Carnosaur takes the dinosaur movie away from the clean spectacle of a theme park and into a grubby world of laboratories, machinery and biological catastrophe. The creatures matter, but so does the film's mean streak: scientific ambition becomes a threat to ordinary bodies rather than an invitation to wonder. Its miniature scale makes close encounters and practical effects carry the suspense. It is a useful counterpoint to the grand dinosaur adventure, with contamination replacing discovery as the governing idea.