User Reviews

While its not the greatest creature feature out there Killer Crocodile. It has the makings of decent Italian B-Movie however it fails for a few reasons. First the characters are extremely flat and feel forced when near the end. Plus most of them don't have a clear personality. The second reason it feels is due to the complete disregard for certain plot elements. The radioactive material is just skipped over from time to time. It wouldn't be so bad but they reference the stuff a few times. Finally the crocodile while it looks decent is by far the weakest part of the film. It's mouth just seems to open its mouth wide every time it eats. However it makes up for these things with the dubs very cheesy lines and over-the-top death for the crocodile.

For an Italian film about a killer crocodile, KILLER CROCODILE is about as much fun as you could want it to be. Sure, all of the clichés are there and its as indebted to JAWS as one might expect, but a fun cast, good effects, and not-bad direction from prolific Italian producer and former Fulci cohort Fabrizio De Angelis make for one enjoyable viewing experience. The only downside I can see to this film - aside from the unoriginality of the plot, which in turn appears to have been swiped by Hollywood for ANACONDA - is that some scenes involving people journeying to and fro on a boat seem to have been included merely as padding, and thus do drag a little.

The film begins in classic fashion with two old guys in a boat at night being attacked by a sudden cheesy crocodile head. The film begins for real with a point-of-view shot of SOMETHING swimming through the Amazonian rivers on the look out for prey, whilst music which sounds VERY similar to the suspenseful music in JAWS plays in the background. Hilariously, the crocodile is played as a slasher in this movie, a Michael Myers imitation with lots of P.O.V. shots, appearances of claws, and heavy BREATHING sounding when its around! How can a crocodile be heard to breathe in air when it's underwater? I guess nobody thought of that.

A typical bunch of attractive but bland Italian teenagers/twentysomethings are investigating somebody dumping radioactive waste into the river which leads to a conspiracy angle in the film, as the only authority in charge (played by Van Johnson of all people) is in on the scheme and wants everything hushed up. When one of the party goes missing, one guy says "This swamp's no amusement park". From this point on, extras get killed in gory fashions, people hunt the crocodile, attempt to kill it and fail, and finally there's a big battle between man and beast which ends as one might expect. The B-movie casting is adequate, with a majority of unknown faces with one or two older, familiar faces in supporting roles, in this case they are Van Johnson (one time Hollywood star relegated to supporting roles in Italian B-movies like so many) and Thomas Moore, aka Ennio Girolami, or Enzo G. Castellari's brother. Moore has a fun part as an old-fashioned game hunter and genuinely seems to be enjoying himself in the role, so the viewer can too.

KILLER CROCODILE doesn't skimp on the gore effects either, thanks to the presence of ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS veteran Giannetto De Rossi in the crew. Highlights include a mouldering corpse popping out of the water and later being examined in detail, a man chewed in the jaws of the croc, another man being torn through a pier and a graphic arm-ripping which will delight gorehounds everywhere. De Rossi also created the cumbersome crocodile itself; it may not be much of an improvement on the dragons in peplum epics like THE LOVES OF HERCULES made thirty years earlier, but ignore the lack of realism and instead admire the artistry gone into creating the menace.

Being a cheap Italian production made in the late '80s, when the industry had pretty much disappeared, there is certain unintentional humour to be had from the film. One such scene has Moore "riding" the back of the crocodile, only to disappear presumed dead as blood bubbles up in the water! Later on, a slow-mo flying hat signals that Moore has returned, covered in blood, to watch the finale and lend support from the sideline! Speaking of which, the cheesily over-the-top death for the crocodile involves a boat's propeller being thrown into its mouth, which causes it to explode (?), but not after spraying tons of blood everywhere very graphically! You'll also get leech attacks, explosions, and a twist ending which rips off CONTAMINATION for your money's worth. KILLER CROCODILE: only a moderately successful horror film, but one with a high entertainment value.

Fabrizio De Angelis -- who directed, co-wrote with Dardano Sacchetti and produced this movie -- was so sure of its success that he made the sequel immediately afterward. You know, De Angelis doesn't get mentioned all that often when people bring up Italian sleaze merchants, but the guy made three Thunder movies and six Karate Warrior movies, so he knew how to replicate a successful formula. He also produced so much great junk, such as The Last Match, The Beyond, Cop Target, Emanuelle Around the World and so much more.

Kevin (Richard Anthony Crenna, son of Richard, providing his own wardrobe and also getting dysentery while making this), Jennifer (Ann Douglas), foxy Pam (Sherrie Rose, Summer Job), Bob (John Harper) and Mark (Pietro Genuardi) are sailing down a river in Santo Domingo to report on the water's radioactivity. What happens if that radioactivity also gets into a crocodile? You won't have to wait forever to find out.

For a while, they're guided by Conchita and her dog Candy, but when that mutated reptile rises and destroys her, instead of the local government led by Judge (Van Johnson) figuring it all out, they frame the youngsters for murder, as Judge and Foley (Wohrman Williams) are the reasons why the town is in this whole mess.

There's also Joe (Ennio Girolami, Viking from Sinbad of the Seven Seas), a hunter who knows the truth and is the Robert Shaw to no one's Roy Scheider. The real star of the whole show is the gator, who pops up repeatedly and wipes out man -- and spoiler warning -- canine alike, but Joe is also man enough to literally surf on the thing.

If Becca and I ever get out to the Amazon, after watching this, Cubby is staying home.

Killer Crocodile is set in Santo Domingo & starts as several American ecologists sail through a swamp there, they are looking for proof that big business is dumping it's toxic waste into the swamp & causing an environmental disaster. Pollution levels in the water are extremely high & when they discover a pile of toxic waste barrels dumped in the swamp they intend to blow the whistle & put an end to the illegal dumping. However after setting up camp for the night Conchita goes missing, the other's fear for her safety & when her dead, mutilated body turns up the local medical examiner claims that she was killed by some animal. Local big game hunter Joe (Ennio Girolami) fears that a killer Crocodile may be on the loose & he is proved right when a huge twenty foot Crocodile attacks a small village killing a couple of people, the town Judge (Van Johnson) doesn't want to know so Joe & the remaining environmentalists set out to kill the Crocodile first before it kills anyone else...

This Italian production was co-written, produced & directed by Fabrizio De Angelis & is a straight forward Jaws (1975) rip-off that is pretty awful, as a huge fan of the Italian exploitation genre it's safe to say that it's better days were well behind it when Killer Crocodile was made. The Jaws similarities are there for all to see, the water based menace that eats people, the fact that it lurks just under the surface with only part of it visible above the water, the craggy old hunter who sets out to kill the monster, the music is a virtual note for note reworking of the classic Jaws theme, the local businessman & town officials who want to keep the killer animal secret for fear of bad publicity & just the way the script is written screams of Jaws. As you might expect Killer Crocodile has none of Jaws effectiveness, it is really dull & boring with long stretches where nothing happens, the attack scenes are so poor & unimaginative that any self respecting creature feature fan will want their money back once the end credits begin to roll. The character's are awful, they are all bland & stupid who aren't helped by an awful script that contains some terrible dialogue. With a film such as Killer Crocidile it's easier & quicker to list the things that are good about it, well it has one or two mildly gory moments & that's about it. Listing all the things wrong with Killer Crocodile would take a lot longer. At 90 odd minutes long Killer Crocodile drags & crawls along, you get the occasional really bad attack scene, a few shots of the Crocodile in the water & those throughly dull humans who are hunting it down. This is bad, very bad.

Reasonably well on location Killer Crocodile was made before CGI became commonplace & therefore we have a big rubber Crocodile that barely moves as it's floats in the swamp, it's never really seen eating anyone although it does bite someones arm off whose stump then spurts a lot of blood. There's also a couple of dead bodies seen & that's about it. Most of the victims are killed off screen. There's no nudity or sex either & overall Killer Crocodile is fairly tame & forgettable. There's no tension, suspense or scares in this annoyingly drab film. Filmed at the same time as it's sequel Killer Crocodile II (1990) which uses many of the same cast & crew.

The acting is bad, well at least the dubbing is bad. In fact it's hilariously bad with seemingly no attempt to match the dialogue with the on screen actor's mouth movements. The special effects are average at best & don't convince but they aren't as bad as some that I have seen although that's not saying much.

Killer Crocodile is a really dull & boring film that is your basic common or garden variety Jaws rip-off, the effects are dated & the whole film is forgettable. There are better creature features out there, don't bother with this one even if you can find a copy.

What we got here is pretty cool characters for me, and i am very picky on movies in some sense tho i like some cheesy movies that most hate. So it all depends on my taste but i like this Joe is freakin cool and awesome, he even survived when thought he was dead usually kill off all the cool people which gets dumb. But NO cool fighter Joe Lives!!! and Mark i liked he stood out lived and Even Kevin, the Croc actually looks huge and unique not stupid and or same old same old. These guys live the bad guys did their part the kills were great. The croc looked killer cool ! Hence name i bet. Way better than people do on Horror movies their so picky. For a Croc one i seen many but i like this one alot. And having extra cool people live for once is a nice change!

From the first start of the music, to what ever happens you can clearly see they copied Jaws, a part from the very bad acting, the very bad special effects, and everything else, the movie is a disaster.

The crocodile looks so fake, it looks like one of those giant inflated dolls you put into your swimming pool during summer time.

The kills are almost all off screen too which make it even worst and they make sure to blow the monster right off the bat in the opening scene.

I would love to recommend this type of so bad its good movie but sadly its not..... there is so much going on that you want to stop the movie and pop in the Jaws to see what a real monster movie looks like.

Does not even deserve an A for effort.

With the success of JAWS a series of movies opened up that took the premise of a much larger version of whatever animal it focused on and used the same basis of that film. We had everything from barracudas to grizzlies in the wake of that film with a few other sharks tossed in for good measure. But the makers of KILLER CROCODILE sat back and waited ten years before giving us there version of the new giant beast to fear.

Released in 1989 the movie has a group of ecology minded young college students cruising down a river in the amazon looking for proof that a nefarious corporation is polluting the local river. They do indeed find that place where they've been dropping toxic waste and at the same time find something else. When one of the group goes missing they seek help from the local government run by Van Johnson. He turns a blind eye and they go back looking for their friend only to find out what happened. She was eaten by a giant crocodile mutated by the toxic waste.

When they return to let the official know what happens he tells them they're lying. It seems he's been paid handsomely by the corporation dumping the waste. When a great white hunter decides to believe the kids and take off after the giant croc, they accompany him in the hopes of using it for evidence. But the croc doesn't plan on going down easy.

This film can be viewed in many ways and depending on which you choose you will love it or hate it. If you accept it on the surface only you'll find a low budget version that is just slightly different from JAWS and not worthy of your attention. But for those who can enjoy that low budget aspect you can view this as a campy version instead, from the soundtrack that is way too close to that of JAWS theme to the completely unbelievable crocodile that shows up. It make Bruce from JAWS in his worst moments seem more real. And yet the film must have done decent box office numbers because they actually made a sequel!

The cast is pretty much unknowns with only Johnson as a recognizable name. It also features Richard Anthony Crenna, son of actor Richard Crenna, in the heroic lead of the film. With only 22 credits to his name on IMDB it apparently wasn't much of a career launching film. More fortunate was actress Sherrie Rose who went on to a somewhat successful career.

One would think that a film of this nature wouldn't get much of a release and honestly in the past it didn't. But Severin has resurrected the film from oblivion and done so with skill in a new 2k release scanned from the original negative. In addition to that they've got several extras as well. Those include THE FEARLESS CROCODILE HUNTER an interview with actor Pietro Genuardi, IT CRAWLS an interview with cinematographer Federico Del Zoppo, IN THE JAWS OF THE CROCODILE an interview with special makeup effects artists Giannetto de Rossi, OF CROCODILES AND MEN an interview with Crenna the trailer for the film and another special item. Not only do you get the movie itself you also get that sequel I mentioned. Yes you get KILLER CROCODILE 2 as well as its trailer! That's two complete movies for the price of one!

I know, most won't think this is worth picking up but it is a lot of fun in the end and if nothing else would make a great film to include on a turkey flick list over the Thanksgiving holiday. Give it a try it's worth it. And the release is limited to just 4000 units so if you want one pick it up right away.