Raptor

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jim Wynorski directs. Andrea V. Rossotto behind the camera. Max K. Atkins cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 182 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
• 225 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
• 3Part of the "Carnosaur Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
• 4Directed by Jim Wynorski, shot by Andrea V. Rossotto. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 5Editor Max K. Atkins shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 6Eric Roberts and Corbin Bernsen and Melissa Brasselle carry the top of the cast.
• 7IMDB entry: tt0292634 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 8Only 48 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
• 9Classified under 8 themes, including "sheriff", "secret lab", "dinosaur", "police investigation".

The technical file

Cinematography

Andrea V. Rossotto

Editing

Max K. Atkins

Production design

Nikki Giovacchini

Makeup / hair

Lea Nettles

Sound

Ben Zarai

Stunt coordinator

Bob Bragg

Runtime

82 min · 1h 22m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

Raptor (2001) ↗

Part of

Carnosaur Collection

The plots involving genetically engineered dinosaurs, unintentionally or illegally let loose to wreak havoc. In the first film, a scientist assists the dinosaurs' comeback and plots to replace humans with a dinosaur super-race. The second and third films involve cloned dinosaurs being released, prompting military or terrorist interventions. The 2001 film introduces animal attacks leading a sheriff and his assistant to uncover a dinosaur cloning project, only to learn the scientist behind it gained foreign backing, prompting a new wave of terror. The 2006 film involves a T-Rex wreaking havoc in a lab before breaking out into Los Angeles due to industry spies. Throughout the films, humans combat these prehistoric reptiles with unexpected results.

• 
  Carnosaur

  1993
• 
  Carnosaur 2

  1995
• 
  Carnosaur 3: Primal Species

  1996
• 
  Raptor

  2001 · this one
• 
  The Eden Formula

  2006

Also by

Jim Wynorski

• 
  Die schlechtesten Filme aller Zeiten

  2013 · ★ 7.8
• 
  Rangers

  2000 · ★ 7.5
• 
  Scream Queen Hot Tub Party

  1991 · ★ 6.2
• 
  Hard to Die

  1990 · ★ 6.0
• 
  Murderbot

  2023 · ★ 6.0
• 
  Sexipede!

  2014 · ★ 5.9

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Raptor Trailer HQ

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Wuchak2022-08-19
  ★ 5/10

  ‘B’ dino-horror is competent, but same-old, same-old Some kind of vicious animal escapes a bio-research installation in remote SoCal and grisly corpses start mounting up. The Sheriff and an animal expert try to figure out what’s going on (Eric Roberts and Melissa Brasselle), which leads them to the mysterious facility. Corbin Bernsen plays the proverbial mad doctor. "Raptor" (2001) is a ‘B’ creature feature that mixes “Jurassic Park” (1993), “Godzilla” (1998), “Aliens” (1986) and “Tremors” (1990). It was originally intended to be a sequel to the “Carnosaur” trilogy from 1993-1996 and therefore uses stock footage from those flicks for the creature effects. The footage is effectively edited into the new storyline so you can’t tell. You could view it as “Carnosaur 4.” Being produced by Roger Corman and directed by his prolific protégé Jim Wynorski, this is a capable ‘B’ flick with the cast obviously having a good time during shooting. The black ops sequences are surprisingly well done. It’s energetic, just too routine and familiar. You could say that Corman & sidekick Wynorski were acting as a cinematic Dr. Frankenstein & Igor—lifting pieces of other cinematic bodies and grafting them together with filmic connecting tissue. Even the quality score by James Horner was entirely lifted from prior works. Lorissa McComas with her big hair plays the Sheriff’s daughter and stands out on the female front, although she’s unfortunately absent from the second half. Meanwhile statuesque redhead Teresa DePriest is sharp. The film runs 1 hour, 21 minutes, and was shot at Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park, Agua Dulce, California. GRADE: C+

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• NE

  New Concorde

Key crew

• ProducerRoger Corman
• Post Production SupervisorKevin Bocarde
• Post Production AssistantSharon Compton
• Production CoordinatorKimberly English
• CastingNuble Henri
• Line ProducerTimothy J. Warrens
• First Assistant CameraMark Robinson
• Extras CastingPeter Alwazzan
• Second Assistant DirectorD. Milton Johnson
• Property MasterMike P. Gannon
• Production Sound MixerJon S. Trebilcock
• "B" Camera OperatorEuripides Núñez
• Production Sound MixerGary W. Day
• Camera LoaderJames Goldman
• SwingClause Nowakowski
• Still PhotographerRoger Martin Corman
• Production Sound MixerLawrence Fried
• GafferHerman Birney
• DriverTodd Rudisill
• GripQuinn Pawlan
• SecurityQuan Douglas
• GripJeff Warrin
• Key Makeup ArtistLea Nettles
• ElectricianBrian Bellamy

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• sheriff
• secret lab
• dinosaur
• police investigation
• genetic engineering
• raptor
• genetically modified organism
• evil scientist

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical2001-11-06R

Also known as

International titles

• Вторгнення ДинозавраUA
• Carnosaur 4 - RaptorFR
• Raptor - Fear will never be ExtinctDE
• Jurasic RaptorDE