English
A low-budget dinosaur comedy sequel has become one of the surprise highlights of this year’s festival circuit. VelociPastor 2 charmed audiences at FilmQuest with its gleefully handmade filmmaking style, visible strings and all, drawing loud laughter and genuine applause from a crowd packed with indie filmmakers.
A Sequel to a Cult Classic
The original The VelociPastor, released in 2017, became a modern cult comedy classic. Shot on a budget of just $36,000, it followed Doug Jones, played by Gregory James Cohan, a man of God who transforms into a bloodthirsty dinosaur while cleaning up his neighborhood from pimps and drug dealers. His girlfriend Carol, played by Alyssa Kempinski, joined him along the way.
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VelociPastor 2 raises the stakes considerably. The sequel moves the action to “Italy” and centers on a giallo-style killer targeting area virgins. Director and co-writer Jesse Gouldsbury and his team raised $118,297 through Kickstarter to fund the production. However, the money did little to hide the film’s cheerfully rough edges. Stunt dummies are obvious, dinosaur costumes look homemade, and the special effects wires are clearly visible on screen.
Rather than working against the film, those imperfections are the point. The movie lovingly pokes fun at low-budget filmmaking conventions. For example, the opening scene shows the lead character putting on a crucifix repeatedly, the kind of continuity error any script supervisor would catch. Meanwhile, lengthy exposition dumps arrive via ADR in a way that feels both absurd and affectionate.
Audiences Respond with Enthusiasm
The Sunday screening at FilmQuest, held in Provo, Utah, drew a boisterous crowd. Audiences laughed throughout and responded warmly to the film’s spirit. The humor draws comparisons to Airplane!, mixing rapid-fire jokes with a genuine love for the craft of low-budget moviemaking.
One moment that drew particular attention involved two extras pretending to play a fierce game of Frisbee without actually throwing a disc. Another featured miniatures that failed to capture the scale of Italian city life. These moments felt less like mistakes and more like deliberate, knowing comedy.
A Human Antidote to AI Anxiety
FilmQuest has become a focal point for conversations about artificial intelligence in the film industry. Attendees at the festival greet AI with near-universal distrust. In fact, one of the biggest applause moments before each screening is a simple on-screen promise that the film contains no AI-generated content.
VelociPastor 2 fits naturally into that conversation. Its humor depends entirely on the kind of joyful, chaotic human energy that no AI prompt could replicate. The film’s charm comes from real people making enthusiastic decisions with limited resources, and the results feel uniquely human as a result.
During a post-screening Q&A, Gouldsbury and several members of the creative team discussed the difficulties of making a microbudget dinosaur movie. Despite those challenges, they made clear through their laughter that they would not have approached it any other way.
What Comes Next
VelociPastor 2 is currently seeking distribution. The film is also in the middle of a roadshow screening tour. Further dates and locations are available on the film’s official website.
