‘A frightening movie with a sense of fun!’
Alligator is a 1980 monster movie, directed by Lewis Teague with a screenplay by John Sayles (Piranha). It stars Robert Forster, Robin Riker, Henry Silva and Michael V. Gazzo. It plays on a prevalent urban legend of the era which held that rogue alligators lived in the New York sewers preying on the homeless and unwary. There had been a short lived craze of owning baby alligators as pets which led to many being allegedly flushed down toilets when they began to grow too big for a domestic setting.
The film received praise from critics for its intentional satirizing and, in 1991, an apparent sequel was released, titled Alligator II: The Mutation. Despite the title, this film shared no characters or actors with the original, and the plot was essentially a retread of the first film.
Alligator was a big hit in the early days of video, seemingly being available in every British rental store on the Intervision label.
Plot teaser:
A laconic police officer named David Madison and a reptile expert named Marisa Kendall try to stop a deadly giant alligator that is killing humans in the sewers of Chicago…
Reviews:
“This flick easily knocks the socks off some recent killer gator epics (Lake Placid anyone?). Alligator isn’t gonna change your world, but it’s a fun flick that doesn’t overstay its welcome.” Lawrence P Raffel, Monsters at Play
“Alligator is a pretty neat flick, miles ahead of its contemporaries like Tentacles. If only the endless supply of similar films (recent examples include Anaconda and Relic) had as much going for them as this film, we would all be up to our ears in rampaging animal heaven. Killer beast devotees should definitely pick this up, if only to prepare for the on-again/off-again sequel that Sayles is writing, Alligatropolis. Scott Hamilton, Stomp Tokyo
“The film has a tongue in cheek tone which is both admirable and invigorating, and the spatial potential of claustrophobic sewer systems with the ever present sound of dripping water adds a great deal of atmosphere to the piece. An enjoyable film which is able to transcend its limitations (poor model work, plot inconsistencies) to emerge as a minor classic in the ‘Revolt of Nature’ subgenre.” Shaun Anderson, The Celluloid Highway
Buy Alligator on DVD from Amazon.com
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Categories: 1980s, creature feature, monster movie, nature-strikes-back
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