I recently had the great privilege to meet Sid Krofft when he came to the Galaxycon in Raleigh at the end of July. With his brother Marty, Sid created some of the greatest Saturday morning weirdness including H.R. Pufnstuff, Lidsville and The Bugaloos. I had interviewed Marty on the phone over a decade ago and never thought I’d get to speak to Sid. He was the brother that came up with the creatures at the shop while Marty handled dealmaking and promoting the shows. During the weekend, Sid and I talked a bit about his various shows. I even introduced him to my kid who watched Krofft shows on the DVD sets. Even more astounding was getting to wish Sid a happy 95th birthday during the weekend. I bring up Sid Krofft because I get the idea that he was a major influence on director Mark Polonia (Cocaine Werewolf). The movie is called Jurassic Exorcist, in an attempt to connect it with Jurassic Park and The Exorcist. I sense the film has more in common with prehistoric creatures of the Kroffts’ legendary Land of the Lost series. Polonia mixes stop motion, puppetry and CGI to make his demonic dinosaur roam the countryside of Pennsylvania. Jurassic Exorcist is like a Saturday morning show that’s gone off the rails in an entertaining way.
A military helicopter lands in the countryside and armed troops hit the ground. They are there to stop a robed and masked demonic cult from performing a ritual with a virgin in a barn. The soldiers are too late. The cult members successfully bring a demonically possessed dinosaur into the modern world. How do we know it’s filled with an evil spirit? It’s a T. Rex covered in flames. The only hope is Father Brennan (Sharkenstein‘s Titus Himmelberger) who is stuck in the woods when his car wrecks after being chased by the burning dinosaur. He stumbles across a secret government installation where a worker brings him inside. Turns out they have a time machine. They need the priest to go back to the Jurassic era and exorcise the dinosaur before the cult summons the creature into the modern world.
Jurassic Exorcist lives up to the title. We get a priest and a dinosaur going at each other. What I do enjoy about the microbudget epic is how they keep the action and the weirdness coming in the short running time. This movie is better than any of the Jurassic Park films for giving us a T. Rex on fire. More importantly, Mark Polonia’s version of an Exorcist film is more inventive than David Gordon Green’s attempt. Did Green have a burning dinosaur bust into a church to fight a priest? No! The big battle scene is a truly a digital microbudget dream since they only had to videotape the priest in the church with everything else being a digital effect including the crosses on the wall. Polonia only had to film his main actor in the room and not have to worry about the property owner getting upset because he nailed props to their walls or dripped fake blood on their carpet. The movie is filled with that Land of the Lost weirdness with creature effects on the screen. There’s even a strange ape creature that attacks the priest that looks like he battled a Sleestak. Jurassic Exorcist will reaffirm your belief that dinosaurs can be possessed by demons.
The Video is 1.78:1 anamorphic. You’ll be able to delight in the stop motion and puppet dinosaur action. The Audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. You’ll hear that dinosaur roar and sizzle as it attacks the priest.
Audio Commentary with Mark Polonia lets him explain how he put the film together with friends, favors and interesting effects. He explains how he got actual footage of an Army helicopter landing with troops coming out for free. He explains all the other films that were shot in a barn. Johnny LaRue would be amazed to know that Polonia used a camera crane during the production. His son was the animator. He points out how monk robes can be reused. There’s talk of his love of stop motion animation for the burning dinosaur. He also shot film in five days over a few weekends. He has great tips for people wanting to make microbudget feature films.
Trailer (0:58) lets us know this is going to be very weird.
Trailer Gallery includes Apex Predator 2, Bigfoot Exorcist, Mummy Shark, Shark Exorcist 2 and Once Upon A Time In Amityville.
Wild Eye Releasing presents Jurassic Exorcist. Directed by Mark Polonia. Screenplay by John Oak Dalton. Starring Titus Himmelberger, Natalie Himmelberger, Ryan Dalton, Jamie Morgan, Jeff Kirkendall, Yolie Canales, Ken Van Sant & Noyes J. Lawton. Running Time: 72 minutes. Rating: Not Rated. Release Date: September 24, 2024.
Here’s Sid Krofft at Galaxycon in Raleigh getting wished a happy 95th birthday:
