Alligator (1980)

Directed by Lewis Teague [Other horror films: Cujo (1983), Cat’s Eye (1985), The Triangle (2001)]

Honestly, I don’t have a lot to say about this one. I wasn’t really that impressed with Alligator when I first saw it, and while I can see some decent portions with this recent rewatch, it’s still not really my type of movie.

When it comes to giant monster movies, I’ve never been a big fan. Admittedly, given this movie is from the 1980’s, it does feel different than the movies from the late 50’s. Even so, the story sort of follows the exact same route – a guy has an experience with a giant alligator, and shortly afterward, the military, police, and everyone else is watching out for the creature while it causes havoc.

It’s not even the first killer alligator/crocodile movie – in 1979, we had both Thailand’s Chorakhe (Crocodile) and Italy’s Il fiume del grande caimano (The Great Alligator), and in 1978, the South Korean Agowa gongpo (Crocodile Fangs). Now, I’ve not seen any of these three, but I am sort of curious if they’re similar in story and idea to this movie, and I imagine all of them possess an interesting foreign flavor that obviously this one couldn’t compete with.

No doubt it’s nice to see Robert Forster as the lead. When I first saw this movie, I probably didn’t know who he was, but having seen Breaking Bad and El Camino, even this young, he has a familiar face (also in The Wolf of Snow Hollow, The Darker Side of Terror, and Satan’s Princess). Honestly, I didn’t love his character here, but he was a nice face to see. Robin Riker (Stepmonster) isn’t a name I know, but though I didn’t care for her romantic interest in Forster’s character, she did decent.

Honestly, those two are the only ones that really matter. Sure, Henry Silva (Thirst) appears for a bit, Dean Jagger (X the Unknown, Revolt of the Zombies, So Sad About Gloria) seems to be set up as a human antagonist, but it never really goes anywhere, and while Michael V. Gazzo (The Godfather Part II) appears throughout the film, we never get a good feel for him.

Some of the special effects look decent. It’s not a particularly gory movie or anything, but the titular alligator gets a few tasty bites in. I think my bigger issue is that it’s hard for me to watch this and not think of Lake Placid, which is a movie I find so much more enjoyable than this one, and actually, I think it’s fair to say that this feels more like a 70’s product than it does one of the 1980’s, given it’s somewhat dry feel.

I’ve only seen Alligator twice now, and both times, while I can’t say I’ve been let down, I can say that neither viewing has done much for me. It’s not a bad movie, but it’s not one that I really care for, at least for the time being.

6/10