May 19, 2020
Killer Crocodile (1989)
"Do you still think the crocodile should be saved?"
"If I get the chance, I won't hesitate to kill it."
"Well, I'd sure like to be there."
#Killer Crocodile#1989#italian cinema#films i done watched#horror film#Fabrizio De Angelis#Richard Anthony Crenna#Ennio Girolami#Pietro Genuardi#John Harper#Sherrie Rose#ann douglas#van johnson#Bill Wohrman#Gray Jordan#Amilcar Martins#Franklin Dominguez#Oh boy. It's no secret that Italian cinema had a whole plagiarismy thing going on where they would produce quick knock offs of whatever#Film was making a big splash at that time. Nor is it news to anyone that Jaws was a game changer to cinema everywhere‚ and inspired dozens#Of imitators of varying quality. What is odd is that someone should produce a film that is so obviously trying to be Jaws a full decade and#A half after that film's release. OK so the 4th Jaws film is a near contemporary but it was universally reviled. Our big Croc film is so#Very clearly a Jaws movie tho‚ from its monster beneath the water to a direct lift of the first kill‚ to the grizzled hunter (Girolami‚ who#Seems to be channeling Lee Van Cleef for some reason) even down to the score‚ a blatant ripoff of John Williams' iconic theme. Tbf there#Are other 'inspirations'; a little of Piranha here‚ some timely ecohorror there. It's trashy and it's objectively bad‚ but happily it falls#Firmly into the camp of bad but somehow extremely entertaining. And as for Van Johnson? Oh pity him‚ once a major player for MGM‚ reduced#To gibbering in fear at the sight of a papier mâché swamp reptile as it mechanically chomps its maw at nothing in particular. Is this not#The human experience writ large? Did Ozymandias himself suffer so great a fall? Ask not for whom the crocodile gurgles; he gurgles for all#Ten out of ten‚ highly recommend