Evolved Thylacoleo Carnifex

The Evolved Thylacoleo Carnifex is the Australian predatory threat in the film Carnifex (2022).

As Australia recovers from unprecedented bushfires, Bailey (Alexandra Park) an aspiring documentary filmmaker joins conservationists Grace (Sisi Stringer) and Ben (Harry Greenwood) as they travel deep into the Australian outback to track and record the animals left displaced and devastated by the fires. As night falls, the trio discovers a terrifying species and quickly becomes the ones being tracked.

Tagline: Australia is full of deadly beasts. The one we are about to discover. Is more deadly than them all.

Appearance

The 'Carnifex' is based on an extinct genus of carnivorous marsupials that lived in Australia from the late Pliocene to the Late Pleistocene (until around 40,000 years ago), often known as marsupial lions.[Meat Cutting Pouched Lion] The scientific zoological genus species name of the carnifex monster is the Thylacoleo carnifex which is a marsupial lion. The scientific genus zoological name of the drop bear is the Thylarctos plummetus. The movie's Carnifex title is derived from the Latin scientific and zoological genus name for the extinct Australian mega-fauna species of Thylacoleo Carnifex. According to the 'Australian Museum', the Drop Bear is an Australian legend which tells of a large, arboreal, predatory marsupial related to the Koala that 'drops' on its prey. They are around the size of a leopard or very large dog with coarse orange fur with some darker mottled patterning (as seen in most koalas). The creature is told as a heavily built animal with powerful forearms for climbing and holding on to prey. It lacks canines, using broad powerful premolars as biting tools instead. Source: IMdb

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The creature in the film differs a few ways from the extinct animal making it an evolved version or mutation of the original.

It's form appears more like a giant koala than a slender lion
It's jaws are lined with many small sharp teeth where the actual had on few but large sturdy slicing molar-like teeth
It's black nose extends further up the bridge than it's original.
It's chest, arms and legs are more developed

Powers and Abilities

The Evolved Thylacoleo Carnifex possesses the following powers and abilities:

Ambush predator
Evolved teeth
Physically muscular and powerful
Night vision
Climbing, pouncing, dragging

(it drags its prey and lifts it into trees and also pounces on prey from the trees)

Fate

Bailey and Grace end up face to face with the creature. As it aggressively starts to rush towards them they fire a warning shot in front of it and it stops, assesses the situation, turns and runs off into the night. It is assumed the 'carnifex' survives the events of the film.

Trivia

Carnifex (2022) is listed on IMdb as available for free streaming on TUBI https://tubitv.com/movies/100001394/carnifex
Mighty Kingdom, an Australian game developer, is adapting the horror film Carnifex into a narrative-driven video game. The game is expected to be a rare Australian horror game. Source: https://www.gameshub.com/news/news/mighty-kingdom-australian-horror-game-carnifex-13855/
The behavior of the creature is more akin to the behavior of a cheetah or leopard than a lion as it drags its prey into the trees and wedges it in a branch to eat it.
Developed from an original concept by Dancing Road.
'Goose' the dog's real name is Holly
There are three fatal creature victims: Ben, Gary and Ranger Matt

Note: The images I uploaded are screen grabs from the movie while I had it playing therefore kinda dark and blurry. The only pic I found on the web is the one I used for the profile pic'

Evolved Thylacoleo Carnifex

Contents

Appearance

Powers and Abilities

Fate

Trivia

Photo Gallery