Review of Alligator (1980) by Rj M — 03 Oct 2010

I love cheesy monster movies. Love 'em. When they're done right, they can be a real blast to watch. (Piranha 3D is a prime example). This low budget Jaws rip off makes a play on the old urban legend of alligators in the sewers. A girl's pet alligator is flushed down the toilet, grows to immense size in the sewers, and proceeds to dine on hapless city dwellers. There's your plot. But what you get is a smart script, tight direction, and a movie that never forgets that it's supposed to have it's tongue firmly planted in it it's cheek.

Robert Forster plays a discraced cop who encounters the beast in the sewers, but his warnings, of course, fall on deaf ears. Aided by zoologist, played by Robin Riker, they attempt to track the alligator before it kills again. Veteran movie psycho Henry Silva shows up as a big game hunter who may have finally met his match. Director Lewis Teague keeps things moving nicely, and gives us more than a few genuine surprises, and a good amount of gore.

It's filled with plot holes big enough for the monster alligator to walk through (the movie is set in Chicago, but check out the California license plates on the cars), but this is the type of movie never meant to be high art. It's a movie about a giant, sewer dwelling alligator. If you can't have fun with that concept, then this is definately not the movie for you.