Horror Movie Review: Tammy and the T-Rex (1994)

Tammy and the T-Rex or Tanny and the teenage T-Rex (sometimes known as) is a horror/comedy film directed by Stewart Raffill, releasing in 1994. Starring Denise Richards alongside Paul Walker, it focuses on a high school student named Tammy. Her boyfriend Michael has his brain implanted in the body of a robotic Tyrannosaurus rex by a mad scientist.

Tammy, her new boyfriend Michael and their friend Byron are hanging around campus when Tammy’s ex-boyfriend Billy arrives with his gang and harasses Michael. This leads to a fight breaking out between the two. Police arrive on the scene and break it up, leading to Tammy running away upset.

Elsewhere, Dr. Wachenstein and his assistant Helga enter a darkened warehouse. The lights come on to reveal a huge animatronic Tyrannosaurus rex which moves due to it being controlled remotely. The Doctor is impressed by the robotic dinosaur’s strength and reveals his plan to implant a living human brain into the robot to give it consciousness, mobility and “immortality”.

Later that night, Michael sneaks out to see Tammy. They are soon interrupted by Billy and his thugs, who chase and catch Michael. They throw him into the wild animal park where lions and jaguars run loose. A lion mauls Michael and he is left in a comatose state. Dr. Wachenstein and Helga declare Michael dead so they can use his brain to control their robotic Tyrannosaurus rex. After his brain is implanted, Michael escapes and wreaks vengeance on his high school tormentors and is reunited with his sweetheart Tammy. She realizes the dinosaur is Michael and begins a search to find a more suitable body for him.

Tammy and the T-Rex is absolutely ridiculous. It’s mindless, cheesy, over the top and that is exactly what makes it so damn fun! It’s fully aware of what it is and what it wants to be. If you get into the right state of mind then I highly recommend it. I went in not knowing what to expect which made it that much more enjoyable. At first, I thought it was going to be some kind of teen rom-com but it quickly goes balls to wall with absurdity.

The animatronic actually looks great which isn’t that surprising if you look up the interesting story behind how and why it was used in this film. To be honest, the acting throughout is pretty shoddy but it feels intentional due to the overall tone. It’s almost like slapstick at times and while not ever one liner is gold, there are some great ones.

The gore effects are hit and miss. Still, as cheap as some of them are I enjoyed how gruesome they were. There’s one particular scene involving the brain transplant and man, it looks awesome. You can totally see how it’s being achieved but that doesn’t take anything away. There’s a funny scene when a character gets their insides torn out by the dinosaur. You can clearly see that he’s just holding some guts in front of his shirt.

Overall, this is why I love horror comedy so much. The two genres just blend so well. You can take any ludicrous concept you can think of, add in over the top gore, performances and you usually can’t lose. Tammy and the T-Rex will most certainly go down as a guilty pleasure of mine.