Blu-ray Review: Prehysteria! (1993)

Museum curator Rico Sarno (Stephen Lee) enters a forbidden South American temple and finds a clutch of small dinosaur eggs, which he of course out right steals and heads back up North pronto. Meanwhile single father Frank Taylor (Brett Cullen) tries to keep his farm going by selling fossils to Sarno (as farmers do), and keeping his kids; Kelly Bundy with the slut-meter turned down to like one (okay, maybe two) Monica (Samantha Mills) and Elvis-obsessed Jerry (Austin O’Brien), who spends his days air guitarin’ and lip synching to some sort of rough approximation of an Elvis song whose main lyrics consist of “uh-huh” and “yeah”. One one such fossil selling excursion, the Taylor’s dog inadvertently takes a cooler containing the eggs, which soon hatch a brood of miniature dinosaurs that the kids keep a secret from their father (for a while anyway). Of course ol’ Rico finds out the Taylor’s have “his” lizards and he dispatches two robbers to retrieve them. Will the Taylor’s be able to save their newfound saurian friends?
First of all, Prehysteria, looks like a million bucks. Father/Son directing duo Albert and Charles Band are masters of low-budget genre filmmaking, and they know how to make a picture look great for little money. Add to the mix some wonderful practical effects utilized to bring the dinosaurs to life (no surprise there either, as this was produced by Band’s Full Moon label which had a history of iconic creature brought to life by real masters of their craft), and a decent cast and you have all the ingredients for a fun family flick that adults can enjoy as much as the children that it was intended for.
Along with the charming (there’s a word I’d thought I’d never use in one of my revoltin’ reviews) feature; there are some cool extras on this Blu-ray/DVD release from Full Moon. First up we have a lively, anecdote and info packed audio commentary with co-director Charles Band and actor O’Brien…an amazingly fun listen. Following that we get the original Videozone “making-of” that was included on the VHS (as it was on all Full Moon productions), and trailers for movies you absolutely DO NOT want your kids to see (minus the one for Prehysteria itself).
If you are looking for a creature feature you can watch with your kids, then Prehysteria will fit the bill perfectly; it’s funny, filled with cool effects, and will entertain young and old in equal measure!