Ah, the mid 1990s - a virtual dead zone for horror and monster movies after the Golden Age of the 1980s. I remember getting really excited for this the first time I saw the preview way back in the day. If memory serves, this was supposed to come out in 1996 along with the other genre offerings like Twister, ID4, Mission Impossible, and Escape from L.A. For whatever reason, it got pushed to January 1997 and that pretty much killed its chances. Oh well, I still had a ton of fun watching this in a dark, loud theater. It owed a LOT to Alien/Aliens with its dark scenery and claustrophobic action. Basically a scientist finds a central american tribe in Brazil and discovers their legend - the Kothoga - a monster they fear/worship. Naturally he takes their statue and ships it back to the Chicago Museum of Natural History along with some infected vegetation. That's gonna end real well now isn't it? A monster appears - with reptilian, insect, and human DNA traits and tears through the museum during a huge gala event. Naturally.
The cast is decent despite a ton of overacting - leads are Tom Sizemore, Penelope Ann Miller, and that little weird lady who's been in everything (Dune) - Linda Hunt as the museum curator.
Miller gets to make a great "stink face" during the film too:
What elevates this film above its flaws is the creature design by Stan Winston. This was towards the tail end of his career but there's still something about practical effects and the magic that he brought to the screen. Some definite Predator influences here for sure...
All in all, a fun little monster romp with some good gore and a great creature. This film holds up pretty well considering its age and as long as you don't expect it to be better than any of its many influences.
Great Quote:
The Kai tribe, Lieutenant, believe that headaches were caused by sorcery. So, the family of the headache victim would identify the sorcerer, and then go out and murder him. Of course, the kinfolk of the sorcerer would feel they had to avenge his death, so they would then go out and kill the headache victim, and I'm sure you can guess how it all turned out.
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What's that?
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Well, it's a medical miracle: everybody stopped having headaches.
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