Saurians

Director - Mark Polonia (Four Nights in Fear Forest, Trail Cam Sasquatch)

Starring - Mark Polonia, Maria Davis (Feeders, Peter Rottentail), and Matthew Satterly (Church of the Damned, Night Crawlers)

Release Date - 1994

Genre - Action/Sci-Fi

Tagline - "The age of the dinosaurs is reborn"

Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     I've reviewed several films from Mark Polonia and his late brother John.  Some of their films are cult classics that many genre fans adore while others are what I would consider barely watchable.  The movies from the pair that I like, I really like, but those that I don't are extremely difficult to finish.  Over the years I've seen dozens of Mark's films and I always look forward to checking out one I haven't seen before so I jumped at the chance to see the sci-fi adventure film Saurians from 1994 when my friends at Visual Vengeance asked if I wanted to review.  I want to take a moment to thank my VV for sending this one over for review.

     The film follows a group of amateur archeologists who find themselves running for their lives when a nearby construction site accidentally unleashes two prehistoric creatures hellbent on eating everything they cross paths with.  

     I went into Saurians knowing a little about the film and how it spawned several sequels.  Sadly, I never had the opportunity to check any of them out until now.  I went into this one very excited to check it out but once the film started rolling I found myself not enjoying it like I would have liked.  The acting in this one is rough around the edges but the cast is dedicated to their roles.  I know I often say this with no budget genre flicks when the cast has no experience but it sums up a lot of these films that I review.  The cast struggles with their dialogue and the intended emotion that the scene calls for but they are giving it everything they have.  I wouldn't call this the worst acting I've seen but a few of the scenes had me laughing with unintentional humor.  The story for this one reminds me a lot of the dinosaur flicks from the drive-in era.  We have a group of archeologists who find themselves face to face with the dinosaurs they are hunting the very fossils of.  It's a simply enough story but the slow scenes and tough dialogue makes it difficult to finish.  Finally, the film uses a lot of classic filming techniques that was a little bit of fun but the lack of fun deaths and memorable effects makes it easily forgettable.  Overall, Saurians is not the fun no-budget film from Mark Polonia that I was looking forward.  I wanted to love it but it just wasn't for me.  I can recommend so many other Visual Vengeance films for you to check out.