Movies
[Cinepocalypse Review] “Gore Cut” of ‘Tammy and the T-Rex’ is an Instant Cult Classic
Sometimes, there are just not enough words.
If you were not already familiar with Tammy and the T-Rex, don’t be too hard on yourself. Released in the wake of Jurassic Park’s success, it’s a VHS obscurity from 1994 starring a young Paul Walker as a high schooler who has his brain removed by Bernie from Weekend at Bernie’s (Terry Kiser) and put into the body of an animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex, which then proceeds to romance teenage Denise Richards. Oh, and it’s directed by the guy who made Mac and Me and Mannequin 2: On the Move. It’s as bewildering a comedy as I’ve ever seen.
Making it even more bewildering is that it was originally shot as an R-rated horror comedy, including a bunch of bloody violence and gore, and that’s the version that just made its premiere at the Cinepocalypse genre festival in Chicago. What this means is that what would be released as a dopey comedy for kids essentially alienates that audience with R-rated bloodshed that would best appeal to gorehounds who are unlikely to give a dopey comedy like this a chance in the first place. What is left is a movie for no one.
Well, maybe not no one. This has cult movie written all over it, and while it failed to find its audience the first time around, this new “gore cut” (as it’s being called) is sure to become the stuff of legend once it receives its scheduled Blu-ray release later this year. Based on the audience response at Cinepocalypse, it may be the new cult sensation along the lines of Troll 2 and Miami Connection. It’s a real discovery.
For those who remember the movie from the ‘90s, the “gore cut” is very similar to the version you saw on VHS. It’s got more cursing and more sexual content, but what really differentiates it, not surprisingly, the splattery violence. Heads are bitten off, people are disemboweled, skulls are crushed, bodies are flattened, all with the kind of gory excess that recalls the splatstick comedies of Peter Jackson rather than the realism of Tom Savini. It’s completely out of place in a film that really can’t support it, but has now become part of what makes Tammy and the T-Rex such an odd, singular experience. There’s nothing else like it, particularly in its R-rated “gore cut” form.
Some of the movie’s laughs are intentional, usually when it leans into its own stupidity and stages a sight gag like a dinosaur using a pay phone or using its tiny T-Rex arms to play charades. More often, though, the laughs come at the expense of the movie’s bizarre ridiculousness. Denise Richards’ insanely committed performance is one of the biggest sources of comedy, because she, unlike, say, Terry Kiser, doesn’t always appear to be fully aware of what movie she’s in. The disconnect between the material she’s playing and how hard she’s struggling to emote is incredible.
Between Danzig’s Verotika and now Tammy and the T-Rex, this year’s Cinepocalypse has played what might be the two biggest cult movie finds of the year. Tammy is the kind of movie you sit and watch scratching your head as to how it even exists while at the same time thanking the Movie Gods that it does. It has to be the most violent stupid comedy ever made and it’s never less than 100% entertaining. The movie isn’t “good” on any objective level, but that doesn’t matter because it’s also fucking great.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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