Tammy and the T-Rex first came out in 1994. It didn’t cost much, and it didn’t make much. Then it vanished for more than twenty years. But in 2019, cult video label Vinegar Syndrome released a restored version of Tammy and the T-Rex, adding back in the gore that the studio had removed to make it more family friendly.
In the process, they discovered what should absolutely sit among the most beloved of cult oddities.
“So it begins.”
Michael (Paul Walker) is a handsome high school football player, and he’s finally dating the girl of his dreams: Cheerleader Tammy (Denise Richards). But Tammy has history. Specifically, her not-quite-over-her ex, gang leader Billy (George Pilgrim). If Billy can’t have her, nobody can. And after a (frankly insane) schoolyard fight between Michael and Billy goes badly, Billy is out for revenge.
After one last confrontation, Michael ends up in a coma. That’s where Dr. Wachenstein (Terry Kiser) and his assistant Helga (Ellen Dubin) come in. Discovering that Billy was an emotionally stable kid with no real family, they take him from the hospital, claim that he’s dead, and place his brain inside an animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex. This is their test case, seeing if they can keep a brain alive in an artificial body so they can make themselves immortal. But Michael, now embodying a giant mechanical T-Rex, only wants one thing: Vengeance.
Can his love for Tammy soothe his rage? Can they find some sort of way to save Michael’s life? And what will Dr. Wachenstein and Helga do to keep control of their monster?
“One simple life sacrificed for the good of all mankind.”
Okay, so, first things first: Denise Richards is funny. Sometime in the 90s, Richards got typecast as a ditzy sextoy. The 90s and 2000s were prime “Women aren’t allowed to be funny” years in film, so she rarely gets to play comedy. But in Tammy and the T-Rex, she is asked to veer wildly from melodramatic teen romance to over-the-top horror-comedy — and she nails it. The way Richards’ Tammy goes all-in on the dinosaur gimmick almost immediately feels like a hidden prelude to Chuck Tingle’s career, and Richards doesn’t miss a beat.
Speaking of bad reputations: Stewart Raffill made two of the worst movies I’ve ever seen: The Ice Pirates and Mac & Me. They aren’t ‘so bad they’re good’. These are just straight-up bad movies. Most of his films try to be genuine adventure movies or thrillers. He’s not good at them. But Tammy and the T-Rex shows an underutilized ability for comedy. A lot of creative people thrive when limitations are placed on them; perhaps Raffill is the same. After all, Tammy and the T-Rex came about because, to quote Raffill:
A guy came to me who owned theatres in South America and he said, “I have a T-Rex.”
It was animatronic and was going to a park in Texas. The eyes worked. The arms moved. The head moved. He had it for two weeks before it was going to be shipped to Texas and he came to me and said, “We can make a movie with it!”
I said, “What’s the story?” and he said, “I don’t have a story, but we have to start filming within the month!” and so I wrote the story in a week.
Maybe Raffill is a guy who needs restriction. Maybe he just got struck by lightning — right place, right time, right performers. But I don’t think so. Something about the haphazard construction of the film, the way he knows exactly what he’s working with, just clicks. This is a movie completely free of any illusion about what it is. Not purposely bad — this isn’t Sharknado — but a knowing mess.
“And us, of course.”
Essential to this is the film’s slapstick violence. The studio removed a lot of its comedic gore its original American release, which may explain why Tammy and the T-Rex came and went without notice in the 90s. But this movie has a deeply bizarre relationship with violence. Take the early film fight between Paul Walker and George Pilgrim. You’ve seen a dozen fights like this. The bully punches our hero in the face, knocks him down, and kicks him in the head. Normal teen movie fight. Then they start wrestling. Like, WWE style. Someone gets clotheslined, and then elbow dropped. Okay, it’s getting a little weird.
Then the bully grabs the hero in the nuts. Like, not accidentally. He grabs him in the nutsack and twists. That’s his move. So naturally, the hero grabs his nuts right back. Two men, joined at the balls and groaning in agony, for fully sixty seconds. It’s maybe the weirdest, funniest fight scene in film history.
This happens four minutes into the movie.
Somehow, Tammy and the T-Rex gets weirder from there. I won’t spoil the rest of the film. But rest assured, Tammy and the T-Rex is a deeply weird, shockingly funny movie about young love and monster murder. Next time you’re looking for a deeply bizarre piece of cult nonsense to liven up an evening with friends, this should be high on your list.
Availability
As of publication, Tammy and the T-Rex is available on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome at outlets like Amazon, and is streaming in all its restored glory on Shudder.
And if you want a different sort of cult oddity, check out our review of camp spy comedy DEBS.