By CONNOR KEATING
Tiger Media Network
And so… the October monster movie marathon continues, this time with the 1980 film “Alligator.” This is a movie that I first became interested in not because of anything it did, but because someone online that I follow kept semi-ironically hyping up its sequel “Alligator II: The Mutation,” and so I became intrigued. Then one day while I was at Vintage Stock I came across the Blu-Ray for “Alligator II” and on a beautiful 4K set, its predecessor: “Alligator.” If there’s one thing I love, it’s overly high-quality releases of weird, obscure movies barely anyone cares about. Nothing like having a cheap, bare-bones DVD copy of “Citizen Kane” to store right next to your nice, Arrow Video Blu-Ray of “The Giant Claw.”
Anyways, the plot of “Alligator” follows police officer David Madison, who is investigating both a series of strange mutilations and the disappearance of numerous dogs who occasionally turn up, but twice the size. After a shady pet store owner is identified as one of the mutilated victims – found being drained out of the sewer system – Madison goes in for a look with Deputy Kelly. However, Madison has a dark past, as he accidentally got his previous deputy killed. Things take a turn for the worst, as Madison is later found screaming about “alligators in the sewers” and is labeled as crazy, but a nosy news reporter manages to get pictures of the beast as it devours him whole. Now, the whole town is in total chaos, as the alligator is loose, using the sewers and various other bodies of water to get around. Madison is kicked off the police force and replaced by a cocky big game hunter, so he and the beautiful herpetologist (scientist who studies reptiles) Marisa Kendall have to track down the beast themselves and take it down.
Before I start getting into the film, I just have to say, wow, the poster for this film is fantastic. I’d even consider it my second favorite movie poster of all time, just after the poster for “Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds” of course. The 4K release uses a pretty crappy-looking new photoshopped poster that I’m not a fan of, so when I found the original poster on the other side of the slipcover, I was pretty excited.
The plot is sort of what you’d expect. It’s basically a combination of your average “Jawsploitation” film and an 80s cop action movie. It has a lot of the tropes from both, but putting them all together makes for a pretty fun film. I also like that the film plays with the whole “alligators in the sewers” urban legend, rather than just having the film take place in Florida or something. There’s even a funny scene at the beginning showing the baby alligator getting flushed down the toilet, that unknowingly gets brought up later. There are also a number of other nice little bits of setup and payoff that I like having a larger role in the story. They establish that parts of the sewers have highly combustible methane gas, and there’s a seemingly random (but funny) scene at the beginning where a crazy guy with a fake timer bomb strapped to his chest shows up at the police station, but it comes together for the finale, you can guess what happens.
Honestly, the biggest problem with the plot is the subplot about the experimental dogs. It plays a pretty big role in the story as it’s what mutates the alligator, and the investigation into the lab is what gets Madison kicked off the force, however, there’s no satisfying conclusion… sort of. The alligator ends up crashing one of the main scientists’ wedding and dishing out their just desserts, but there’s never any point in the film where the main characters confirm their suspicions of the lab’s involvement and figure out exactly what was going on there, but hey, at least that wedding scene is awesome.
When it comes to the characters, it’s a pretty fun cast. Of course, there’s the leading duo of Madison and Dr. Kendall who are both great. Madison has some personal drama to overcome throughout the film, and the two of them have a nice little romance. The supporting cast is great as well. The cocky big game hunter, Brock, is just so weird and memorable, as he flirts with a news reporter by doing alligator mating calls. Chief Clark is very likable, always trying to look out for Madison until he’s forced to give him the boot. Even the mayor, who’s kind of forgettable, ends up having a very memorable moment at the wedding where he keeps interrupting the father of the bride (who’s the head of the shady laboratory company) while he’s trying to tell some lame story about cooking steak. It all comes together to make for a fun and memorable cast, where each character has their own little quirks.
Of course, though, most people are watching this to see a giant alligator eat people. Do not fear, because there’s plenty of that. The kills early on take a cue from “JAWS” and are usually POV, or obscure most of the beast with the dark and claustrophobic sewer tunnels, but once it leaves the sewers, nothing is obscured… unless you’re watching the TV cut. The action sequences are a beautiful blend of gore and creature effects combined with the over-the-top and explosive action of the 80s. Speaking of the effects, they’re awesome. The film uses a combination of a real alligator on a small set, and an impressive life-size prop that’s fully capable of swallowing the actors whole. The real alligator they use you can clearly tell is a juvenile thanks to its large eye ridges, but fortunately, most of the time they use the life-size alligator prop.
The music in the film is also fantastic. Lots of deep, eerie, mysterious pieces are used to make scenes more suspenseful, combined with the stingers of the main theme, and the track that uses… I don’t know what instrument, but it’s the same one they used for some of the tracks in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” and it sounds like some deep synthetic guitar; it all comes together to create a striking and enjoyable soundtrack.
“Alligator” is another unfortunately forgotten film, but if you give it a chance, I’m sure most can enjoy the film. It’s got fun characters, a fun premise, has some awesome practical effects, and it expertly combines a monster movie with an 80s action movie to create a film worthy of that stellar poster. I give this film eight “funerals for a big toe” out of 10.
Fun fact, before Brian Cranston became a big-name actor, he was jumping around Hollywood looking for work to get more experience, and ended up being a production assistant for “Alligator” where he was tasked with stuffing the giant alligator prop with fake blood and guts for the finale.
Connor Keating is a junior at Fort Hays State University, studying digital media and journalism. Connor is an old-school movie fan, particularly Japanese monster movies, and is an avid DVD collector.
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