Dinosaurs may be unknown and scary, but the groundbreaking Jurassic Park franchise has reintroduced them in many ways and showed them for what they really were: really dangerous creatures. These horrific scaley monsters have huge jaws and teeth that could kill you in a split second. And that’s exactly what Jurassic World: Dominion is all about.
Although the franchise is often associated with the action and adventure genre, the new trailers hint at more horror elements – especially now that the dinosaurs are no longer confined to an island. They’re now in our backyards, our camping sites, and our cities. They’re on the loose and free to appear wherever and whenever.
Doesn’t that sound like the plot of a really great horror movie?
The events leading up to Jurassic World: Dominion left one thing really clear: Dinosaurs are here, and they are ready to take their planet back.
The prologue for the film shows us just how dark the premise is. Dinosaurs are showing up at campsites and drive-in movie theatres.
Perhaps one of the most shocking things about the Jurassic World: Dominion prologue is how much the film has embraced the horror genre – certainly much more than previous films.
Even though in the early days of special effects dinosaurs were often used for horror, it’s been a while since they’ve been used in mainstream Hollywood — at least for that specific genre. Sure, you could argue that there are SyFy movies (Triassic World, Jurassic Predator, The Jurassic Dead) that constantly exploit every creature you can think of in cheesy movies. But we all know that doesn’t really count.
For the most part, the Jurassic franchise has had small hints of terror, but these are soon after followed by action, comedy and adventurous moments. That said, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom was already a lot darker in tone and theme than the other movies in this franchise.
And even though we are still far from the release of Jurassic World: Dominion, the sneak peeks give us reason to believe that Universal Pictures is attempting to create the scariest dinosaur movie out there.
In fact, earlier this year, film composer Michael Giacchino and director Colin Treverrow discussed the processes of making the score for Jurassic World: Dominion. And one thing really stands out is just how shocking and intense the scores are. A 16-second clip was enough to give us a hint as to the setting of the film. It’s really dark.
Then, some behind-the-scenes photographs of the dinosaurs puppets used on the set have also leaked. They reveal some interesting things about the designs used in this film. The dinosaur puppets now have a darker design and colour, exalting the scary parts of their anatomy. Everything from the shape of their teeth to the colour of their eyes looks horrifyingly realistic.
Then, there’s that amazing prologue footage.
The way you start a movie says a lot about the rest of the film — after all, those are the first minutes where you introduce the audience to what they’ll be watching for the next couple of hours. It’s literally the moment to set the tone of the film, and in Jurassic World: Dominion the filmmakers went all out.
The prologue released this November gave us a look at what the world of the dinosaurs looked like before man — how they interacted with each other during the Prehistoric Period. And as you can see, it was a very different world
We also got to see a fight between two titans: The T-Rex, and a giant new to the franchise, the Giganotosaurus. And surprisingly, the new creature is bigger and scarier than the T-Rex and was able to swiftly finish up Rexy in a fight.
The fact that they showed us just how violent and ruthless these creatures can be, and that they killed off our beloved/feared T-Rex in front of our eyes in the first five minutes of the film, says a lot.
The Jurassic World: Dominion prologue then cuts to our modern-day world and we get to witness the savagery of the T-Rex as it attacks innocent bystanders at a drive-in cinema. It’s brutal. It’s violent. It’s horrific.
Universal has just dropped their official trailer for Jurassic World Dominion, the last chapter in the recent trilogy. And like we said, it’s scary! As Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm points out in the trailer, “We’re racing toward the extinction of our species.”
Chris Pratt (Owen Grady), Bryce Dallas Howard (Claire Dearing), Daniella Pineda (Dr. Zia), Justice Smith (Franklin), Omar Sy (Barry) are back alongside the franchise originals, Laura Dern (Dr. Ellie Sattler), Sam Neill (Dr. Alan Grant), Jeff Goldblum (Dr. Ian Malcolm) and BD Wong (Dr. Henry Wu).
The film will premiere in theatres on June 10.
