Alligator

An entertaining B-movie playing with the well-known urban legend about sewer crocodiles. After being flushed down the toilet, the unwanted pet ends up in the sewer, where a local chemical company inadvertently fattens it with discarded animal carcasses they were testing growth hormones on. As a result, the little crocodile grows to gigantic proportions and begins to eat its way up from the lowest rungs of the social ladder to the highest. Surprisingly, John Sayles' script is not daft, in fact, it is a witty social satire. At first, the alligator feasts unnoticed on the sewer workers. Then it takes to the streets at night and starts having a middle-class dinner. And only when it takes on the ignorant elite in the suburbs does it literally come to light. Alligator is not a scary horror movie, but a horror movie with a sense of humor. If you've ever wondered with monster movies, for example, how come there's no monster excrement, Alligator vividly proves that even monsters perform a need. It's a self-aware B-movie that revels in genre clichés with great aplomb. When a racist and sexist animal hunter, a corrupt mayor, or a tormentor of small puppies appears on the scene, you know they won't be on screen for very long, but you look forward to the moment when they're in the alligator's mouth all the more. At the same time, the film entertains with subtle references for film buffs. For example, the graffiti in the sewer declaring that “Harry Limes lives” refers to Orson Welles' character in The Third Man who was killed in the sewer. (13/05/2020)

It reeks of cheapness and trashiness, but I can't say that a mutant crocodile originally flushed down the toilet wasn’t fun. There is a bit of blabbering, but the plot moves forward quite quickly and offers the toothy creature a menu of differently served courses, so that in addition to eating in the dark sewers, we also get to see an alligator swarming in the middle of a wedding reception or in a family swimming pool, where it takes a bite out of a small child (which surprised me quite a bit). Plus, there's a likeable Robert Forster and a whole lot of perspective, with the crocodile seeming to deliberately wipe out all the bad guys. It's bullshit, but quite earnest and deliberate. (19/01/2018)

I am fully aware of how bad Alligator is, but it is so bad that it’s almost adorably ridiculous. And why not admit it honestly, it is in a way a video cult-classic for a generation. This is just something you want to see on a VHS tape with boring monologo-dubbing. (16/08/2007)