Macabre…ish Horror Review: Tammy and the T-Rex
Tammy and the T-Rex, 1994/ 82 min
Tammy (Denise Richards), reluctantly has a new boyfriend, Michael (Paul Walker), but she’s worried what her violent ex boyfriend, Billy (George Pilgrim) will do. And she finds out after practice when Michael and Billy end up in a violent altercation that draws a crowd. The fight ends with them squeezing each others testicles and refusing to let go. The cops arrive to break them up and drag Billy away. Tammy, visibly upset, runs away.
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Meanwhile in a warehouse, Dr. Wachenstein (Terry Kiser) and his assistant Helga (Ellen Dubin), interacts with a robotic tyrannosaurus rex and is impressed with it’s strength. The doctor wants to give the creature life, immortality even, he wants to implant a human brain inside of it to give it consciousness.
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Tammy calls Michael to apologize for leaving and asks him to sneak over to her house. He no sooner arrives at her house when Billy and his goons are summoned by some girls, who see Michael climb into Tammy’s window. Billy forces his way in and Michael leaves the way he came. Billy and his crowd chases, beats him then tosses him into Billy’s trunk, bound for the wild animal park. Inside the park, Michael is dumped near lions, unbeknownst to him. He is cornered and mauled but saved by the game warden.
Tammy and her best friend, Byron (Theo Forsett), arrive at the hospital to visit the unconscious Michael. Also in the room is Michael’s guardian, his drunk Uncle Bob (John Goff), fast asleep. As usual, Billy arrives with Weasel (Sean Whalen) as back up. He assaults Tammy but they fight back and Billy leaves.
Dr. Wachenstein arrives at the hospital with the invitation of Dr. Rosenthal (Roger Lodge) to visit Michael but instead of helping him, Helga unplugs his life support and immediately removes his body. They want his brain for the dinosaur. But outside, Michael awakes from his coma and they knock him back out and load him into their car.
Back at the warehouse, just before they perform surgery, Michael wakes up again. They knock him out again, open his head and after after playing around with his bodily functions, removes his brain. The doctor hooks the brain up to the T-Rex’s ‘nerve’ endings and it works.
While the doctor is away, the T-Rex/Michael gains consciousness while the doctor’s body guard, Karl (John Edmondson) and assistant, Bobby (John Franklin) eat pizza and disrespect Michael’s body. The T-Rex bites off Bobby’s head and looks in a mirror before it turns on Karl. He kicks Karl through a wall and crushes him to death.
T-Rex/Michael then uses the pay phone to call Tammy. His message is a growl. But Tammy is currently at a party, depressed and inconsolable. Billy and his goons soon arrive to ruin the party. Tammy leaves the party but Billy stays and soon the T-Rex arrives and scopes Billy out, dancing with a blond. Weasel finds the dinosaur and urinates on it, thinking it’s a statue and is disemboweled.
The T-Rex goes to Billy’s car and finds him and the blond having sex. He yanks off the blond’s leg, then chased Billy and bites off his head. After which he tramples and crushes Billy’s gang. The T-Rex, picks Byron up, dusts him off and lets him go.
The cops arrive to help but hardly takes it seriously as they crack jokes about body parts and snack. Byron’s dad is the sheriff (J.Jay Saunders) and he doesn’t believe the story about the dinosaur.
The possibly insane Dr. Wachenstein talk to the crass, Helga about investors and being a revolutionary, while rolling up, what’s left, of Karl, like a sleeping bag.
Meanwhile, T-Rex/Michael goes to Tammy’s house, kidnaps her and takes her to a barn. After she wakes up, he chews a yellow rose, just like he did the day Michael and Billy fought. It takes a while but the dinosaur manages to communicate with her by playing a game of charades. Tammy returns home while her dad and the cops try to figure out what happened. And Dr. Wachenstein and Helga lurk, they too are looking for the T-Rex.
Tammy tells Byron that Michael’s still alive and his brain is inside the dinosaur. They make a plan to recover Michael’s body from his funeral. T-Rex also lurks at his funeral and so does the dynamic duo, Dr. Wachenstein and Helga. Tammy and Byron open the coffin to find Michael’s face mangled and covered in maggots, it’s too decayed to use. They wrestle with the doctor and his assistant and tie them up. Michael needs another body, so they go to the morgue to search for a suitable replacement.
Tammy and Byron hold corpses up to the window so Michael, who’s in the back of the truck, can choose. But before he can, the cops arrive and the mad doctor and his weird assistant escape. Byron and Tammy go on the run with the dinosaur and wreck the truck they’re driving. Byron is arrested by his dad and Tammy rides away on the T-Rex.
Some time later, Byron tracks them down at the barn by bicycle. Ofc. Norville (Buck Flower) are tracking them and call in the calvary.
Wachenstein and Helga also arrive with a tranquilizer gun and they’re given permission to take Michael down. Instead, the mad doctor is bitten in half and the police open fire.
Later, Michael’s brain is relocated into a bowl and hooked up to a computer in Tammy’s bedroom. He can talk through it and see through a camera. They are still looking for a body for him.
This film was directed by Stewart Raffill. This movie started off strong with the 80s/90s teen drama that includes a dangerous abusive ex-boyfriend that travels with a pack. Then we know it’s gonna get crazy with the appearance of Terry Kiser and the bizarre stories he’s known for and he does not disappoint. This movie is very violent and gory and oddly hyper sexual with performance by Ellen Dubin, who plays Helga. The super supportive gay best friend, Byron, eases us into the epic shark jump that is the end of this bonkers movie. It is very entertaining, highly recommend!
Lots of recognizable faces in this one such as John Franklin (Isaac from Children of the Corn) and Roger Lodge (Host of Blind Date).