MASSACRE IN DINOSAUR VALLEY (1985) Blu-ray
Director: Michael Massimo Tarantino
Severin Films

Italy goes CANNIBAL HOLOCUAST-lite with the eighties comic action flick MASSACRE IN DINOSAUR VALLEY, on Blu-ray from Severin Films.

In disaster movie tradition, a diverse group of people converge on the Brazilian town of São Sebastião – paleontologist Professor Ibanez (Leonidas Bayer) and his daughter Eva (Suzane Carvalho, WOMEN IN FURY), photographer Robby (singer Carlos Imperial), his models Belinda (Susan Hahn) and Monica (Maria Reis), Vietnam vet John Heinz (Milton Rodríguez, CYCLONE) and his lush wife Betty (Marta Anderson, BARE BEHIND BARS), and "bone hunter" Kevin Hall (Michael Sopkiw, DEVILFISH) – all boarding an off-the-grid flight into the protected "Dinosaur Valley" surrounding by a head hunting tribe who have killed any white man who wandered into the jungle. When their plane crashes in a clearing, the survivors trek along the river in search of civilization but instead find anacondas, leaches, cannibals, and slavers lead by the sadistic China (Andy Silas).

The Italian cannibal subgenre was on its last legs in the mid-eighties, tipping over into drama or comedy and reducing the sex and bloodshed of the late seventies and early eighties models. MASSACRE IN DINOSAUR VALLEY still has some teeth with a bit of gore but it is somewhere in the middle between AMAZONIA and Antonio Climati's THE GREEN INFERNO. Sopkiw is a relatively charismatic lead – and director Michael Massimo Tarantino (cousin of director Sergio Martino and producer Luciano Martino) seems to be patterning his badassery after DJANGO as Sopkiw is introduced dragging a coffin-like crate of fossils and later lures slavers into an explosive trap, casually setting his booted foot on the plunger – and Carvalho more than sweater meat even when the camera pushes in on the water-soaked blouses of herself and Hahn, making the film a relatively diverting late eighties Italian effort at a time when the genre had nowhere else to go. The cinematography is generally slick in keeping with the aforementioned later efforts and samba-flavored score will stick in your head for days.

Released direct-to-video stateside by Lightning Video, MASSACRE ON DINOSAUR VALLEY languished on the video store shelves until Media Blasters' 2004 DVD which featured a commentary by Sopkiw – he also recorded one for the same company's 2019: AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK but that was pulled over controversial remarks by other participants – an interview with the actor, and an interview with director Tarantini. Before Severin Films' releases, the film appeared on Blu-ray in Austria from an uncut HD master while 88 Films' crowd-funded 2K restoration of the negative was not only subject to BBFC trims of the cockfighting scene but also missing snippets of scenes including some nudity during a sex scene. Severin Films' 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray also purports to be a 4K scan of the original camera negative but it is fully uncut with the snippets intact. We have not seen the Austrian or British discs but the image on the US edition looks vibrant throughout with vivid jungle greener and muddy browns, healthy skintones, and fine textures in facial features, hair, and costumes (the bits of prosthetic gore fare the worst in HD). While the British disc had separate English and Italian versions – the latter lacking a sex scene – the Severin release features English and Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono tracks on the same uncut version in good quality along with optional English SDH and English subtitles.

Severin has not carried over the commentary or interview, but Sopkiw appears in the new interview "Valley Boy" (23:11) in which he recalls getting out of prison and having his career options limited, deciding to go to New York and study acting, and his parole officer making arrangements to allow him to go to Italy to develop a modeling portfolio and meeting the Martino brothers, leading to his four Italian films 2019: AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK, DEVILFISH, BLASTFIGHTER, and MASSACRE IN DINOSAUR VALLEY. He laughs off the latter film, discussing his co-stars, the director, the locations, and being inexperienced at stunt work – throwing out his back during a fight scene – or working with weapons. He does recall that he insisted that this out of the four films was the one in which he got to dub himself, and his reactions to seeing it years later. Also included is "Lost in Brazil" (14:17), an interview with uncredited co-writer Dardano Sachetti (HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY) in which he describes Tarantini as overly-exuberant but respectful man who already started writing the script while he was still hashing out a contract with the Martinos. Also included here as well as on the Media Blasters DVD and the other Blu-rays is a deleted and extended scenes reel (9:27) featuring snippets that were on the negative but for which there was no accompanying audio, and they are presented here with surrounding footage for context, including some bits of the models changing clothes, a longer bit of haggling between Kevin and the hotel owner over a room, and the models in a taxi on the way to their first shoot. The disc also includes the film's theatrical trailer (1:57) as well as the Italian opening and closing credits (3:47). The cover is reversible while a limited edition slipcover was also available directly from Severin's website. (Eric Cotenas)

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