In the year 2004 the death penalty has been abolished. When the FBI captures a vicious career criminal (Guy Godefroy), they need to come up with a way to punish him.
At the same time, a group of scientists led by Professor Harry Nolan (Jean Rollin) are planning a trip to a planet that is said to be like Earth only with its evolution further back in time. The scientists want to find out if dinosaurs exist on this planet. The legal authorities decide to send the criminal to the new planet with the scientists.
Once on the planet, they encounter the dinosaurs they were hoping to find. The dinosaurs attack the group and start eating them. In the confusion the prisoner manages to escape, but not before they cut his hand off. While searching for the criminal they find a cave girl (Quelou Parente) that dances for them to a rock and roll number. She ends up being in cahoots with criminal and helps him lure them to a cave where they are fed to a dinosaur. Eventually the survivors get away and return to the ship. As they return to Earth, they are unaware that they have a stow-away on board.
At least that’s what I think it’s about.
“Dinosaur from the Deep” was released in 1994 and was directed by Norbert Moutier. It is an obscure French low budget “Z” science fiction horror movie. I also can’t help but think that the movie was intended to be a comedy as well, or at the very least tongue-in-cheek.
To keep things in perspective, the movie was released the same year as Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park”. Special effects are done using clay, papeir-mache, puppets, dinosaur toys, including “Dino-Riders” action figures, forced perspective, and some stop-motion. The film never had a theatrical release but was released on VHS. The only copy of the film available is in French, although the beginning and ending credits appear to be in English. The video is apparently a copy made from a very old and very decrepit VHS tape.
Since I don’t speak French, I may need some help with my facts concerning the synopsis of the film. My brother might be able to help, but I can’t humanely force him to watch the movie although he has seen snippets. It would probably be considered cruel and unusual punishment so I will have to go by my research on the film. Please note that I did watch the movie, although I didn’t really understand a lot of it. My reason for wanting to actually submit myself to it was due to the fact that it is reportedly the worst dinosaur movie ever, and it succeeds in that. The film suffers from bad EVERYTHING. If you have any criticism for ANY of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic movies, I dare you to watch this.
As an olive leaf for those that love all things dinosaur and really need to get to the meat of the film, I will tell you that the dinosaur action first starts at about the half hour mark. If you fast forward through the first half hour and look at the movie as a zero-budget comedy, then you may actually get a few laughs out of it as well as see some really bad dinosaurs. I’m also not sure why it was called “Dinosaur from the Deep” since they are nowhere near water. In defense of Moutier, he was a video store owner who created several “Z” movies and loved making low budget schlock. He succeeded.
For those who are French cinema buffs the movie stars Jean Rollin, Tina Aumont, Sylvaine Charlet, Guy Godefroy, Norbert Moutier, and Christophe Bier.