'' 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". J.R. Taylor of ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'' gave the film a "B+" and called it an "''Aliens'' rip-off". Brian J. Dillard of
AllMovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was ...
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".
TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...
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". Critic
John Kenneth Muir John Kenneth Muir (born December 3, 1969) is an American literary critic. As of 2022, he has written thirty reference books in the fields of film and television, with a particular focus on the horror and science fiction genres. Biography Bor ...
, 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 The final girl or survivor girl is a Trope (cinema), trope in horror films (particularly slasher films). It refers to the last girl(s) or woman alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story. The final girl has been ob ...
' written all over her, so her death is authentically surprising". 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".


See also

*
List of films featuring dinosaurs This is a list of films that feature non-avian dinosaurs and other prehistoric (mainly Mesozoic) archosaurs, pterosaurs, and marine reptiles such as mosasaurs and plesiosaurs. For depictions of avian dinosaurs see :Films about birds. Live-acti ...


References


External links

* {{Carnosaur (film series) 1995 direct-to-video films 1995 films 1995 action films 1995 horror films 1990s American films 1990s English-language films 1990s monster movies American monster movies American splatter films Direct-to-video sequel films Films about dinosaurs Films about genetic engineering Films directed by Louis Morneau Films produced by Roger Corman 1995 science fiction films English-language science fiction horror films English-language action films