Monster
Crap Inductee: Komodo
Aussie, Aussie, Auss….I Mean…North Carolina, Come On And Raise Up
1999
Movie rental places were awesome.
Aussie, Aussie, Auss….I Mean…North Carolina, Come On And Raise Up
Movie rental places were awesome.
While they were a form of movie watching that is now not as convenient as other options like Netflix and movie apps, you were more likely at a movie rental place to find a movie that makes you want to see the movie that you have never heard of before. As a kid, renting movies was awesome and even the bad ones were normally not as bad enough that you didn’t feel like you wasted your time (although getting the movie rental places’ popcorn might get you sick (comes from experience)). While I really mostly enjoyed going to the mom and pop joints, this one was actually one I found at a Movie Gallery.
In fact, the movie here was actually a employee’s recommendation (an employee who probably has the same tastes in movies that I do). So I watched the movie and I enjoyed it a lot, although it is sad (but not unexpected) that a majority of people do not like this movie. As you know now from the above title, that movie was called Komodo.
Komodo was the idea of Hans Bauer, who had written the previous hit and previous Monster Crap inductee Anaconda. He wanted to do with the Komodo Dragon what he did with the Anaconda in making a monster movie with a real life big ass reptile, but not one that is genetically altered in any way. To direct this film, they would get Michael Lantieri, who was an industry leading special effects supervisor who was one of the supervisors responsible for the effects of the first two Jurassic Park films. He also did effects for Mars Attacks so like Stan Winston (who also worked on Jurassic Park and who tried directing with Pumpkinhead), Michael Lantieri decided to give it a shot.
As far as the cast goes, they hired mostly Australians since the film was going to be shot in Queensland, Australia (despite the fact that film is supposed to be set in Emerald Isle, North Carolina). But don’t worry too much as the four of the five characters who get the most screen time are American and Canadian. First, we have Jill Hennessy.
Then, they would hire American actor Billy Burke (we’ll get to him later as suffice to say, this isn’t his first time on Monster Crap). Then for the kid, we will hire Kevin Zegers, who was known as the kid in the original Air Bud film.
The final American actor is Michael Edward-Stevens, who you may not have heard of, but you probably know his voice if you ever watched Babe or Babe: Pig In The City
This was also planned on getting a worldwide theatrical release, but a deal with a distributer fell through so this movie got a full theatrical release in Australia and a very limited release in Canada and the US before ending up on Direct To Video/DVD (which is how I saw the movie).
Now before I get into the film itself, I got to do the usual mention of Monster Crap alumni. And as I mentioned earlier, Billy Burke is not a stranger to Monster Crap. In fact, this will be Billy Burke’s fourth time on this site since he played Bella Swann’s dad Charlie in Twilight: New Moon and Twilight: Eclipse, and he also was Joey Cortino in Mafia!
Also Bruce Hughes is in this film and he was a medical examiner in Darkness Falls and Penance Stare Pharmacist in Ghost Rider.
And with that out of the way, let’s get into Komodo.
This movie begins with opening credits.
We then go to what is supposed to be Emerald Isle, North Carolina (like I said, this was all shot in Queensland, Australia). At the docks, a shipment of exotic animals for the black market is put on a truck.
He starts to smell something bad and because one of the Komodo Dragon eggs is rotten, he stupidly believes all the eggs are rotten so he gets rid of them.
So let’s stop and talk about Komodo Dragons.
They are the largest lizards in the world (crocodiles and alligators don’t count as lizards). An average adult male will weight between 174 to 201 lbs. and measure 8.5 ft. while a female will weigh 150 – 161 lbs and measure at 7.5 ft. They have a tail as long as their body and have serrated teeth. Their saliva is often blood tinged as because their teeth is almost covered by their gums and their gums get lacerated very easily during eating. They also have armored scales that acts like a chain mail that makes them hard to kill. As apex predators, they will eat anything, including carrion if they are desperate. They are also an endangered species so hunting them is illegal. Now time for the big thing and that is whether they are poisonous. For years and when this movie was made, they were not poisonous, but they have a shit ton of terrible bacteria swarming in their mouth that if a Komodo Dragon bites you, you better get that shit taken care of because you can die from a very painful bacterial infection. However, the trivia that is on the DVD kind of mistakenly tells you that Komodo Dragons are venomous….although it isn’t completely incorrect as some studies have said that they have venom in their lower jaw, but that is still up for debate.
Back to the movie, we then cut to 19 summers later.
We then go to the morning and a ferry bringing a car and a family to Emerald Isle.
Here we meet a young teenager named Patrick Connelly, who is going to this island as a retreat since they have a summer home there. We also see that Patrick is buddies with the Captain of this ferry in Martin Gris.
Anyway, Martin mentions that not many families stay come to Emerald Isle anymore since the oil company started setting up a factory there (which as anyone who has ever been to Emerald Isle would know, is completely false as Emerald Isle is still a pretty decent summer retreat destination). His parents drive off the ferry once it reaches shore and Patrick follows behind his parents with his bicycle. Patrick stops his bike as he sees the oil people at work.
We then get to the summer home and it’s actually a rather modest summer home.
We also see Patrick’s mom who is giving water to the family dog in Buster.
Patrick’s mom tells Buster to go find Patrick. Meanwhile, Patrick is in the woods with the sign he stole and takes it to an abandoned place that Patrick uses as his hangout.
Patrick’s dad looks out that house and sees that some animals must have gotten in and left a mess.
We go back to Patrick as Buster has joined him and the two go further into the woods. Patrick sees a lizard and tries to catch it with a rope. Unfortunately for Patrick, something ate that lizard and left blood behind.
Patrick’s mom calls for Patrick and when he doesn’t come home immediately, she gets concerned.
Back with Patrick, he hears something and decides that he needs to head home. We then see his parents go into the car looking for Patrick. Something grabs Patrick and brings him to the ground. After a short struggle to get away, Patrick is eventually able to get away and runs to the house. Buster also gets inside the house and remember in the last film I inducted, the dog was not killed.
Patrick can only cower in terror as he hears his parents also get killed by the lizards off-screen. We then go to sometime later as we are then introduced to Victoria, who is a psychiatrist.
She comes in and wants to take Patrick to the island for some exposure therapy in hopes of finding out why Patrick is having nightmares and PTSD before they put him in an asylum. Patrick’s aunt Annie is against this, but Patrick’s grandmother is going to allow this as Annie’s idea of the boy needing time, is not working.
However, Annie is going to go with them as she is legally Patrick’s guardian. Victoria tries to introduce herself to Patrick (which I thought would have already happened since he is her client, but what do I know about shrinks), but Patrick is not talking at all and just stays in bed.
She is eventually able to get Patrick out of bed and into the car as the three head to Emerald Isle. But before they go, they have to stop by the local sheriff office to get the files on the case. Also as far as the police are concerned, the parents just vanished.
Victoria then goes to Martin for a ferry to Emerald Isle, but Martin is retired since nobody goes to the island anymore. He then sees his old friend Patrick and decides to take them to the island because he wants to help Patrick get better any way he can. During the ferry, Victoria asks Martin about the last ferry he took with the Connellys. Martin talks about how the dog also disappeared and the only people now on the island are the people working for the oil company. Victoria tries to pay for the ferry, but Martin says this ferry is on the house as long as they make Patrick better since he is a friend. He also says the oil company boys will not like tresspassers (it’s an island that has homes so it isn’t trespassing), but as long as you avoid them, no one ever has to know they went to the island. Also, there aren’t many oil people around as they apparently hit water and are now just guarding the equipment so only a few people around.
Meanwhile, we go to a helicopter at the oil facility as we are introduced to the guard Denby, the boss Bracken, and a guy they hired named Oates.
Oates gets out of the helicopter and we find out that the oil company knows about the Komodo Dragons and want them eliminated (we’ll find out why later). Oates gives Denby some cigars as Bracken flies away on the helicopter.
We go back to Victoria, Annie, and Patrick as they arrive to the island. Annie pleads with Victoria not to take him back there, but Victoria thinks this is the only way to cure him. Martin comes in and offers to go along for protection, but Victoria says they are fine. They drive to the house as Annie grabs her rosary.
We then see that Martin still thinks he is spineless for not going with them and decides he is going to try and follow them on foot with his rifle.
The car arrives to the house and they see that there is still Caution tape around the gates. Victoria wants Annie to go back, but that isn’t happening as Patrick is the only family Annie has left. We go back to Oates and Denby as they find a bear trap with an animal carcass strewn around. It obviously isn’t the Komodo Dragons, but whatever was caught in the trap was killed by the lizards as the bacteria is found on the leftover leg.
Oates starts to think the lizards are getting smarter while Denby jokes that the humans may be getting dumber. Back with Annie, she enters the house with some groceries and we see a lot of the furniture in the house has been covered with sheets. Annie trips on a broken floorboard, which sucks.
We then see Patrick sitting on the beach, looking out at sea while Victoria watches. Patrick tells Victoria that she can’t help him as no one can. Victoria reassures Patrick that he is not crazy and obviously something happened on the island. Patrick then leaves and says he wants to go home. We then go to night as Oates and Denby hear a gunshot, which concerns them as they believed they were the only ones with guns.
Patrick goes to his bed and just looks at the ceiling. Victoria again tries to talk to Patrick and leaves him a lamp. Patrick thanks Victoria for not thinking he is crazy as Victoria goes back downstairs. Since there is no electricity in this house, Annie and Victoria light candles. Back upstairs, Patrick hears something and looks out the window, but nothing is there. Annie then starts removing sheets from the furniture and there is obviously dust from them. She looks at a window and sees shadows so what do you do when you see shadows that are outside and know that your sister and brother in law were killed? Why, you go outside to investigate.
Inside, Victoria is looking over picture book of Patrick. Victoria hears a noise and Annie stumbles in with a wound so of course, Victoria has to ask if Annie is alright.
Victoria tries to tend to Annie’s wounds and Patrick shows up. Patrick goes to get a glass of water and he drops the glass as he sees the hole of what used to be a doggy door.
Victoria goes to check on Patrick and asks Patrick what is wrong with him. Patrick just points to what is behind Victoria and when Victoria turns around, she sees that there is a Komodo Dragon in the living room.
Victoria and Patrick run away and have to stab the beast in the eye for it to go away, but that is when Victoria realizes that Annie is still in the living room. Victoria goes to save her, but the big lizard is already dragging her into a hole.
We then go the shore where Oates and Denby see the ferry docked so they definitely know other people on the island. Oates radios Bracken that there are people other than themselves on the island. Bracken says to make sure they are dead. We then go to Victoria and Patrick as they run to the car and try to drive away, but before they can start the car, a dragon breaks into the back of the car.
The big lizard tries to bite them, but they are somehow able to get it out of the car. They sadly find a dead and so they have to turn around. They stop and Victoria says they will be okay (and Patrick says they will not be okay). They then see that two Komodo Dragons are blocking the way back.
Patrick says they are going to die here with Victoria disagreeing and that is when a wounded Martin shows up.
Victoria brings Martin into the car and they are somehow able to drive right by the two lizards. They then barely avoid Oates and Denby, but Oates and Denby’s truck flips over.
Oates and Denby are thankfully okay and they get out to check if the people they nearly crashed into are also okay. They see that somehow during the avoidance, a Komodo Dragon became roadkill.
They then see that the car with Victoria, Patrick and Martin also crashed and they are thankfully all still alive although Martin is still very wounded. Oates radios Bracken again with a report that they found the other people and Bracken says they should just do nothing and let them die so no one has to know that there are endangered species on the island. He also reminds Oates that Oates is a fugitive who he can call the authorities on at any time.
Victoria and Denby are checking on Martin and saying that he is very sick from the wounds. Victoria says the wounds are infected and wonders if this is venom and Denby says it is more complicated than that. Oates says that it is drool which has paricolonic bacteria. Now I know you all know what bacteria is, but I’m not sure a lot of you know what paricolonic bacteria is. It’s basically bacteria that exist in and around the colon. Now normally that could be fine, there are very bad versions of it. Let’s just say that E. Coli (which has had some very bad connotations lately with infections) is a paricolonic bacteria.
Oates also explains that it can lead to sepsis, foul smelling infections, and horrible reactions. Victoria says he needs treatment and Oates says that Martin is a human dinner bell with the infections. Patrick then runs away and Victoria is very concerned, but she will have to stay with Oates and Denby in taking care of Martin. Oates says that if Victoria wants anyone to blame, she should blame herself. Victoria says she was not warned, but Oates says they were warned with all the signs saying Keep Out. Victoria says that the signs didn’t say dragons, but Denby interrupts to inform them that before running away, Patrick cut out the heart of the creature.
They then walk down the road while the Komodo Dragons are watching. They find a small infirmary in the factory where they lay Martin down so he can rest. The place of course is a mess which explains that these creatures will eat almost anything except anything that is fast…..and raisins, Denby definitely says they won’t eat raisins.
Oates and Denby leave as they have something to discuss. Martin tells Victoria to find Patrick and then dies.
We go back to the boat and see that Patrick has grabbed an apple and some rope. Oates and Denby separate as Oates has to take a radio call from Bracken who wants things taken care of. Bracken then once again brings up the fact that Oates is a fugitive who hasn’t turned up for his trial as his wife went missing as the two went to the island. Oates then said that they should add the fact that the oil company knows about the Komodo Dragons killing people and covering it up. Bracken then tells Oates not to even think about that because he won’t even leave the island alive if he tries that. Oates leaves as Victoria finds a wallet belonging to one of Patrick’s parents, meaning they knew about their deaths and covered it up. Also we see a paper readout that says Oates is suspected of his wife’s murder.
Oates comes in and she hides that she knows about him. Oates asks if Martin died and she confirms that he did. Oates then asks how she knew they were Komodo Dragons, which she plays ignorant on. Oates then explains that someone dumped them on this island about 20 years ago and they’ve been trying to survive here ever since. Victoria then confronts Oates on the cover up and Oates talks about how there will be a environmental crusade to keep the creatures alive if they knew about them while an oil company was recklessly slaughtering them. So yeah, major point being that if the creatures are found here from a dump, then the oil company would be fucked.
Now I would imagine the oil company would be fucked if they found out the oil company knew about this, but it wouldn’t be just because they were recklessly killing the animals. You see, while there is an Endangered Species Act that protects them, that only protects them from being killed on their natural habitat, which is not Emerald Isle, North Carolina. In fact, there is another act that would be MORE IMPORTANT in this situation and that would be called the INVASIVE SPECIES ACT. You see, like I said, Komodo Dragons are not native to Emerald Isle, North Carolin and them being here would fuck up the entire eco-system of this island. You see, like with iguanas and pythons in Florida, snakeheads in plenty of rivers in the US, wild boars in the US, and wild rabbits in Australia, the Invasive Species Act says that if you capture any of these animals in areas where they are not supposed to be, it is your duty to the environment to kill them. Maybe a small sector of environmentalists may be upset, but most of them would be fine with what the oil company did here except for the whole coverup. Once again, the coverup is worse than the crime itself here….which kind of makes what the oil company did really stupid and they are basically covering up for their own stupidity in not reporting this because if they did, this would have been taken care of.
There’s noise in the laundry room so everyone goes to converge there, but Denby got there first alone and therefore got bitten and is dying when both Oates and Victoria get there.
The Komodo Dragon comes at them, but Denby kills it with a shotgun blast.
Oates then calls Bracken for a chopper since Denby is hurt. Bracken refuses to answer and Denby dies from his wounds a lot quicker than Martin did.
The two then go up an elevator with Denby’s body in a body bag. Oates then lays Denby’s body up in the rafters so the Komodo Dragons can’t get to it and he will be identified later. Victoria then asks Oates about his wife and Oates explains what happened. Apparently, his wife was a geologist and they were both working for the oil company. One day, they came to the island for a routine survey. They got separated and at some point, she just disappeared. While, he always believed the Komodo Dragons got to her, the authorities thought he killed her. The head of the company, Bracken, knew this and used Oates as he paid his bail, had his attorneys delay and delay the trial, and then when it was hopeless, Bracken came with an offer of a boat, some money, and a passport to leave the country if he killed the Komodo Dragons and made sure no one knew about their existence. He then asks Victoria what she is doing here and Victoria explains that right now, she is doing a very shitty job of helping a kid through his PTSD that came from when his parents were killed. They then go to find Patrick.
They go to the old melding station and split up. Victoria winds up in the place earlier in the film that Patrick used as a secret base where he kept shit he stole. We also see there is a little campfire and Patrick was roasting a tiny lizard, maybe for dinner.
Victoria hears a noise and thinks it is Patrick, but it isn’t.
Victoria seems cornered by the Komodo Dragon, but it fell into Patrick’s rope hanging trap.
After getting hung up, Patrick stabs the damn beast with spears made out of pipes.
Victoria tries to get Patrick to leave with her, but Patrick wants to live on this island alone, killing Komodo dragons and eating them. Another dragon appears and Victoria has to hide by climbing on the corpse of the one Patrick just killed via those helpful pipe spears.
Meanwhile, Oates is also looking for Patrick and a Komodo Dragon somehow is able to get the jump on him.
Oates tries to get the lizard off of him, but as you all know, Komodo Dragons are quite heavy and it’s a little hard to get one off you and not get bitten either. Oates is able to avoid getting bitten and stabs the beast with what looks like a big turnbuckle.
Back with Victoria, she is still hanging off of the dead dragon while a lively one is waiting for her to fall down so he can eat her.
It starts wiggling around and Victoria ends up falling off and is trapped with a small cage falling on her.
Victoria seems done for, but Oates shoots and kills it.
Oates frees her and they both go look for Patrick. They then split up again as Victoria climbs the ladder and Oates stays behind to reload his rifle. Unfortunately for Oates, he is out of ammo so the rifle is pretty useless. Victoria finds Patrick and talks to him about his trauma with the dragons killing his parents and dog. She tells Patrick not to blame himself for what happened because the oil company knew about those lizards and didn’t tell anyone. Of course, there conversation is interrupted by a stabbed Komodo Dragon trying to knock them down, but Oates is able to divert the creature away. Oates looks to be in his final stand so he lights up a cigar that Denby gave him before he died.
But it wasn’t a last stand as Oates threw the cigar on the lizard and sets it on fire.
But the dragon is able to get away from the fire and goes after Victoria who finds a rock and beats the Komodo Dragon to death with it.
Patrick has to get her to stop bludgeoning it with the rock, even after it is dead.
We then see a helicopter coming back as Bracken and two cronies come by. While them and the helicopter pilot (who goes somewhere I don’t know where) are gone, Oates steals the helicopter and the last we see of Bracken is him being angry he got fucked over.
Victoria and Patrick walk somewhere and there is still one last Komodo Dragon to deal with.
The two run, but are stopped when they are at a dead end due to a cliff.
Thankfully for them, they don’t have to make a jump as Oates comes by with the helicopter and shoots a flare into the Komodo’s mouth.
Victoria and Patrick get on the helicopter and they all leave. They arrive back in a town that seems rather deserted.
Well, its not deserted as the sheriff from earlier shows up as our three protagonists sit on the curb (Oates having to hide behind some sunglasses as he is still a fugitive).
The sheriff asks if they are okay and Patrick ends the movie by saying that they have never been better.
The sheriff then leaves and we get one more Geography issue with this film as…
And thus the movie ends.
Movies like these were more likely to make their budget back on rentals and those are not kept on file so I don’t know if this made its money back although it did cost 15 million Australian dollars, which is $10.503 million US dollars. There is also a film that seems like a sequel called Curse of Komodo, but it has nothing to do with it and it was just a case of Jim Wynorski making a film in 2004 and the Komodo Dragons are giant in that film. Komodo vs. Cobra is also a sequel to Curse Of Komodo and also has no relation to the King Cobra film I inducted years ago.
Much like Stan Winston with Pumpkinhead, Michael Lantieri decided that directing wasn’t for him either (which is ironic because Michael literally went to the same school as Ron Howard and wanted to be a director) and this is the only film he ever directed. He would still do special effects for more Jurassic Park/World films and work in many films including several I inducted like Congo, Hulk, and Land Of The Lost. He’s also done some work on good films like Flight, The Master, Crazy Stupid Love, The Terminal, The Polar Express, and Seabiscuit.
As far as the cast goes, Billy Burke (who played Oates) mostly did TV work and smaller movie work (although you mostly know him from the Twilight films). Kevin Zegers (who played Patrick) is still finding work, but mostly does genre films like Wrong Turn, Dawn Of The Dead remake, and Frozen (the horror movie one, not the Disney animated film). Most went back to Australia and did mostly Australian films, although Melissa Jeffers (who played the Grandmother) was one of the Vuvalani in Mad Max: Fury Road. Jill Hennessy (who played Victoria) would have a big TV series role from 2001 to 2007 as Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh in Crossing Jordan.
The good news also is that since this movie had a very short cast, the likelihood of someone passing away is lesser than usual and I can happily report that there is no one in the cast who has passed away since this film came out in 1999.
Now my final thoughts. While yes, this film may not be as good as I remember it back when I saw it the first time in 1999, it is still pretty good for a smaller budget film. The effects for the most part are really good and at times, it is hard to tell what is CGI and what is animatronic. This was always going to be just a creature feature film and for that, it really is good. Maybe if it actually got a distribution deal, it would do well in the theaters here like films like Anaconda did back in the day since the late 90s was the time for the return of creature features. For what it is now, it is a memorable relic of a forgotten time where you could go to a movie rental place, see an awesome cover and decide that you might want to see that film. And let’s be honest, that video cover which is the poster you see at the beginning is definitely appealing.
Now onto the second to last of this summer and while the last will also be a memory of the times at the video rental store, the next film will be a departure. In fact, it’s a film from a Japanese director I kind of want to spotlight as he has made some insane freaking films (many of which I had to pirate to see as there is no official US DVD or Blu-Ray release of them at this time) in Minoru Kawasaki. While the films may be a low budget, they are always a fun time to see and I would suggest looking on IMDB at the kind of films he makes to know what kind of director we are dealing with. Now, unfortunately because of the lack of US physical release for these films, it was tough to choose. I wanted to do what Wrestle Crap did years ago and induct the Kalamari Wrestler, but the DVD for that film is insanely expensive. So I had to go to my second film which sees the return of an old friend as this is the somewhat sequel to The X From Outer Space.
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