Carnages

My review was written in November 1981 after a Times Square screening:

The ongoing cycle of horror pictures hits bottom with "Crocodile", an almost unwatchable "Jaws" ripoff shot in Thailand. Picked up for domestic use by Herman Cohen's new Cobra Media distribbery, film has a marketable title and little else.

Atomic testing in the atmosphere has created a huge mutant crocodile, destroying whole villages (its tail causing tidal wave effects) as it heads for Bangkok. A scientist Dr. Akom, his friend John and a ship captain named Tanaka set out by boat to destroy it, aided by a comic relief photographer.

Amidst the sloppily assembled footage of silly model shots, bloody killings and an unconvincing set of various-scale crocodiles, picture's only diversion is its risible dubbed dialog. "If it kills every three days it must be following a pattern", John announces at one point. Film is so inept that when they finally blow up the monster, we never see whether the heroes survive. Technical credits are poor.

Giant rampaging monster alligator/crocodile movies are a (cough) pet favorite of mine. The grand daddy is probably Sergio Martino's GIANT ALLIGATOR RIVER with Barbara Bach. Other notables are KILLER CROCODILE and the environmentally conscious KILLER CROCODILE 2, not to mention Wes Craven's CROCODILE, and the two ALLIGATOR films cleverly named ALLIGATOR and ALLIGATOR 2, and of course Tobe Hooper's EATEN ALIVE. Even the Six Million Dollar Man fights a giant alligator or two, proving that this was a cross medium phenomenon.

Usually the stories amount to little more than rip-offs of various themes presented in JAWS, with an avenging family member trying to stop a rampaging mutant crocodile from eating it's way through some sort of tourist holiday/celebration, much to the annoyance of the uncaring or corrupt local officials. The reason why they usually "work" on a simplistic, juvenile and lunkheaded level is the Roger Ebert quote, "Show me someone who isn't afraid of a 40 foot long rampaging mutant alligator and I will show you a fool." Sompote Sands' CROCODILE will probably not be remembered as a classic of the genre, which is a shame, since it is one of the most remarkable films ever made. Half schlock JAWS ripoff and half leftover GODZILLA inspired rampaging monster movie, this is actually a production of the notorious Dick Randall, the brainiac behind such deliriously enjoyable bits of trash as KONG ISLAND, THE GIRL IN ROOM 2A, PIECES and HORROR SAFARI. We know we are in for quality, especially with the opening montage of disaster footage, hydrogen bomb test scenes and the sight of two topless teenage girls kicking and screaming while in the jaws of a huge fake monster crocodile puppet.

The movie never looks back: A doctor's family is decimated by an overgrown rampaging mutant crocodile who has seen JAWS and lurks in the sea, waiting to gobble up bikini-clad swimmers with pert breasts. Between feedings it smashes up native villages with a gusto not seen since KING KONG VS. GODZILLA. At one point it even swallows a water buffalo whole -- no easy feat -- then proceeds to gulp down an entire tourist group from Great Falls, Montana, injecting a curious duality into this Thai made film: Eating topless girls? Forgivable exploitation, I guess. Destroying native villages & their livestock? Nyehh ... Eating Caucasian tourists? NOT GONNA HAPPEN. Something must be done!

Concerned that having a giant rampaging mutant crocodile in his coastal waters gobbling up tourists might hurt the local economy the owner of the local Nike sweatshop allows our hero to organize a JAWS inspired personal revenge mission to hunt down and exterminate the crocodile, and then the plagiarism really kicks into full steam. We get the devil may care seaman with a personal grudge against crocodiles, the bright young student type who's lover was also eaten by the crocodile, and a feckless reporter who wants a scoop all joining forces on the sailor's boat to chase the crocodile with a dynamite tipped harpoon gun. They even use floating oil drums painted bright primary colors to track it and at one point one of the team members is swallowed whole. Not eaten, swallowed.

In case you have not gotten the picture yet this movie is utterly absurd, starting with the crocodile itself, which like Godzilla has the ability to change scale from scene to scene depending on the needs of the shooting script. Sometimes it is as big as a jumbo jet, others only as big as Mr. T for those tight, closeup shots of the crocodile biting people's legs off. At one point I ceased caring about the story and just enjoyed the wild unevenness of the movie, blending images that look like they were culled from Mr. Randall's 1978 production also called CROCODILE with modern day footage of the intrepid crocodile hunters boldly facing the wrath of nature to bring the crocodile to reptilian justice by blowing it up with the dynamite. The special effects are also hypnotically staged, though they look about as "realistic" as those Christmas specials with the little puppets & the Burgermeister Meisterburger.

Is it a good movie? Heavens no. Is it a fun movie? Perhaps. Is it an obscure, ultra hard to find gem of Z grade cinema worth finding just to laugh at? Absolutely! And I got exactly what I wanted from it, at least: A silly, exploitative, voyeuristic, at times disproportionately gory ultra low budget movie from Thailand about a giant rampaging mutant crocodile eating lots of people & then getting blown up real good. If you look for anything else in such a movie you are utterly wasting your time.

5/10

It's been a long while since I've seen it, but all through this "Chorakhe" I had the impression that it's the exact same movie as "Agowa Gongpo". And not just bit and pieces of footage that were edited into one another, but really one and the same film. IMDb lists them as two films, and they have different casts & crew listed, so I reckon they are two separate films indeed; - regardless of featuring the same film posters and very similar storylines.

And, of course, what does it matter anyways? They are both shameless and 200% uninspired "Jaws" rip-offs, only this time coming from the oriental part of the planet. Everything about "Crocodile" is copied from Steven Spielberg's blockbuster classic, including the music, the characters' personalities, the beach sequences, the POV-camerawork, etc. From the croc itself, we mainly see its evil eye in close-up and its rear end whenever the animal strolls back into the high grass after another lousily accomplished attack sequence. I love crocodile movies, in fact I love creature-features in general, but this one is practically unwatchable.

This ultra-cheap Thai export, borrows wholesale from the last third of "Jaws", and yet despite the carbon copy approach, manages to end without the audience even knowing if the title beast has been overcome, or whether the hero has survived. There's an almighty commotion, then, the film abruptly ends.

While enjoying a weekend getaway with their wives and offspring, Dr. Tony and his budding medic friend soon become widows of an oceanic behemoth, that proceeds to devour everything in its path. Not content to grieve in silence, the pair gesticulate for about three-quarters of an hour on how they'll avenge their family's deaths; meanwhile, the beast is causing mayhem in the local village. After much soul-searching, reflection and the occasional bizarre chemistry experiment, the two eventually enlist the services of a rugged fisherman Tanaka (Kirk Warren) and set off by boat to end the creature's path of chaos and destruction.

Frequent use of miniature sets and paltry special effects afford this film a corny quality the antithesis of the otherwise intense and heavy-handedness of the characterisations. Disjointed editing, unintelligible dubbing, droning monotone synthesisers, and annoying cinematography (from extreme darkness to blinding sunlight pans) don't assist the flailing storyline. Must surely be considered a curiosity, and will more than likely compel a second look, even if just to try and decipher what happened (or didn't happen, but should have). An interesting insight into late 70's Thai cinema, and the techniques that were unemployed when making movies.

Before I get into the review for Crocodile, here are my ratings for the movie.

The story gets 0.5 out of 2: For Direction and Pacing a 0.75: While the Performances get 1: And my Enjoyment level earns a 0.75 out of 2: Crocodile, therefore, receives a total of 3 out of 10.

Crocodile is a lacklustre rip-off of Jaws, with the killer fish changed out for a killer reptile. And if you thought the great white shark looked fake, wait until you see the croc for the first time. Get your coffin ready you'll die laughing.

That's assuming you'll make it to that scene.

The sad thing with this movie is the acting isn't too terrible. It won't win an Oscar, but it's enjoyable enough. Though the cast members are the best thing about this movie, they couldn't lift the story of the direction up into the realms of watchability.

Director, Sampote Sands, sets the pace of this movie at a meander, and it never breaks into a walk, let alone a jog. The slowness hinders the feature immensely, and you may perceive yourself drifting off to sleep. Impeding it further are the countless stock scenes of ambulances. These needed editing to make them exciting. However, Sands must have thought the sight of an ambulance was thrilling enough for the audience. It isn't.

Crocodile's most significant handicap is its directing and editing. Everything appears haphazard and ill-thought-out. You have close-ups when they're unrequired and distance shots when you need to be in the thick of the action.

Everything considered this was a poorly written, inadequately filmed and edited flick, with an okay cast of actors and actresses.

That said, for such a terrible movie, it does possess an entertaining side. Its awfulness made me smile (I do love B-movies.), though I found it too dreadful to recommend.

If you want a good creature feature film to watch, then dust off your Jaws DVD and enjoy.

Take Care & Stay Well; Get Inoculated.