When someone sees this film’s title, they automatically think a few things, first this is a b-movie or worse, and glancing at the artwork, it’s clearly into the prehistoric subgenre of monsters; noting that neither Wild Eye Releasing nor The Asylum released this picture, that honor goes to MarVista Entertainment, secondly it was formerly listed in the horror genre, rather adventure-action with a crossover to horror. There’s one nice aspect about the film from the start, the type of beast they use, was a creature called Terror Bird aka Phorusrhacidae, which was a ‘large carnivorous flightless bird’ from South America existing during the Cenozoic era, hence something official and not a T-Rex or Raptor, rather the exploration into other prehistoric monsters. Sean Cain (Dead by Dawn [2020]), who has worn so many different job titles on films over the years resumes once more as director and is added by screenwriter Jake Helgren (Varsity Blood [2014]), as they present another inspired monster movie.

The story opens at a secret compound complete with aviary, where workers are trying to move two unknown prehistoric creatures, the scene looks very similar to Jurassic Park [1993], but quickly enough an animal wrangler meets their end. Meanwhile we are introduced to scientist Harvey Sullivan (Greg Evigan (DeepStar Six [1989]), who appears to be enjoying himself very much in the role), as the chaos unfolds, he is assisted by Dr. Slater (Leslie Easterbrook (The Afflicted [2011])). Sullivan’s plan simply breeds and produced more of them, as he considers them his “babies” thereby selling them to get richer. Wonderful plan, what could go wrong?  A time jump to six-months later Keith Stern (Craig Nigh) who’s an avid bird watcher sets out on a journey to find an elusive Mexican eagle, on his route he stopped by a local gas station, gathered some snacks; while hiking he comes across an electric fence something very new in an area he knows extremely well. As his curiosity is piqued, he climbs a nearby tree and plops down into the restricted area he finds himself on the terror birds lunchtime menu, but we all knew that was coming, not much of a spoiler. Keith’s phone rings as his corpse is the perfect bird feeder, it’s his daughter Maddy (Jessica Lee Keller (12-24 [2008])) who’s concerned about him after he failed to call her at her college. There’re not many college students concerned about missing calls from parents, but this not a typical movie, potholes abound. Therefore, she teams up with her best friend Paige (Sarah Joe Byington) to search for him by using a GPS app, however she invited Brett (Evan Miller) and Justin (Dillon Cavitt), who Maddy likes very much, although he likes Taylor. It doesn’t take long for one not to notice the gang isn’t that great at solving this mystery, plenty of bickering as the killer expertly showcase their pecking fetish on those that cross their path. Those that remain, find out that who’s behind this devilish experiment, and one can guess how it all ends, if curious the film is available on many VOD platforms.

One could easily carve the film apart, pulling a wing or leg, especially when assessing the thoroughly unconvincing CGI effects, yes, they are very bad, yet in a strange way it welcomes the laughs, the film in its entirely was never meant for serious frights, hence the killings aren’t shocking or make a lasting impression on the viewers. As for the actors, younger cast members try to carry the film, but suffer with poor delivery of comedic lines, and the level of scares leans to a steady flat-line of expression. It’s clearly a cheap production, but everyone gives it the full effort from camera work and designs of the sets yet sometimes it’s downright laughable.

At least the filmmakers used a different prehistoric creature, and not the tiresome Raptor or T-Rex, there’s plenty to choose from and they did that correctly. Also, they understood the limitations of budget, crew talents, and cast abilities, never striving too far rather taking the safe route and delivering a low budget worthy project for airplay on the Syfy channel or a streaming platform to past your time while turning off your brain.

TAGLINES:

• They’re not extinct
• Hatching soon near you…

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4514660/

IMDb Rating: 3.5/10

Baron’s Rating: 3.5/10