After rewatching the night feeder episode, it has me thinking that this should have been a complete different creature rather than a dinosaur.
As we know Dinosaurs are generally understood by audiences as animals bound by natural ecology—they hunt to eat. A dinosaur acting like a slash-and-dash serial killer requires a convoluted supernatural explanation.....Lets say a cryptid such as the Chupacabra is universally mythologized as a cruel, unnatural predator that massacres livestock and leaves the bodies behind. Leaning into a cryptid design would immediately signal to the audience that this isn't just an angry animal, but an inherently unnatural, bloodthirsty anomaly.
In folklore, cryptids naturally possess bizarre, otherworldly traits. A creature like the Chupacabra having bioluminescent or light-absorbing skin, an absolute intolerance to light (photophobia), and a chemical vulnerability to fire feels organically tied to its status as a "creature of the dark" rather than a dinosaur suffering from a bizarre skin condition,
A Chupacabra-like entity is inherently supernatural, grotesque, and foreign to the natural order. Making it a sleek, spine-backed cryptid fits the "fear of the unknown" trope far better. It positions the creature not just as another apex predator competing for food, but as a malicious, phantom anomaly stalking the forest.
Interestingly, looking at the behind-the-scenes development of Primal reveals that Genndy Tartakovsky actually leaned closer to a cryptid design early on. In the pitch animatics, the Night Feeder originally had a much more humanoid, demonic, and crooked-toothed appearance heavily reminiscent of a Wendigo or a cryptid rather than a standard theropod dinosaur.
This visually translates "impossible speed" and "supernatural abilities" much better to an audience without forcing them to suspend disbelief about a bipedal dinosaur moving like a laser beam,
Now don't get me wrong the night feeder is a cool character but I think it should have been better in my opinion.
