A disgruntled father flushes his daughter’s baby alligator down the toilet in an effort to rid the house of the nuisance. The alligator does not die, however. It feeds on small vermin and animals that have been injected with growth hormones that were also dumped into the sewers. It grows and grows and soon it begins to feed on humans. Enter Chicago police officer David (Robert Forster), on the trail of a suspected psycho killer (it’s really the gator, he just doesn’t know it yet) who he thinks is hiding out in the sewers. He and another officer go down there, exploring the vast underworld beneath the city of Chicago, until they run across the alligator. It kills his partner and David barely escapes with his life. Of course, no one believes him, but soon they do, as the monster gets loose and starts stalking prey up in the city. Can David and his new scientist gal-pal stop the alligator before it escapes into the sewer system again?
I saw this movie back when it came out on VHS in the early 80s and then many more times on cable TV. It’s always been a favorite of mine, kind of like Jaws just set in a city. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it again and decided to give it a revisit. It most certainly holds up and is an entertaining, thrilling, and horrifying film. Writer John Sayles gives his characters a lot to work with; quirks and humor abound. The story itself is fairly straight-forward and yes, still a bit of a Jaws knockoff. But it floats just fine on its own. The action is terrific and yeah, the alligator looks fake, but not atrociously so. Director Lewis Teague keeps it just enough in the shadows or obscured slightly so that we never get a thorough look at it. Still, when it’s mashing people between its teeth, the movie doesn’t hold back. This is a film that kind of flutters along that line of Hollywood respectability and Exploitation rawness. It’s very polished but it still has some guts, if you know what I mean. Also, all these years later, my memories told met this story took place in New York City. I was shocked to find out just how wrong I was. In the end, the most important memory held up just fine: this is one hell of a monster movie.
The biggest problem with Alligator is that it’s out of print as far as DVD/Blu goes, so it was hard to find. It’s rentable but like most people, I don’t have a lot of disposable money. I did find a crappy print on YouTube (linked above), and it was just about like watching a third-generation dupe of a VHS copy. That brought back some fond memories, as well. In any case, if you’re a fan of monster movies, a fan of nature-gone-amok movies, a fan of Robert Forster, then seek this one out. It’s well-worth a watch. Here’s hoping it gets re-released sometime soon.
★★★✮