Crocodilo Assassino

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".

The Great Alligator (1979) was already done so Italy decided to give us Killer Crocodile. A massive crocodile is munching on everybody in the swamp that has been used to dump radioactive waste.

They rearrange a few notes to the Jaw's theme for the opening credits and then use the exact music later on. They duplicate a few classic scenes as well. Campy as hell. The crocodile they use looks alright until the mouth moves and the back of his mouth looks like its made of paper. Not very gory as the crocodile use takes his food to go.

Over acting is prominent in this one but stick it out for the end. The way they kill the creature is priceless. I'm not really giving away the ending because their is Killer Crocodile 2 which now I have watch. On a side note the guy who directs this was a producer for most of Fulci's films. I still have to see his Breakfast With Dracula (1993).

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.

This film is the definition of comic badness. The croc changes sizes seemingly at random. In one scene it even looks about 20 feet tall. People fall in to the water for no particular reason and it's not even clear what country this is supposed to take place in. Fortunately the film is fun and fast paced so you can ignore some of the faults. The gore is plentiful and the animatronic crocodile by Gianetto De Rossi is pretty amazing for a movie with such a low budget (well at least we know where the money went). Thomas Moore's (Ennio Girolami) performance as Joe the grizzled croc hunter adds alot to the film also. Some imaginitive camerawork and a decent jaws ripoff score by Ortolani doesn't hurt things either.

Overall a decent fun flick, just don't expect JAWS.

Shot back-to-back with Killer Crocodile II

This Italian "Jaws" knock-off really only has one redeeming feature, so I might as well open with it: the croc is real! Well, not real real, but I mean that it isn't a cheap CGI effect like in "Blood Surf" or God forbid "Crocodile". The puppet they use can't really move well, but at least it's actually freakin' there. It even looks pretty scary from time to time, they really did an excellent job with such a limited budget. It's just too bad they couldn't use the model in a better movie, because all other aspects of "Killer Crocodile" are well below average. The characters are annoying, the dialogues are uninspired and the story developments are all lifted directly from "Jaws". They even bring in a blatant Quint rip-off just for those who don't catch on quickly. Hell, even the music is just John Williams' theme with one or two different notes to avoid a lawsuit. In the end there are no scares, no real memorable scenes and a pretty boring finale but like I said, the puppet's damn cool. It might be worth a watch just because of that, and also for the rare "so bad it's good" moment.