In the comic, Reptisaurus was a giant, winged, reptilian, island-dwelling, havoc-reeking monster that was worshipped by the ancient Aztecs who believed it to be the embodiment of their god Quetzalcoatl. It’s kind of hard to read a Reptisaurus comic, at least the issue I own, and not find yourself wondering if it in some way inspired Larry Cohen when he crafted Q, The Winged Serpent. The movie version of Reptisaurus will be your basic tale of soldiers on an island being terrorized by a giant monster, nothing more fancy that that. Look for Gil Gerard (TV’s Buck Rogers) in a guest starring role.
Reptisaurus is actually being produced, not by Fred Olen Ray, but by David Sterling, producer of many Z-grade fright flicks such as Pirates of Ghost Island, Tower of Blood, The Curse of Lizzie Borden, Studio 666, Alien 3000, and several others I’ve seen, reviewed, and will try not to hold against him.
In what can only be considered a fitting example of the B-movie cycle of life, Reptisaurus initially started out as a Charlton Comics adaptation of the 1961 Danish giant monster flick Reptilicus, but after two issues the tie-in aspect was scrapped and from its ashes Reptisaurus The Terrible was born, which now, 40+ years later, is being adapted into a new feature film.
Hopefully, this Reptisaurus will be anything but terrible.