KILLER CROCODILE (1989)

KILLER CROCODILE (1989)

Tagline: Nope.

(Horror, Adventure, Actual Crocodile Size May Vary) [R]

Note: This movie was not given an MPAA rating, but it definitely would have been a [R] due to gore. 

In this one, some environmentalists are investigating some toxic dumping going on at a lake in the tropics. As it turns out the toxic waste may have given rise to a giant crocodile in the lake that is devouring everyone in its path. Yes, dogs too. Bloody hell? Dogs? Why Fabrizio De Angelis? How could you let this happen? Oh yeah, there just happens to be a really gung ho hunter in the area named Joe, that is getting sick of this crocodile so he is planning to take it down. Will it be too much for him and can he convince these normally peaceful environmentalists to help him stop the crocodile? Where at the authorities?

First off, I actually thought they did a pretty fantastic job on the rig for this alligator. With the exception of the eyes, this thing looks pretty menacing in spite of what appears to be its ever-changing size. In some scenes, it looks to be about twice the size of a normal crocodile. In other scenes, it looks 20 feet tall. It’s kind of weird. I once heard someone ask what we would do if JAWS could get on land. That is essentially what you get with a crocodile. It’s basically a shark only it can go on land. So props to the crew of this movie for giving us a terrifying-looking crocodile. 

Where this thing gets a bit jacked out is in just about every other aspect that doesn’t involve Joe. The dialog is pretty rough, the acting is even rougher with a few exceptions and we don’t really get to know anyone in this movie. It’s almost a direct JAWS rip-off even down to the few musical notes they changed up slightly to give a more haunting atmosphere to this movie. Having said all that, this thing moves along at a pretty good pace and there are enough action sequences to keep it from getting dull. 

Acting wise this is a pretty solid outing for Ennio Girolami who plays Joe. He was in quite a few under-the-radar Italian movies including the over the top ESCAPE FROM THE BRONX. Richard Anthony Crenna who was in both PREDATOR 2 and THE BLOB to name a few plays Kevin in this also does pretty well. Unfortunately, he also ended up getting dysentery while filming this. He was able to shoot the 2nd movie in the series and continued acting till 2008. Just kind of goes into how crazy it can be doing some of these films away from sets etc. The rest of the cast for me isn’t that notable. Outside of acting, Gianetto di Rossi did a good job with the makeup and effects in this. He also worked on films like RAMBO III and DRAGONHEART. 

Cinematically this movie feels very 80’s and like it was shot by a crew used to doing things in these tropical environments (this was shot in the Dominican Republic as were movies like THE LOST CITY, FINDING 'OHANA, and SHARKTOPUS VS. WHALEWOLF). The score is just so-so, overall outside of the JAWS-inspired theme we get in some parts of the movie. 

Content-wise this is a bit of a cheese fest, but it’s actually pretty entertaining and you get what the movie tells you that you are getting. Full-blown crazy crocodile madness. For that, I have to give this thing a solid 4 out of 7. There are better giant alligator or crocodile movies out there, but this one is one does a good job of standing out even in its imperfection. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF FULVIA FILM AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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