The Blood of the Dinosaurs

By: Maggie Stankiewicz

The Blood of the Dinosaurs pulls viewers into an absurdist nightmare, the kind of deranged misalignment of reality that can only come from accidentally taking too much melatonin and chasing it down with everything under the kitchen sink. This fifteenminute descent into madness comes from the mind of writer-director Joe Badon as a prequel to his next project, The Wheel of Heaven. It remains nearly impossible to distill The Blood of the Dinosaurs down to its core elements. Its DNA is steeped in avant-garde inspirations and coated with what could only be considered hallucinogenic, culminating into a product that is equally entertaining and confounding.

The film is framed by a deeply unnerving afterschool special hosted by Uncle Bobbo (Vincent Stalba). Uncle Bobbo is equally mesmerizing as he is terrifying while explaining the origin of oil and the evils of consumerism and late-stage capitalism. Vincent Stalba perfectly treads the line between saccharine sweetness and child predator. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

We’re then subjected to a rapid fire of vignettes covering everything from a woman orgasming beneath an overlay of oil drilling, an exorcism, Mentos exploding in a bottle of diet coke and more indescribable happenings that loosely align with themes of eruption, decimation and disaster.

The narrative, if you can refer to it in such a clean manner, is bookended by a pair discussing the nature of the film. “What the hell is your movie about,” asks a nameless character. That is the resounding question of the entire short film. By the end – viewers will still be left wondering what they watched and why…but for some reason, it feels okay.

Joe Badon shows immeasurable promise as a writer and director, with an expressive voice and unique vision. It’s clear that Badon isn’t interested in creating anything that caters to the status quo – and his productions are all the better for it. If The Blood of the Dinosaurs gives viewers a taste of what’s to come in his future projects, then audiences can rest assured that they will be entertained, befuddled, and a little disturbed by the mind and creations of this up-and-coming virtuoso.

It is hard to categorize or describe The Blood of the Dinosaurs, yet it is abundantly clear that Badon had a crystal-clear vision of the production. It doesn’t make sense, but it works. This short is a quick trip into madness that feels well worth taking. By the end of your voyage to the past and back, you’ll be ready to see what happens in The Wheel of Heaven.