While Mark Polonia famously quips in the intro that the film was finished simply to “fulfill a contract” for a Galaxy of Terror DVD four-pack, the roots of the project go much deeper. The vintage sequences were originally shot on Super 8 by Mark and John Polonia when they were young. In fact, they wrote it in the fifth grade in 1979.

Mark claims this is an impoverished production that at least has some funny dialogue and nice stop-motion. As always, Mark is too modest.

The Dinosaur Chronicles is a quintessential example of the work of the Polonia Brothers: ambitious concepts executed on shoestring budgets, with creative, practical effects and a lot of heart.

There are two stories. In the first, a lottery winner’s dream vacation turns into a nightmare, because all the money in the world can’t buy a way off a rock filled with prehistoric predators. In the second, Dawn of the Dinosaur, two gunmen, Drax and Skorpion, are trapped in a post-apocalyptic world of dinosaurs and zombies. 

This also features some great stop-motion by Bret Piper, who would go on to make many of his own SOV films.

The Galaxy of Terror set originally appeared in the early 2000s, a staple of bargain bins, helping the Polonias secure a generation of fans who discovered them purely by accident in the aisles of Walmart or Suncoast Motion Picture Company. Mark proudly shares that his Pennsylvania Sam Goody store sold out in a day, and I couldn’t be prouder to come from the same state.

You can get this as an extra on the Saurians release from Visual Vengeance.