Review of Alligator (1980) by Shinyhappypurple . — 24 Apr 2011

A great early 80's "Creature-on-the Loose" movie, harking back to the 50's and 60's endless plethora of "Giant Monster" films, and generally superior to most of them. After an unwanted pet alligator is discarded into the sewers of Chicago, it eventually grows into a bus-sized behemoth that begins a-terrorizing and a-munching on the hapless citizens with endless fervor.

Hopefully, crusty Detective Madison (Robert Forster in an as usual unforced and effective perf-) and an attractive herpetologist (Robin Riker) can stop the dinosaur-like dreadnought before it kills again! Filled with lots of fun set-pieces (The hunt for the Godzilla-esque gator in the sewers in the film's final third is most memorable-), workable special effects, a lively script (By "The Howling"'s John Sayles-) and appearances by many very-recognizable faces (Dean Jagger, Jack Carter, Bart Braverman, Sydney Lassick, and most notably Henry Silva as a big game hunter called in to bag the beast-), this is a welcomed respite from the mostly crappy Slasher-Trash that was the norm of the day.

Followed some years later by an unnecessary sequel.