Alligator (1980)

You have to got to love creature features that simply tell you what it will be all about. 'Piranha', 'Grizzly' or in this case: 'Alligator'. And it is, in fact, about an alligator! Who'd have thought.

Joking aside: in the wake of probably the best shark film ever made ('Jaws', obviously), a slew of films was made in the early 80s about animals running amok. Sometimes naturally, oftentimes because the animals had been changed by something, experiments or waste or what have you. But what makes 'Alligator' stand out from most of these, is the self awareness and humour this one displays on a regular basis. This is a funny film and it's not unintentional.

The film starts pretty brutal, when an alligator wrestling show doesn't go entirely as planned. A little girl gets a pet baby alligator that is soon flushed down the toilet by an irate father.

If you didn't know: this was actually a thing back then. People kept the most exotic animals as pets and nobody thought anything odd of it. How little we knew...

Fast forward about 15 years and dogs and people start disappearing. What's more bizarre, is that the dog corpses that are found, appear to have been enlarged in some way. This all points to a pharmaceutical company that is creating something of a growth hormone and experimenting on dogs. They then get discarded into the sewers, where aforementioned beasty munches on them and grows to a disproportionate size. It doesn't take too long before our reptilian friend is discovered, goes on a tour of the city and then back again for the final showdown with our hero.

Our main characters are great. Robert Forster as a grumpy police officer with a receding hairline is great as always and Robin Riker as the herpetologist Marisa (also the girl from the beginning, by the way) works well with Forster. The love interest is a little forced at times, but I guess filmmakers couldn't do without it? The sleazy mayor is hilarious and the nefarious owner of the pharmaceutical company is fun as the straightfaced, moneygrabbing bastard.

But who steals the show is the big game hunter introduced rather late in the film as the person asked to deal with the reptilian menace. No wonder, as he's being played by Henry Silva; who relishes the role. Henry Silva was one of those chiselfaced actors you instantly recognize, even though you might not know his name. He spent a lot of time in so-called B-films such as this one, but he always gives it his all and he clearly is enjoying himself.

Now the film is funny on several occasions, but it also works as a creature feature. The alligator isn't shown that often, which is good (and straight out of the 'Jaws'-playbook, obviously). Apparently the prop alligator didn't function that well, which is probably why you only see it in close-ups or wide shots, far enough away. But what you can see of it, does impress. They actually did their best to create a giant alligator that looks like it's real life counterpart without any exaggeration (except the size). For some other shots, they used scaled down sets and a real alligator. Even the sounds make sense and aren't some randomly picked growls. The scenes in the sewers are actually pretty tense at times and especially the finale is done well: it is thrilling and even though a funny bit is thrown in, it actually ups the tension. The very last shot is a bit of a doozy and reminds me too much of the ending of Joe Dante's 'Piranha', but I can forgive them for that.

You might never expect it, but 'Alligator' is a lot better than it often gets credit for, more so if you like films about animals running wild. I'd honestly say: give this a watch if you haven't done so. It gets better on subsequent viewings.