Alligator (1980)

This is one of the scariest movies ever. See it. It has a great story line. It also has great acting. It is very scary.

Alligator is a fantastic movie. A girl gets a pet alligator as a baby at an alligator wrestling show and her dad flushes it down the toilet because it gets out of it's terrarium and poops places. The alligator ends up in the sewer and survives and eats dead dogs that were thrown end there that were experimented with growth hormones. The alligator grows way larger than normal as a result and eats people. It busts out and is gone after by people. A scientist and a police officer follow it back into the sewer and it is blown up by a time bomb. The movie is very scary and entertaining. It's got some ridiculous scenes and continuity goofs but it is good.

John Sayles was a man responsible for writing some of the funniest, most affectionate monster movie follow-ups to JAWS. THE HOWLING is a mega-successful, universally-loved werewolf movie and PIRANHA one of the most purely entertaining B-movies of all time. ALLIGATOR is much the same as PIRANHA, a slightly silly, overblown B-movie with a large canvas, exquisite attention to detail and finely drawn characters.Usually with these monster movies you have to wait an age before the action begins but not so here. Things open in the thick of it as we're drawn into a murky conspiracy involving a pet shop owner selling dogs to an unscrupulous scientist at a research institute. The bad news is that he disposes of the genetically-engineered bodies in the local sewer system, where an alligator has been feeding on them for the past twelve years. Now the alligator is a huge, hulking monster ready to chow down on human flesh.Into this mess is thrown permanently bemused cop Robert Forster (VIGILANTE) in what is my favourite performance of his to date. He delivers a wry comic turn as the cop in way over his head, struggling to cope with stodgy superiors, an attractive female scientist sidekick and a receding hairline to boot. Robin Riker makes an impact as the love interest, far from the usual irritating sidekick we see in these films: she's feisty, strong-willed and more than a match for Forster.There are a couple of notable turns from veteran performers, including an ancient Dean Jagger (X THE UNKNOWN) as the murky figure behind the conspiracy and a scenery-chewing Henry Silva, clearly relishing his role as an over-the-top big game hunter who's determined to track down the beast. Watching Silva gather together a trio of 'gang bangers' to act as his native bearers was a highlight for me. The rest of the film is of the usual type: monster attacks, the authorities attempting to retaliate, then a pulse-pounding climax. Sayles shows a refreshingly realistic mean spirit here (a kid gets chewed after jumping in his swimming pool) and there are severed limbs galore.Director Lewis Teague should also be applauded for keeping his film lean and mean with a great pacing and some very well staged alligator attacks. These come in the form of full-size models plus a regular-sized alligator wrecking miniature scenery. I found the alligator scenes to be delivered with aplomb, especially the grisly attack on the wedding party at the climax which really delivers the outrageous goods. The sewer-based climax, with a sweaty Forster going up against the critter with a backpack full of dynamite, is very well handled too. You guessed it, I loved this movie, it's everything I could want from a B-movie monster flick. A sequel, ALLIGATOR II: THE MUTATION, followed ten years later...

A baby pet alligator is flushed down a toilet in the opening scene. Into the sewer system it goes and grows to huge proportions. A local lab is illegally dumping experimental dog carcasses with growth hormones down there that the gator is feeding on. Homeless people and other city workers begin to disappear and police officer David (Forster) has to team up with Alligator specialist Marisa (Riker) to try and stop the huge gator. In the mean time the gator is swallowing kids in swimming pools, destroying a wedding the Mayor is having and chomping a big game hunter (Henry Silva) who was called in to stop it, in bloody fashion. Director Lewis Teague keeps the action crisp and this never gets boring. John Sayles script is filled with black humor and stretches way more fun out of this 'B' picture than it has a right to. Forster is properly cast as the grizzled cop and seems to enjoy his role. This isn't the type of movie to pull genuine scares out of it. Instead it's a fun, and at times bloody monster on the loose film.