Killer Crocodile

Rented this film for being a horror-moviefan and got me one of the most amusing comedies I've seen. It's very hard to give this film any horror categorizing, did they ever (the film-makers) thougt this would scare anybody? After one minute or so the croc appears and I realized that this can be 90 terrible minutes of my life, but ooh, one needs to laugh sometimes.

With the special effects, that already by others been clearified, which are stiffy to say the least, the musical score that is ripped from John Williams jaws (in particular the second track of the "jaws"-soundtrack) - it's already then amusing. Then comes the characters, boy o boy, the teenagers behaviour in Fr:13:s movies are deep thougt genious moves. The dialogue for ex: ....yeah.....maybe you're right about that.....(dramatic thinkingpause) ..or maybe you're wrong.... (and the camera starts pulling back after this refreshing turn of event). Interesting how this monstrous beast loses a big tooth on a very thin wall that just about stands for itself and how a propellermachine can explode - once, twice, three...four...I lost count of the explosions. Finally, for now, the experienced hunter that shoots the hero (the croc) with a elephant-rifle time after time with no effect to the beast whatsoever jumps overboard onto the crocs back and starts poking it with a boathook (yeah, THAT will do a wonders).

Tons of stuff like this and I can only recommend this for those who want to laugh at a bad (but amusing) movie, a little gore, but that is NOT what you remember after seeing "Killer Krokodile" (the spelling on the swedish cover).

(Got to see the sequel)

Well, this wasn't nearly as bad as I initially feared it would be, and that's pretty much the best compliment you can give to a cheap and anonymous Italian-produced creature feature rip-off. "Killer Crocodile" is actually a rather funny movie if you analyze it a little bit… Even though it was made more than 14 years and numerous amounts of other B-movie rip-offs later, Fabrizio De Angelis still pretends his film is the first imitation of Jaws ever accomplished! The premise is very similar, and especially the POV-shots and use of music are shamelessly stolen from Steven Spielberg's groundbreaking monster-movie, like no other movie tried to do that before. But hey, nonetheless the movie is very entertaining, rather fast-paced and at least the vast majority of the small budget went to special effects department. The giant croc, albeit not very menacing, is a fairly impressive mechanical creation that is proudly shown several times throughout the entire movie, so at least you don't have to fear that all the action and death-sequences take place off-screen. The plot is standard monster-movie guff, with a group of over-ambitious and spineless environmentalists cruising down the Santa Domingo River and discovering that these swamps are used as a dumping place for industrial radioactive waste barrels. Months, maybe even years of dumping waste in the water is unquestionably also the reason why the crocodile mutated into a gigantically angry and insatiable killing machine that devours everyone who sets foot in his swamp territory. The activists get assistance from an ultimately stereotypical macho-hunter (Italian exploitation-regular Thomas Moore), while the mean guys who're polluting the swamps desperately attempt to get rid of them. De Angelis cheerfully serves one cliché after the other and the screenplay is entirely tension-free, yet you forgive him because it's such cheesy fun! The acting (and mainly the dubbing) is horrid and most of the dialogs are completely misplaced, but thank God for good old-fashioned gratuitous gore. Call me biased, but this type of horror-cinema is certainly a lot more enjoyable than the nowadays monster-movies with hideous CGI effects, like "Blood Surf" and Tobe Hooper's disastrous "Crocodile".

80s Italian horror knock-offs can usually be relied upon to provide a decent amount of gore and a fair smattering of gratuitous nudity in an effort to draw in the crowds, but Fabrizio De Angelis's Killer Crocodile, yet another belated Jaws rip-off, fails on both counts. Perhaps the effects budget didn't stretch far enough for both Gianetto Di Rossi's giant fibreglass croc AND bucket-loads of juicy splatter, but surely some aspiring starlets desperate for some screen-time could have been talked into getting their tops off for next to nothing...

Without much in the way of exploitative goodness on display, the gore limited to one mutilated corpse, a chewed off arm, and clouds of blood in the water whenever someone gets chomped, and the nudity non-existent, there's very little worthy of praise in this highly unoriginal and totally inept film. Bee Gee-alike Richard Anthony Crenna (son of Rambo's Col. Trautman) heads a miserable cast of virtual unknowns whose acting skill are so bad that they can't even fall in the water convincingly. Even Riz Ortalani, an accomplished composer usually capable of a decent tune, fails to impress, his score being a pale imitation of John Williams' theme from Jaws.

I rate Killer Crocodile 3.5 out of 10, rounded up to 4 for the croc's impressive demise: swallowing an outboard motor that liquefies its throat and causes its head to explode.

When a team of environmentalists go to a remote swamp somewhere in Central America they find that it has been polluted with radioactive chemicals. They also discover a huge crocodile which has been exposed to it as well as a corrupt politician who has allowed this pollution to happen. Anyway, so much for the plot which, while certainly not Academy Award winning material, has a couple of good things going for it all the same. First, it has some nice scenery-for a swamp at least. Likewise, I thought Sherrie Rose (as "Pamela") didn't hurt the scenery much either. To a lesser degree it featured an interesting crocodile which nobody would mistake for the real thing. On that note, although some might find this to be a liability I believe that if a person uses their imagination and has a sense of humor then they might actually appreciate the time and effort that went into it. Of course, that may be more difficult for some and I certainly wouldn't blame anybody who couldn't make allowances. Even so, to me the worst part of this movie was the clumsy dialogue. While I realize that it was filmed in Italian and dubbed in English it was still pretty awful all the same. And it really affected the overall quality of this movie. Anyway, to sum it all up this was clearly a grade-B movie which probably won't appeal to anybody other than those who enjoy cheesy rip-offs of films in this particular genre. That said, I rate it as slightly below average.

Like silly films about giant animals? Then Killer Crocodile is probably for you, it may not be a good film but it does better than it should. Environmentalists head into the swamp to investigate toxic waste dumping, but as well as waste they find a big green killing machine and he (or maybe she, its never specified) means business. A sizable chunk of the budget appears to have gone into the croc, which is a big, gnarly creation with massive jaws full of sharp teeth, its impressive enough that it almost excuses its overuse during earlier scenes. Suspense is sadly sapped in the first half by the fact that the croc rears its ugly head a bunch of times so it never accrues much sense of fear, but at least it looks cool. Still, we got great settings and committed acting to mull over as the film moves up through the gears, one great scene in the first half and a second half of solidly bumptious if occasionally inept cheeseball entertainment, with a few moments sure to give joy to daft movie lovers. As well as our environmentalist heroes, we have a shifty corporate waste dumper, a judge with something to hide and best of all, a Quint clone geared up to take down the nefarious beast. Also, the Riz Ortolani score is an amusingly blatant rip of the Jaws theme tune, never a bad thing in my book. Fabrizio de Angelis directs without much flair and there's at least one notable continuity screw up as well as the expected illogicality, but he at least handles some decent dashes of suspense and fun and nothing about the film takes itself too seriously. Anthony Crenna has the right kind of slightly naive youthful authority as the leader of the environmentalists, Wohrman Williams is slimy enough as the token evil corporate guy, while Van Johnson brings a dignified authenticity to the conflicted judge. Italian cult regular Ennio Girolami does best as Quint clone Joe though, a wryly amused, knowing sort of performance that comes off both hard-ass and self aware. Gianetto di Rossi's special effects work is less gory than his outings with Fulci and others, but there are one or two grisly bits and as mentioned, the croc is grand (and gets an awesome send off). There's not much more to say about this one really, its not great but has ample potential to amuse the more forgiving of dopey trash enthusiasts, and when it shines, it really shines. Taken for giggles, this is fairly worthwhile, but only if you groove to this sort of thing.