The 1990s Dinosaur Sci-Fi Horror Comedy With A Rescued Bloodier Cut, Stream Right Away

Directed by Stewart Raffill, Tammy and the T-Rex centers around a young woman named Tammy (Denise Richards) who can’t shake her abusive ex-boyfriend Billy (George Pilgrim), even after she’s moved on and started dating another boy from her school, Michael (Paul Walker).

In a jealous rage, Billy and his group of thugs chase Michael into a zoo where they leave him for dead in a cage with lions. After his body is discovered, Michael – who is still alive – is rushed to the hospital.

The hospital staff does an absolutely trash job at keeping Michael under their supervision as the mad Dr. Gunther Wachenstein (Terry Kiser) and his assistant, Helga (Ellen Dubin), abscond with Michael’s body.

Back at their lab, they transfer the young man’s brain into their robotic Tyrannosaurus Rex.

From here, as you can expect, the plot of Tammy and the T-Rex goes completely off the rails as Michael tries to get back to the woman he loves, while also seeking vengeance on the people responsible for his prehistoric downgrade.

When the film first came out, Tammy and the T-Rex was slapped with a PG-13 rating after Stewart Raffill and the rest of the creative team were forced to remove some of the effects that deemed it too gorey and therefore gave it an R-rating.

Many folks didn’t know that the campy favorite had undergone such a makeover until the film received a re-release in 2019. The restoration was handled by Vinegar Syndrome, a video company dedicated to giving cult classics the updates they deserve, and was released into a limited number of theaters in the United States.

Tammy and the T-Rex was an important step on the ladder to fame for both Denise Richards and Paul Walker as it was one of their first major productions. For Richards, the actress would shortly thereafter go on to star in Starship Troopers, Wild Things, and Drop Dead Gorgeous, three titles that have defined her career.

Meanwhile, the sci-fi comedy horror helped Walker gain notoriety, putting him on the path to land parts in Meet the Deedles, Varsity Blues, She’s All That, and The Fast and the Furious, a franchise that would go down as the late actor’s most notable work of his career. 

While there are plenty of other fun sci-fi movies to check out, there’s absolutely no question that Tammy and the T-Rex should be at the top of your list – especially now that the gore cut is available for free on platforms like Peacock, Vudu, Tubi, Pluto TV, and more.