Been a while since I have done an actual “creature feature” so this classic from 1980 was right up my alley.
At a tourist trap somewhere in the heart of Florida in the late 1960s, a little girl and her family sit by and watch as a group of men jump into an alligator enclosure and play (?) with the alligators. One of the men slips on a log and falls into the water. Waiting to capitalize on this accident a gator grabs the man’s leg in his mouth and begins trying to tear him apart. There is a lot of thrashing, a lot of blood, and a lot of the announcer trying to cover up the tragedy by saying “It’s all part of the show, folks.” Though traumatized by the events that unfolded in front of the girl, she convinces her mother to get her a pet baby gator to take home. When they take the alligator back to their home in Chicago the father immediately takes it and flushes it down the drain telling his daughter that it was actually dead and they did her a favor disposing of it.
Years later a police detective walks into a pet store and buys himself a new puppy. He complains to the proprietor that his last dog was stolen right off the street. He pretends to know nothing of this, but the detective is already on to him. Someone in the city is taking pets off the street, and most of them end up dead on the street. Detective Madison is then called to a water treatment plant where they have found a severed arm but not the rest of the body. This is not the last part they continue to find chewed up in the sewer so Det. Madison and another police officer head into the sewers to look for more clues. After searching and finding little to nothing, they stumble upon an alligator the size of a large sedan. In the attempt to escape Officer Kelly is caught and eaten. Now Madison has to convince his chief as well as the public that a killer alligator the size of a family wagon is stalking the sewers looking to eat anything and everything that crosses his path.
I love a good “creature feature” and Alligator is definitely a winner. I remember working at Blockbuster (yup, that was me) and seeing the box art for this thinking it looked dumb as hell, but I never took the time to actually watch it. Sure it is essentially a rubber monster akin to Jaws, but the way that it is shot you never really see much of the fake gator and it goes a long way to making it seem more real. When the monster is on screen it’s during quick cuts or well-blocked angles that the mind’s eye fills in the blanks in a way that doesn’t come off as cheesy.
Robert Forster plays Det. Madison and besides just being a good part, he plays well with the weird, almost out-of-place, jokes about his thinning hair. Yeah… It’s a bizarre bit that the movie keeps dipping into but it’s there. I don’t think that anyone else in the film trips the “oh, it’s that guy” alarm, except the big game hunter, who is a real gross character. The real star of the film, after all, is the gator. It’s a preposterous movie essentially about the old urban legend that when you flush a pet (be that turtle, gator, or lizard) down the drain it goes on living in the sewers growing disproportionately to other of its species. However, the actors/script take it very seriously and there isn’t any wink-and-nod to the camera. Which I appreciate in a film like this.
Once again, this is a great movie for the background and not one you have to pay close attention to in order to stay on top of the plot. I recommend this one be on any rotation for creature films or the Halloween horror fest. Not too bloody, barely any nudity, and just a fun watch.
Comments