Monster of the Day #472

Clearly I’ve been saving these guys for last, an early, lovably creaky example of suitmation. The suits are endearingly awkward. The raised headpieces clearly threw the actors inside off-balance, the arms pretty much just hang there, and the suits plainly didn’t allow those inside to see much, if anything. The result is that their movement is restricted to an ungainly shuffle. Still, that’s nothing but awesome right there.

You wonder where these guys get their brilliant, highly original ideas, but the centerpiece sequence of the film sees one of the T-Rexes fighting the film’s highly accurate giant sloths.


  • Flangepart

    “Look at me, I’m fierce! Wobbly, but fierce!”

  • Any suit that makes Gamera look more realistic is all right in my book.

  • Ericb

    I’m going to give this movie and A for effort.  While many of their monster decisions were probably made for budgetary reasons they did show some imagination by searching in the more remote corners of the paleontological zoo for their beasties (Monday’s Sloth, Tuesdays’ Dimetrodon and today’s Ceratosaurus).

  • Ericb

    Oh, was that supposed to be a T-Rex?   Nevermind.

  • Ken_Begg

    Well, I can’t remember if they actually identified them as such. I think most people just assume they are meant to be Rexes. To be fair, these are closer than the one in King Dinosaur.

  • Ericb

    Well the one in King Dinosaur is the worst T-Rex of all time.  Except maybe for the one in Journey to the Center of Time. I don’t remember if they identified the brief glimpse of their  iguana as a T-Rex thought one of the movie posters promised some kind of theropod and all we got was, well, an iguana.

  • Ericb

    Oh, I forgot The Mighty Gorga.  I shoud probably avoid saying “the worst” on this website without prefacing it with a “probably.”

  • Beckoning Chasm

    In the top pic, it doesn’t look like they’re fighting.  It looks like they’re comforting each other. 

    “I know, I know!  I was up for a promotion too, but you know they gave it to a damn mammal.  It’s just so…unfair!”

  • bgbear_rogerh

    How about a hug for the ol’ Alfer?

  • Ericb

    “I know an lawyer who deals with discrimination issues.  He may be a giant sloth but he’s completely free of bias against dinosaurs in fact some of his best friends are dinosaurs..  I’ll set you up for a meeting with him.” [picture 2]

  • Ken_Begg

    For myself, I’m seeing more of a Romeo & Juliet-esque love story.

  • Beckoning Chasm

     “Two species, both alike in dignity
    In fair UNKNOWN ISLAND where we lay our scene
    From ancient grudge break forth to new mutiny…”

  • That was a monitor lizard. I’d be interested in seeing a chart to determine which animal played a dinosaur more often on screen, the iguana or the monitor lizard. I think monitor lizards work best of the two, seeing as they look slightly more exotic and have long necks. They also wear rubber horns and fins rather well!

  • Man, that’s just great stuff! I’d love to build a movie around one of those things, skulking around in the darkness around a small rural town…..

    I’m still awed that I haven’t seen this picture yet! It looks fantastic! I had no idea there were so many dinosaurs in UNKNOWN ISLAND!

    Bob Burns was on set the day they filmed the major attack scene where one of the dinosaurs goes down. The sun was beating down and the suits had absolutely no ventilation. That dinosaur that gets shot and falls over was the suit actor passing out from the heat! I admire that the producers kept it in. Can’t wait to see it for myself!

  • zombiewhacker

    How about the Claude Rains Lost World remake?  Didn’t they foist a monitor lizard on us at some point, then claim that it was actually a T-rex?

  • The Rev.

    As a dino-nerd, these are definitely ceratosaurs.  The nose “horn” is the giveaway, along with the longer arms (compared to a T-rex) with four digits.

    Granted, I’ve not seen the movie, so they may have called them whatever they wanted, but there you go.