The Carnosaur film series is a series of five B-movies produced by Roger Corman that feature genetically engineered dinosaurs running amok in various scenarios. The series started with the first Carnosaur film, released in 1993, that was loosely based on the novel Carnosaur by John Brosnan. The first sequel, Carnosaur 2, followed in 1995, while the third, Carnosaur 3: Primal Species, and fourth film, Raptor, were released direct-to-video in 1996 and 2001, respectively. The first three films were released to Region 1 DVD on February 6, 2001 as the "Carnosaur Collector's Set". The series up to Raptor have since gone out of print and are hard to obtain, though copies of DVD and VHS can be found online.
The first film in the series, Carnosaur was released to theaters on May 14, 1993. Loosely based on John Brosnan's 1984 novel, Carnosaur. Jane Triptree (Diane Ladd), a mad scientist specializing in agricultural genetic engineering, uses chickens from the plant she works at to breed dinosaurs, eventually attempting to create a virus containing dinosaur DNA that will impregnate women with dinosaurs and kill them after birth, so they can wreak havoc and exterminate all of humanity, which she believes needs to be destroyed, so that the dinosaurs may essentially rule the planet once again. Now it is up to the alcoholic security guard and an environmental activist to attempt to stop her and the rampaging reptiles before the military kills everyone in town to quarantine the virus, or before these Mesozoic monsters can achieve their goal in world conquest. It was a modest box-office success, reportedly grossing $1,753,979, despite a limited theatrical release.
Directed by Louis Morneau and written by Michael Palmer, Carnosaur 2 was released to theaters on February 23, 1995. Starring John Savage and Cliff De Young, the film features a group of technicians called in to investigate the power shortage at a top-secret mining facility, only to discover it is actually a remote nuclear dump site where the government transported the dinosaurs from the first film. The dinosaurs got out of their holding area and ate the scientists, and now the technicians must try to survive while avoiding a radiation leak and trying to keep the dinosaurs from escaping the facility. The film was released to DVD on April 18, 2000. The Deinonychus was replaced by the Velociraptor in this film and later on.