Smilodon Fatalis
Catherine Vicly (Vanessa Angel) is a scientist and a bitch. Through the use of fossilized DNA she and her assistant Kara Harmon (Steffanie Busey) have created a sabretooth tiger. The project was funded by billionaire Anthony Bricklin (John Rhys-Davies. A fatal accident at the lab where the creature was housed requires that the cat be moved to a more secure facility. When the creature is being transported from one facility to another it escapes and kills the driver. The sabretooth is now loose in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest.
Also in the woods is a group of hikers. The hikers are being led by Casey Ballenger (Jenna Gering) and Trent Parks (Josh Holloway). Everybody else in the hiking party are trainees that have never been in the woods before. With a wild pre-historic cat running around, the hikers are all basically meals delivered.
Catherine, not wanting anyone to know about the sabretooth, hires Robert Thatcher (David Keith) to catch the cat. Thatcher is a big game hunter and tacker. She insists that she and Kara go along. Bricklin also wants to go along, to make sure his investment doesn't fall into the wrong hands. Catherine is intent on capturing the beast, not killing it. At whatever cost. She lies to Thatcher and tells him the beast they are hunting is a large lion. He has no idea what he is in for.
"Sabretooth" was released in 2002 and was directed by James D.R. Hickox. This is a SYFY channel straight to video low budget movie. There are no fancy graphics here. When you consider these facts the sabretooth cat looks remarkable. If you were expecting more than that then you are watching the wrong genre. You should be watching big budget box office blow-out movies not small budget “B” movies.
OK I was wrong. They don’t always create dinosaurs when they play with DNA. Sometimes they make sabretooth tigers. Not to preach but sabretooth tigers are not really tigers but they were real. They lived around 10,000 years ago during the Pleistocene age.
This is one of my favorites. Why? Because we are talking about a giant extinct cat. I wasn’t crazy about everybody whining and complaining to each other, but the cat took care of that, one by one. It’s a standard plot sequence. Creature gets made. Creature gets loose. Creature kills a bunch of people. Creature gets taken down. As for the acting, directing, dialogue and story line. Who cares? I watch these movies for the shear joy of watching a horror movie. I’ve enjoyed watching this one several times.