The horrifying results of a forest fire.
There are several gruesome and terrifying scenes throughout the series.Unmarked spoilers below!
Walking with Dinosaurs
- New Blood: It's not surprising if any kid back in 1999 that saw the series for the first time has been scared by the death of the baby cynodont who wandered too far and the look on the Postosuchus' face as she dies (she's drooling, and her eyes are blood red).
- There's also the first Postosuchus attack that can feel like a Jump Scare. You can feel the panic in the Placerias' growling as it tries to shake the beast off
.: - The couple of adult cynodonts eat their own young to have more possibilities to escape predators. Since there isn't any fossil proof about this behaviour, was it really necessary to show it? Notably, this scene was among several scenes trimmed in the American cut.
- Speaking of cannibalizing juveniles, one adult Coelophysis is briefly shown eating a much younger one. True, this was based on misinterpreted findings, but that's cold comfort to the viewer. Just seeing the disembodied head of that unlucky baby with a lifeless look on its eyes... Brrrr.
- The forest fire in "Time of the Titans". The narrator makes it clear that there are trapped dinosaurs who are terrified and will not survive. Then it even pans onto a dead, charred ornithopod after all is said and done.
- "Cruel Sea". Just..."Cruel Sea". It's not surprising if it didn't make a whole lot of people not want to go anywhere near any coastlines for a while... in particular, that part where the bitten-off Opthalmosaurus tail slowly sinks to the sea floor is what did it for many people.
- Liopleurodon appeared for many like the definition of a Sea Monster, even managing to make the shark from Jaws look like a sardine in comparison. Its size in the series may have been greatly exaggerated (Liopleurodon is actually 20 feet long, but the show depicted it as big as 75 feet long), but that still doesn't make it any less scary: in fact, you could probably say that the size exaggeration was actually intentional).
- It doesn't help that his design makes him look as though he has a perpetual Slasher Smile.
- Its Jump Scare at the beginning of the episode. You see a Eustreptospondylus sitting on a rock near the water as the narrator talks about how the most feared predator of the Jurassic is watching his prey through the water. At first, you think he's talking about the Eustreptospondylus...and then something massive surges out of the water, grabs the poor dinosaur as if it were a ragdoll and drags it down into the sea.
- The Liopleurodon's death, seeing as after he's beached he's slowly crushed underneath his own weight.
- Fun fact: you can actually see the Liopleurodon lurking in the background during the scene where the Ophtalmosaurus is giving birth. Check for yourself at 0:47.
- The distressed sounds the Iguanodon makes and its look of horror when it's being killed by the Utahraptor, even though is again a Bloodless Carnage.
- There's a particularly squicky scene at the end of "Giant of the Skies", wherein the deceased Ornithocheirus protagonist is scavenged by one of his own kind. Said scavenger starts by pulling out the dead pterosaur's eyeball and eating it.
- The Koolasuchus from "Spirits of the Ice Forest". A huge, creepy-looking, carnivorous jet-black salamander-like animal that acts just like a crocodile.
- In the same episode, the scene where the Polar Allosaur rips off the Leaellynasaura matriarch's head.
- "Death of a Dynasty" starts off with a Didelphodon pillaging a dinosaur nest, and the narrator notes that it's hunger has blinded it to danger. Suddenly, in mere seconds, the mother Tyrannosaurus dashes out from hiding and immediately gobbles the mammal up alive, before roaring at the camera, getting its' spit all over the lenses.
- This is followed up by the same Tyrannosaurus delivering its' mating call in silhouette against the sunset. As the title of the episode displays, the desperate cries of the alpha predator make it clear that the dinosaurs are in a sorry state indeed.
- The narrator explains increased volcanic activity is choking the dinosaurs' landscape and they're past their prime, and are already heading for extinction. It's a sickly, hellish sight to see even the dinosaurs at the mercy of the elements.
- Then, a brutal Scare Chord plays as we get a long-distance shot of something huge and terrifying approaching from the distance, climbing up a hill as ominous music plays. The way the narrator describes it, it feels like nature has decided to go out with a bang, as if nature itself wanted to torment the land with one last terrible monster.Narrator: Yet, in the last two million years, the dinosaurs' most infamous predator has appeared: Tyrannosaurus, a five-ton, 13-meter-long carnivore specifically evolved to kill other giant dinosaurs.
- The Prehistoric Planet version of the introduction also has the narrator note that the animal can consume 150 lbs of meat in a single bite. Though it's mostly played as a comedic bit as the narrator realizes they would fit the bill for being one bite, it's still a bit unnerving for viewers (or the target audience of children) would be so easily eaten.
- The dead tyrannosaur embryo out of the broken egg.
- Earlier in "Death of a Dynasty", the battle at night between the dromeosaurid pack and the Torosaurus herd. The raptors successfully wound a baby Torosaurus, who flees to the safety of the herd. However, morning comes and reveals that the baby succumbed to its injuries. We then get a shot of its body almost entirely stripped to the bone, leaving only its head and limbs intact.
- Right before the fight, we see a meteor shower that the narrator makes clear is a harbinger of the approaching meteorite.
- The scene just before the meteorite hits:
- Everything just seems to stop. The baby T. rex look out into the distance. The Anatotitan and Torosaurus herds look up at the sky. The Dromaeosaurus runs for cover. And then there's a huge flash of bright light, as the narrator explains the meteorite has struck Earth offscreen. We see the baby rexes looking into the distance at the bright light, accompanied by numerous other calls from other animals, including one that literally sounds like a child screaming in terror. The light dies down, then the shockwaves begin, rocking the Earth violently. Finally, within moments, the blast from the meteorite begins peeking out over some distant mountains as the animals of the region continue to cry out in terror. The babies are helplessly flung away by the wind, and are followed by their dead mother. The final scene set in prehistoric times is a rain of molten fire.
Narrator: This is the end of the age of the dinosaurs.- The Prehistoric Planet version of the scene also expands on the scene right before the meteorite arrives, describing the dinosaurs as being able to sense approaching danger, but they just don't know what to do and are completely helpless in their final moments.
- The DVD release of the series has several eerie moments.
- The menu opens with the scene of the proper introduction to the Tyrannosaurus ominously appearing as it approaches over a hillside... and then just as the shot would've changed, another Tyrannosaurus appears to give its' bloodcurdling roar.
- The primary menu depicts the Jurassic forest from "Time of the Titans", with an eerie, quiet chorus of dinosaur calls and hoots the entire time. Occasionally, a sinister Ornitholestes runs by, and other times, a giant Allosaurus appears too.
- The Chapter Selection screens continue to use the spooky ambiances, but change them up to have sounds sourced from each episode for their selection screens. Usually, the primary predator of each episode will appear in silhouette behind the chapters and text layout. It's especially eerie in "Cruel Sea" when it's underwater, and you see the giant shadow of the approaching Liopleurodon.
The 2013 Movie
- There's the forest fire and the simultaneous Gorgosaurus attack.
- The following exchange during the forest fire, one of the few times the dialogue isn't too forced.Patchi: What's fire? Does it eat meat?
Alex: It eats everything! RUN!
- The following exchange during the forest fire, one of the few times the dialogue isn't too forced.
- Scowler getting Drunk with Power after becoming leader of the herd qualifies as well, especially when he leaves Patchi to die just because the latter led the herd away from a frozen lake that Scowler himself lead them into. Unlike the actual main antagonists who are just predators trying to survive, Scowler comes dangerously close to being truly malicious or evil.
- During the river attack, Gorgon separates part of the herd and notices the youngsters, it’s made worse by the fact that the camera angle makes it look like he’s staring directly at the viewer.
- The "Prehistoric Planet" re-cut has one rather unnerving moment. When the Nanuqsaurus (what was previously referred to as Gorgosaurus in the film) appears, there's a brief aside where the narrator goes over some of its characteristics. Among these is the usual "human for scale" image seen in plenty of other educational dinosaur media. But in this case, the scale human is alive, sees the dinosaur standing right next to them, and runs away. The Nanuqsaurus then chases them offscreen and you hear what sounds like the Nanuqsaurus killing the human. This can be very jarring to those who are used to the image merely providing the creature's size, although a lot of Black Comedy is also at play.
