Carnosaur 3: Primal Species (1996)

Carnosaur 3: Primal Species is a 1996 direct-to-video action/horror/sci-fi film. It is the sequel to the 1995 film Carnosaur 2, and the third installation of the Carnosaur series. It was the first of the series to not get a theatrical release.

The film is the last in the series, but was followed by two unofficial sequels, the first called Raptor in 2001, which included re-used footage from the series; the second was The Eden Formula a made-for-TV film.

International terrorists get a surprise when their cargo turns out to contain living dinosaurs. The army commando team now have to think fast, if they want to prevent the extinction of the human species, instead of the reptiles.

Cast

 * Scott Valentine as Col. Rance Higgins
 * Janet Gunn as Dr. Hodges
 * Rick Dean as Polchek
 * Anthony Peck as Gen. Pete Mercer
 * Rodger Halston as Sanders
 * Terri J. Vaughn as B.T. Coolidge
 * Billy Burnette as Furguson
 * Morgan Englund as Rossi
 * Stephen Lee as Sergeant
 * Justina Vail as Proudfoot
 * Cyril O'Reilly as Dolan
 * Abraham Gordon as Billings
 * Michael McDonald as Police Officer Wilson
 * David Roberson as Johnson
 * Jonathan Winfrey as Bob

Background
The film stars Scott Valentine as Col. Rance Higgins, Janet Gunn as Dr. Hodges. It was directed by Jonathan Winfrey and produced by Roger Corman. Others featured in the film includes Rick Dean as Polchek, Anthony Peck as Gen. Pete Mercer (his last film), Rodger Halston as Sanders and Terri J. Vaughn as B.T. Coolidge.

Rick Dean, who plays Polchek, had played 'Monk' Brody in Carnosaur 2 whilst Michael McDonald, who played the Police Officer Wilson, played the small role of the Evac. Team Pilot in Carnosaur 2.

The film premiered in Germany during November 1996 but didn't premiere in America until January 1997, although the DVD had already been released.

According to the film's DVD sleeve, the film was winner of a Golden Scroll Award from The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror.

To date, the film remains available on DVD in both America and the UK. The film remains available as a stand-alone DVD, as well as part of the out-of-print The Carnosaur Collection box-set, released in 2001, that features all three films. In the UK, the film was the first of the series to be released in the country, with both preceding films still remaining on DVD outside of the UK.

In the UK, the film's alternative title is Primal Species.

Part of the film's ending credits read "The American Dinosaur Association monitored all dinosaur action. Scenes depicting violence to dinosaurs were simulated. No dinosaur was harmed or mistreated during the making of this film."

Reception
Sandra Brennan of Allmovie gave a rating of one and a half stars out of five, writing "The third in a series of gory films about voracious genetically engineered dinosaurs who escape and run amok, the action starts when international terrorists hijack what they think is valuable freight. Instead, the cargo turns out to be the deadly lizards, and boy they are hungry."

Popcorn Pictures gave the film half a star out of five stars, and wrote "Some of these bad films are so bad that they are amusing. Others, such as Primal Species are just downright bad. To quote Mark J. Tannacore's review, "Carnosaur started at the bottom and the series went downhill from there." It didn't just go downhill, it nosedived."

Scott Weinburg of eFilmCritic gave a one out of five star rating and described the film as "Bargain basement dinosaur droppings."

Pete Vonder Haar of Film Threat gave a one out of five star rating and summed the film up "Because 2 Carnosaurs simply weren't enough..."

The Triangle Publications TV Guide gave the film two stars out of five. The book DVD & Video Guide 2005 gave the film two and a half stars out of five, whilst the book VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever gave a rating of two out of five stars. The guide Creature Features: The Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Movie Guide gave the film two out of five stars.

Goofs

 * The AK-47s and M16s in the movie are clearly semi-automatic (the bolts are ejecting only one round at a time whenever they're fired), yet the sound of fully-automatic gunfire is heard whenever they're fired.
 * In the opening shot, the convoy starts out with a jeep, troop carrier, semi-truck with the dinosaur trailer, and two jeeps at the tail end. Over the following shots, the convoy changes to having one jeep at the end, then two jeeps at the end, then only one jeep again, and finally two jeeps again when the ambush occurs.
 * In the opening convoy scene, the troops are not wearing US uniforms. Troops never had desert camo t-shirts and the US helmets were liners without the 'pot'.
 * In the scene with the general, his uniform is incorrect. He mixes medals with ribbons on Class A, and the US-lapel device is the one worn by enlisted men, not officers. The desert camo uniform worn by the hero has epaulets, not a feature of US uniforms, and for some reason is buttoned all the way to the throat.
 * At the time the movie was made, women were not allowed to serve in Marine Recon or Special Forces.
 * In the opening sequence, the sergeant just finishes relieving himself from the back of a moving jeep when he reacts to an explosion before it actually happens.
 * When Rance throws the bomb into the Tyranosaur's mouth and detonates it a metal pole protruding from the puppets neck can be seen which previously connected the head to its body.