Behind the Screams!

Behind the Screams!

Some fun behind the scenes shots of horror and sci-fi films…

not-so scary creature from Poltergeist

scary creature from Poltergeist

attacked by a giant ant in Empire of the Ants

Just showing a little affection

behind the swing – attack of the 50 ft woman

War of the Worlds – on set

Big G out on a date

Beast from 20,000 fathoms – on set

attack of the crab monsters

alligator people behind the scenes

Creatch in love…

that’s not what I meant…

dino turns into spot – The Munsters

heavy duty machinery

amazing!

skin over bones

time for paint

I am your twin brother…oh, wrong movie

my bird won’t fly

stay puft – campfire fun!

ghidorah three headed monster

Gamera makes a friend

 

Baragon the horny Kaiju

The Truth About Jurassic Park

The Truth About Jurassic Park

and the films in the Franchise

Steven Spielberg, in preparation for Jurassic Park, assembled his own group of scientists, paleontologists, engineers and biologists (much like John Hammond) to get an accurate picture of dinosaur life before shooting the first JP film. This provided many great resolutions of theory and conjecture to become accepted knowledge. Dinosaurs could not have dragged their tails like reptiles, dinosaurs were warm blooded and active creatures, dinosaurs moved and acted more like birds than reptiles.

However, for the sake of making a fun Hollywood film some facts were intentionally discarded and overlooked. I don’t personally have a problem with that. No one should be writing a thesis based on the films. I accept that a fictional story will have some wiggle room in order to support the fictitious adventure.

Here are some of the hard science facts:

Most of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park movies were not from the Jurassic Time Period in earth’s history. Most were from the Cretaceous era, 100 million years later.

Velociraptor – in the first film they called the one type of ‘human sized’ dinosaur a velociraptor. They were not velociraptors at all. Velociraptors are only 2- 3 ft. tall, approx. 6 ft in length, about the size of a medium sized dog. The dinosaur portrayed on-screen was a Deinonychus, as it was in the book, which is in the ‘raptor‘ family. Velociraptor just sounds cooler. In the later films they are just called raptors.

Dilophosaurus were actually a much larger creature than portrayed in the first film. There was no indication of a frill or that it spit poison. At 16 ft. long it had no need for such weaponry. It was one of the largest predators of the early Jurassic period.

My cousin is a bird – It is commonly accepted that dinosaurs eventually evolved into birds and were closer in species to birds than today’s reptiles. It is also accepted that many of the later species, especially the carnivores, probably had some feathers in some areas of the body. The films prefer to keep the dinos featherless for continuity with the first film. Also, I’ve heard a lot of war cries from armchair scientists stating, “Dinosaurs Had Feathers!” We are talking about over 200 million years of evolution when they had existed on earth. It is possible and probable that the first raptors and Rex’s didn’t have feathers but the later one’s (100 million years later) had grown them through a process called evolution.

I’m not a CG – The Dinosaurs in Jurassic Park movies are not all CGI. Most of the dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park films are real-life animatronics robots, magnificent wonders themselves, created by Stan Winston’s team at his special effects studios. CG was used to enhance the movements and/or fill in pieces when the dinosaurs were fully framed. CG was also used in wide-screen shots to show herds.

Tyrannosaurus Rex

Dinosaur stars in Jurassic Park (1993):
Tyrannosaurus Rex
Deinonychus (raptors/velociraptors)
Dilophosaurus
Brachiosaurus
Triceratops
Gallimimus (seen in herds)

Dinosaur stars in Jurassic Park: The Lost World (1997):
Tyrannosaurus Rex
Deinonychus (raptors/velociraptors)
Compsognathus (compys)

brachiosaurus

Stegosaurus
Parasaurolophus (seen in herds)
Pachycephalosaurus (seen in herds)
Gallimimus (seen in herds)

Dinosaur stars in Jurassic Park III (2001):
Spinosaurus
Tyrannosaurus Rex
Deinonychus (raptors/velociraptors)
Pteranodon
Ceratosarus
Corythosaurus (seen in herds)
Parasaurolophus (seen in herds)

Dilophosaurus

deinonychus – ‘raptor’

Spinosaurus

pteranodon

compsagnathus ‘compy’

Stegosaurus

Triceratops

Planet of Dinosaurs (1977) – movie review

Planet of Dinosaurs (1977)

Directed By James Shea
Written by Jim Aupperle and Ralph Lucas

This is an important film for the dinosaur movie fan because it is the last full-length *dinosaur world film to feature stop-motion animation dinosaurs. The film was a labor of love by the (at the time) up-and-coming special effects artists and animators. Most of the animation was handled by Doug Beswick and the effects photography was done by Jim Aupperle who was a knowledgeable special effects camerman. The models were built by Stephen Czerkas and Jim Danforth did some of the matte paintings.

The dinosaurs strive to equal the quality of the men’s mentor and hero, Ray Harryhausen and they even pay tribute with a Rhedosaurus-type dino in the film. The numerous dinosaurs have a unique lizard texture, scaly and knobby and are each marvelous creations for their stop-motion format. The dinosaurs engage in some violent scenes pushing the envelope of the past, such as when the Ceratopsian impales one of the crew with his forward horn. This film has a large amount of dinosaur action and scenes, as they are the main reason for the film being made. In fact, Aupperle designated most of the limited budget for the film to go into the special effects. Dinosaurs include, Stegosaurus, Allosaurus, Rhedosaurus, Ceratopsian, Brontosaurus, Tyranosaurus, Kentrosaurus, Allosaurus, and Struthiomimus.

The story is a fairly lame hodge-podge of old ideas and is only outdone by a terrible script and hokey dialogue. A spacecraft veers off course and lands in a lake on a distant planet. The crew get out alive but all their equipment is lost. (Sound Familiar anyone?) They find the planet to be populated with savage dinosaurs that attack them relentlessly. The ships captain wants to take a passive path through the land, avoiding the dinos and finding a secure place to hide until help comes. The older experienced macho-man, Jim, wants to show these dinos who’s boss and kill the biggest one in town, the T Rex. At one point the Captain yells at Luke Skywalker dude for giving an hysterical woman a weapon. This was 1977, the year of Charlie’s Angels, didn’t they know women had the power by then?

There’s some weird dialogue about being a vegetarian and a meat eater and how only the meat-eaters survive. To prove the point, all the ‘vegetarians’ die first. The remaining crew sets out to kill the T. Rex. They first kill a Kentrosaurus, stuff it with poison berries and bring it to Rex’ s cave. Well, old T. Bone skips right over the Kentro and grabs Luke Skywalker dude in his teeth. Ouch! Another team member gone. They come up with a new, more aggressive plan to kill Rex and it works. And they live happily ever after on their new planet.

Realizing early on that the actors are not going to carry the film, the filmmakers take lots of footage of them walking. Up mountains, down hillsides, across deserts, there’s just too much walking. The hokey dialogue is funny at times but wears thin as the film continues. The only saving grace is the last 45 minutes of the film has a lot of dinosaur scenes

If you’re looking for a good story, interesting sci-fi themes or any tense character drama, your ship is way off course with this film. But if you just want to see some impressive stop-motion dinos, and some humans get gobbled up by them, you will find this film enjoyable.

Check out more dinosaur film reviews at my master page: Dinosaur films

* other films beyond this point did feature stop-motion animation dinos, most notably The Crater Lake Monster and Q: The Winged Serpent, but POD was the last to show a full dinosaur world with many species of dinosaurs using this form of animation.

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Note about the dvd release:
In a homage to stop-motion effects animation, the dvd special features also include the silent Willis O’Brien shorts, The Ghost of Slumber Mountain (1919) and Dinosaur and the Missing Link (1915)

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Notes about the effects crew:

Jim Danforth – worked on films as an animator and/or matte artist quite often uncredited. He made contributions to titles such as: Jack The Giant Killer (1962), The Outer Limits (1963-64), Equinox (1970, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970), Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) (the Wonkanator), Diamonds are Forever (1971) (Submarine models animation), Flesh Gordon (1974), The Crater Lake Monster (1977), Clash of the Titans (1980), Creepshow (1981), and many more…

Doug Beswick
Worked on notable films such as The Terminator (1984) (stop motion terminator skeleton), Aliens (1986) (Mechanical armature design), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Flesh Gordon (1974), Beetle juice (1988), Evil Dead II (1987), episodes of Xena Warrior Princess (1998 – 2000), to name a few.

Jim Aupperle
Worked on some mega hits as well including, Ghost Busters (1984), The Thing (1982), Hellboy (2004), Creepshow, Flesh Gordon (1974), Troll (1986), Dinosaur (2000), Harry Potter (part 2), and Ted (2011), to name a few.

Stephen Czerkas

And a special note about Stephen Czerkas who passed away January 22, 2015.

Stephen provided modeling and effects work early in his career to films such as, Dreamscape, Flesh Gordon and Planet of Dinosaurs. In 1981 he was commissioned to do some life-sized models of dinosaurs for museums. In the years following he released several books on the subject of paleontology including, Dinosaurs: A Global View, My life with Dinosaurs and Feathered Dinosaurs. In 1992 he opened The Dinosaur Museum in Utah which will continue to astound, inform and educate visitors on the subject of prehistoric beasts.

So that’s what happened to my 8-Track Tape player

I’m just like Luke Skywalker!

Gets the party started for the guys…

Spring Break, 2069

One horny dino

Impaled!

best scene of the film 🙂

Just when they are about to kiss, in walks T. Rex

A Midnight Snack!

Here’s one for the ladies 😉 …No?

How bout this guy and his 70’s hair and ferret face ‘stache, ladies? I hear he’s single…

Rock climbing 101, let the girls carry all the heavy equipment 🙂

Best looking bronto in a movie!

Lunch!

what big teeth you have grandma

T Rex vs Stegosaurus!

Stephen Czerkas sauropod from Planet of dinos

Stephen Czerkas with Carnotaurus Dinosaur Statue

From left to right, Jim Aupperle, Steve Czerkas, and Doug Beswick

Jim Aupperle

Creature (1998) – movie review

Creature (1998) aka: Peter Benchley’s Creature

Craig T. Nelson
Kim Cattrall

This feels like an 80’s monster movie and I don’t mean that in a bad way. Both Nelson and Cattrall already had successful careers, it would seem unlikely they would show up in a made-for-TV monster flick. But there they were, providing above average acting to what should be a B-sci fi/horror film. The monster here is a genetically engineered mutation, half man/half shark, on steroids, a set of massive teeth on two legs chasing down his prey which consisted mostly of humans. The script was well-written from Peter Benchley’s novel and made the events seem plausible. Stan Winston’s special-FX team worked up a defined original creature, enjoyable for the monster fan. So why isn’t it well known and praised in the horror genre? Because it was over a decade too late. If this had come out in the mid-eighties, had a little more gore and skin, it would have made some waves. Unfortunately in 1998, it was little more than a ripple in a puddle. However that doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable, just don’t expect it to live up to today’s monster movie standards. Being a TV movie, it takes an hour for things to really start heating up but the pay-off is good. It certainly ain’t no ‘Jaws,’ so it’s best to think of it as an 80’s ‘B’ monster film.