Can Dinosaur work with Horror Genre

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JAGzilla
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Re: Can Dinosaur work with Horror Genre

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LegendZilla wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 7:06 pm Maybe Dino-ghosts could be a thing.
That could work. I remember a paranormal documentary I saw as a kid talking about dinosaur ghosts at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, the site of a massive Ceolophysis bone bed. Something like that could make for a spooky, small scale dinosaur horror story.

Time/dimensional distortion should also be taken advantage of more often. I read an old Japanese sci-fi short story about a kid who kept finding Triceratops in his neighborhood and even his house. They were out of sync with reality, just windows into the past that didn't interact in any way with the modern world around them. Now take that idea, the uncontrollable randomness of it, and give the dinosaurs the ability to actually solidify in our time intermittently. Or us in theirs, whichever. Kind of a halfway Land of the Lost situation.

You know, for that matter, Land of the Lost is an extremely cool premise that deserves to be revived and played with. There are all kinds of possibilities.
Last edited by JAGzilla on Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Can Dinosaur work with Horror Genre

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LegendZilla wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 7:06 pm Maybe Dino-ghosts could be a thing.
A Scooby Doo animated movie sort of did this (it wasn't real ghosts of course cause Scooby). It was definitely one of the better Scooby films imo based on just the whole dino-ghosts thing alone. So I would love a more serious, horror take on the idea. If the idea can work great for Scooby Doo, it should be amazing as a proper big budget live action horror idea.

Added in 2 minutes 47 seconds:
JAGzilla wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:39 pm
LegendZilla wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 7:06 pm Maybe Dino-ghosts could be a thing.
That could work. I remember a paranormal documentary I saw as a kid talking about dinosaur ghosts at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, the site of a massive Ceolophysis bone bed. Something like that could make for a spooky, small scale dinosaur horror story.
Ooh, can you recall or track down the title of this documentary please? I'd definitely love to give this a watch sometime. :)
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Re: Can Dinosaur work with Horror Genre

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Vakanai wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 6:35 pm
LegendZilla wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 7:06 pm Maybe Dino-ghosts could be a thing.
A Scooby Doo animated movie sort of did this (it wasn't real ghosts of course cause Scooby). It was definitely one of the better Scooby films imo based on just the whole dino-ghosts thing alone. So I would love a more serious, horror take on the idea. If the idea can work great for Scooby Doo, it should be amazing as a proper big budget live action horror idea.

Added in 2 minutes 47 seconds:
JAGzilla wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:39 pm
LegendZilla wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 7:06 pm Maybe Dino-ghosts could be a thing.
That could work. I remember a paranormal documentary I saw as a kid talking about dinosaur ghosts at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, the site of a massive Ceolophysis bone bed. Something like that could make for a spooky, small scale dinosaur horror story.
Ooh, can you recall or track down the title of this documentary please? I'd definitely love to give this a watch sometime. :)
^ I imagine the premise to such a movie to be like Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Pulse, only with Dinosaurs.
Last edited by LegendZilla on Wed Mar 22, 2023 8:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Can Dinosaur work with Horror Genre

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LegendZilla wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 8:34 pm
Vakanai wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 6:35 pm
LegendZilla wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 7:06 pm Maybe Dino-ghosts could be a thing.
A Scooby Doo animated movie sort of did this (it wasn't real ghosts of course cause Scooby). It was definitely one of the better Scooby films imo based on just the whole dino-ghosts thing alone. So I would love a more serious, horror take on the idea. If the idea can work great for Scooby Doo, it should be amazing as a proper big budget live action horror idea.

Added in 2 minutes 47 seconds:
JAGzilla wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:39 pm

That could work. I remember a paranormal documentary I saw as a kid talking about dinosaur ghosts at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, the site of a massive Ceolophysis bone bed. Something like that could make for a spooky, small scale dinosaur horror story.
Ooh, can you recall or track down the title of this documentary please? I'd definitely love to give this a watch sometime. :)
^ I imagine the premise to such a movie to be like Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Pulse, only with Dinosaurs.
I don't know, never seen Pulse, sorry. Is it a ghost film?
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Re: Can Dinosaur work with Horror Genre

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Vakanai wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 6:35 pm Ooh, can you recall or track down the title of this documentary please? I'd definitely love to give this a watch sometime. :)
No clue, sorry. :shrug: All I remember is that it was on TV, no idea what channel, sometime in the late '90s. Ghost Ranch was just one of several paranormal type stories it covered, and I don't think very much was said. All that really stuck with me was an image of a bunch of cheaply animated ghostly Ceolophysis skulls floating in the night sky. That's something you don't see every day. :lol:
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Re: Can Dinosaur work with Horror Genre

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JAGzilla wrote: Thu Mar 23, 2023 1:08 am
Vakanai wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 6:35 pm Ooh, can you recall or track down the title of this documentary please? I'd definitely love to give this a watch sometime. :)
No clue, sorry. :shrug: All I remember is that it was on TV, no idea what channel, sometime in the late '90s. Ghost Ranch was just one of several paranormal type stories it covered, and I don't think very much was said. All that really stuck with me was an image of a bunch of cheaply animated ghostly Ceolophysis skulls floating in the night sky. That's something you don't see every day. :lol:
Ha, that actually reminds me of something I saw once as a child. Now this was early to mid 90's, and I think it was like a special or something they showed on Disney Channel maybe? I don't know, I tried to track this thing down on google some years back but could never put in just the right words in search to come up with anything. Anyways, it was aimed at children, and all I remember is there was one older palentologist and a younger sidekick (high schooler college kid maybe?) working with him. The palentologist was cursed by a fossil or something, not sure, but he was slowly turning into some sort of dinosaur. Can't remember much more beyond that, remember this was around probably kindergarten or first grade for me only time I saw it. It'd probably be dumb now if I could ever track it down again and watch it, but little kid me was fascinated and terrified of the concept of a person turning into a dinosaur. I would love to see something like that explored seriously in a horror movie of a higher caliber than Velocipastor, which is the closest result I could find during a google search now sadly.
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Re: Can Dinosaur work with Horror Genre

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Vakanai wrote: Thu Mar 23, 2023 1:42 am The palentologist was cursed by a fossil or something, not sure, but he was slowly turning into some sort of dinosaur.
There's a concept. You know, it sounds loony (and is), but it's no stranger than the basic, taken for granted werewolf we all know and love. Why can't there be a weredinosaur, too? Heck, you could even put a semiscientific spin on it. We have labs right now trying to turn chickens back into dinosaurs by giving them teeth and claws and all. Maybe some hapless research assistant blunders into the middle of an experiment and winds up injected with a syringe full of bioengineered scaly, fanged chicken DNA, and freaking turns into a dinosaur.

*sees skeptics in the audience* No, I don't care what the result of that accident would actually be. Have you ever tried it? I didn't think so. You don't know nothing. Shut up and have fun.
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Re: Can Dinosaur work with Horror Genre

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Oh my god, so after posting that I was curious and tried searching again. Well, I found it, and uh...it's both worse and better than I thought! :huge:
So apparently what I saw around 92/93 I'm guessing was 1985's Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs and I even found a video and gave it a rewatch some 30 years later: https://www.schooltube.com/media/Dinosa ... 1_ciogmg8w
JAGzilla wrote: Thu Mar 23, 2023 2:24 am
Vakanai wrote: Thu Mar 23, 2023 1:42 am The palentologist was cursed by a fossil or something, not sure, but he was slowly turning into some sort of dinosaur.
There's a concept. You know, it sounds loony (and is), but it's no stranger than the basic, taken for granted werewolf we all know and love. Why can't there be a weredinosaur, too? Heck, you could even put a semiscientific spin on it. We have labs right now trying to turn chickens back into dinosaurs by giving them teeth and claws and all. Maybe some hapless research assistant blunders into the middle of an experiment and winds up injected with a syringe full of bioengineered scaly, fanged chicken DNA, and freaking turns into a dinosaur.

*sees skeptics in the audience* No, I don't care what the result of that accident would actually be. Have you ever tried it? I didn't think so. You don't know nothing. Shut up and have fun.
Sounds cool actually, but I'd kinda like a more paranormal take, or more outrageous sci-fi take, and have the film take place during any time through the 60s to 90s. Like modern, but not too modern you know. Give it a feel of a serious yet not quite today horror flick.
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Re: Can Dinosaur work with Horror Genre

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I remember seeing that 85 tv show as well when I was a kid.

For a paranormal take, you could have a person possessed by a dinosaur.
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Re: Can Dinosaur work with Horror Genre

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edgaguirus wrote: Fri Mar 24, 2023 1:39 pm I remember seeing that 85 tv show as well when I was a kid.
I'm kinda surprised I finally found it this time - even more surprised to learn this was shown regularly at schools for a bit? Like it barely qualifies as educational. I know for a fact I was at home when I saw it, but not sure what channel would've aired it back then.



So, these recent ideas/discussions have given me this idea/daydream of a "weredinosaur" movie. We go back to the mid-1980's to an old ranch turned dinosaur education/fossil digging themed summer camp. You've got your paleontologist/camp owner, your intern/volunteer/whatever college aged camp counselors, a nurse, cook, gaggle of kids/teens attending summer camp, and one crotchety rancher neighbor upset that the land went to some camp unearthing old bones instead of to the productive use of expanding his/her own ranch. So early on in the film one of the people in the cast finds a really cool fossil - maybe just a tooth, maybe part of or a whole jaw full of teeth. Important bit is the fossil tooth is still sharp and the person accidentally cuts themselves on it.

Over the rest of the movie this person starts acting strangely. They see at times the ghostly visage of a terrifying dinosaur, like they're having visions of it attacking people or turning on them before someone snaps them out of the trance/reverie. Cattle in the neighboring ranch gets killed and mutilated and devoured. The cursed camper or whoever occasionally discovers green scales covering their arms or similar dino-features. Eventually other camp counselors and campers start to go missing.

Eventually it all comes to a head with like the local sheriff shooting and killing the dinosaur-person after a big bloody rampage/massacre. The wounded, possibly dying, possibly cursed sheriff gets taken off in an ambulance. We get an overhead shot of the camp, and suddenly all these spots scattered across the camp start glowing green. Camera zooms down to reveal the source of the green glow - more cursed/possessed fossilized dinosaur teeth. Cue credits.


If I had any means of production or anything I would totally try to get this film made. Thinking retro throwback horror film, like grainy cheap movie film roll and everything, give it real vintage feel. But obviously much better practical effects for the dino-person monster.

Off the top of my head movie titles:
Camp Weresaur
Slaughter at Camp Fossil
Dino Camp Massacre
Paleontology of Blood
Beware the Weresaur
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Re: Can Dinosaur work with Horror Genre

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Vakanai wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 6:35 pmA Scooby Doo animated movie sort of did this (it wasn't real ghosts of course cause Scooby). It was definitely one of the better Scooby films imo based on just the whole dino-ghosts thing alone. So I would love a more serious, horror take on the idea. If the idea can work great for Scooby Doo, it should be amazing as a proper big budget live action horror idea.
As someone who loves Scooby Doo on Zombie Island and Scooby Do and the Witch's Ghost and longs to see a return to the days when the monsters were real, I think a Scooby Doo movie with dinosaurs that are actually real would be the coolest thing ever. With the right touches, it could be even scarier than Zombie Island.

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Like, imagine if they temporarily trap the dinosaur (let's say a Giganotosaurus), and someone pulls out a knife to cut the 'fake' skin, totally expecting it to be fake...only for them to do so, and the animal bleeds and instantly goes crazy, revealing it's legit. Packing the same "oh, shit" punch that Zombie Island had when it revealed the zombies were real.
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Re: Can Dinosaur work with Horror Genre

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That would be scary. That kind of scenario sounds like a lost opportunity for SD and the Lochness Monster. One Nessie would be a disguised minisub, but the other would be real.
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Re: Can Dinosaur work with Horror Genre

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A weredinosaur is a fun idea, but I think a more terrifying way to go would be to have a human act like one.

A pseudoscientist believes that fossils might carry some mental or life energy and seeks to prove it. He hires a young woman described as "perceptive" by her friends to study the bones. She feels something from them, and then things start to happen. She finds blood on her clothes, and a neighbor's pet is found dead. People are being killed, and the woman has nightmares of their faces and a carnosaur. She comes to realize that she has become possessed by the energy of the bones, and when she sleeps, the prehistoric force in her wakes.
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Re: Can Dinosaur work with Horror Genre

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edgaguirus wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 10:19 pm A weredinosaur is a fun idea, but I think a more terrifying way to go would be to have a human act like one.

A pseudoscientist believes that fossils might carry some mental or life energy and seeks to prove it. He hires a young woman described as "perceptive" by her friends to study the bones. She feels something from them, and then things start to happen. She finds blood on her clothes, and a neighbor's pet is found dead. People are being killed, and the woman has nightmares of their faces and a carnosaur. She comes to realize that she has become possessed by the energy of the bones, and when she sleeps, the prehistoric force in her wakes.
Well shit, I'd watch it.


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Re: Can Dinosaur work with Horror Genre

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Honestly I like both ideas in the classic double billing way. Weredino, dino-possession, that's just a good night there.
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Re: Can Dinosaur work with Horror Genre

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It's not a weredinosaur, but in looking up any films that use this idea, I found a movie where a man turns into a dinosaur. Metamorphosis, from 1990, has a scientist that uses a serum on himself, and he turns into a dinosaur. I have not seen the film, but there it is.
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Re: Can Dinosaur work with Horror Genre

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Actually, Marvel did it first with Stegron the Dinosaur Man, a.k.a. Vincent Stegron, a human/Stegosaurus hybrid creature who was a former laboratory assistant to Dr. Curt Connors, a.k.a. the Lizard.

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Re: Can Dinosaur work with Horror Genre

Post by Mothra_Virgo »

I don't just think dinos could work well for horror. I think they are made for it.

I think the trick would be restraint. I'd do a velociraptor movie and treat it like jaws. You barely see it until the halfway point. It would be more about building suspense and establishing that this thing is smarter than you think.

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Re: Can Dinosaur work with Horror Genre

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Or do what the Brit series Primeval did. In the Pterosaur episode, they made you believe the big pterosaur was the threat, but then they revealed the real one. A nice twist goes a long way.
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Re: Can Dinosaur work with Horror Genre

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Mothra_Virgo wrote: Wed Nov 15, 2023 4:50 pm I don't just think dinos could work well for horror. I think they are made for it.
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