TERRORDACTYL (2016)
This movie is surprisingly straight forward. It’s loosely based on the idea that the moon was once part of the earth, and now just happens to be pretty freakin round after “insert some garbage number here” years. Only in this case, some of those chunks of rock that went into space after the earth was battered by meteorites, were housing pterodactyl eggs. They somehow survived in space, and now are returning to earth in another meteor shower outside of Los Angeles. Two friends Lars (played by Christopher Jennings) and Jonas (played by Jason Tobias) find one of the meteorites and bring it to a lady that conveniently knows all about this stuff, named Valerie (played by Bianca Haase). It doesn’t take long before we’ve got 8 foot pterodactyls running all over the place trying to find the meteorite these 3 have. They also kill some people along the way, putting the “terror” in pterodactyl.
This movie stands out from a lot of other “big monsters” b-movies because of how well it’s done in certain parts. Apparently there are no practical effects in the entire movie, but the CGI work in certain scenes is so well done, these TERRORDACTYL’s look like crafted rubber props (which kind of makes sense, director Don Bitters III has a long history of visual effects work and even worked on MAZE RUNNER). This is not to say the CGI is some areas isn’t pretty bad, this is a b-movie after all.
Acting wise the first act is pretty strong, but as the movie goes on, the leads acting all gets noticeably worse. At one point it almost feels like they aren’t even trying. There is an older conspiracy theory type guy in the movie named Sampson, (played by Jack E. Curenton) but his character is pretty cranky and creepy, so I almost couldn’t wait for him to get off screen.
Where this film does succeed aside from the petty decent CGI, (in almost every part not involving fire or flying) is in the script. The dialog is fine and these actors and actresses did a good job with the material while barely trying. It’s actually very refreshing. If you have been reading my stuff long, you know that I have reviewed a TON of these types of flicks, but I found myself really enjoying this thing. The 3 main characters are all likable, and the films pace overall is pretty even. There are also some really cool things happening in the background in certain scenes, that just add to this whole experience a bit. If they ever make another one, I am on board.
This is not to be confused with the 12 minute short horror film that came out in 2018 with the same name. This one is more of an action adventure with a bit of comedy and minimal horror elements. If you watch a lot of these types of flicks, it’s pretty easy to see that TERRORDACTYL is a stand out in a super crowded field. I give TERRORDACTYL a 4 out of 7. I would like to see a possible series.
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