Alligator (1980) User Reviews

Once Upon A Time In (Under) Chicago

[RetroRoger · 7/10 · 25 November 2004]

The best Corman monster flick Roger never made.

This great B-movie unspools like a Sergio Leone revenge tale. Big mean Daddy flushes daughter's baby gator, Ramon, down the toilet. Sixteen years later, Ramon has grown up to be a 36-foot mutated maneater stalking the mean sewers of the Windy City. Daughter has grown up to become a 5'-4" herpetologist for the Chicago Zoo. You can just hear the haunting whistle of an Ennio Morricone soundtrack as the showdown looms.

This monster flick's pedigree is a purebred B, written by Corman alumnus John Sayles (fresh from 1978's 'Piranha', on his way to 1981's 'The Howling') and directed by veteran Lewis Teague, who cut his directing and editing teeth on such Corman classics as 'The Lady In Red', 'Cockfighter', 'Crazy Mama', and the immortal 'Death Race 2000'.

Casting for 'Alligator' was made in Cult Heaven, with Tarantino-fave Robert Forster as the bad-luck cop who gets between the girl and her gator. Future 'Stepmonster' Robin Riker makes her movie debut as the reptile expert. '50s sci-fi veteran Dean Jagger (looking, swear-to-God, like the dancing octogenarian in the Six Flags commercials) plays the dastardly industrialist who kills puppies and inadvertently creates the monster. Henry Silva seems to have fun skewering his cinema psycho persona. Even Hollywood tough-guy Mike Mazurki makes a cameo as the villain's gatekeeper.

Injokes abound, with winks and nudges to infamous sewer rats Harry Lime and Ed Norton. Romantic foreplay includes heartfelt talks about male pattern baldness. The gator seems to have a Jones for men in blue. And Chicago can only be saved by the time-honored, foolproof solution of trapping oneself in an enclosed space with the monster and a timebomb.

After 24 years, we rabid fans are still waiting for the obvious sewer creature clash, 'Ramon vs. C.H.U.D.' Keep dreaming ...

Great movie. A creature-feature done right.

[billybrown41 · 28 February 2002]

What a classic. I will admit that the main reason I watch so many horror movies is mainly because I can make fun of them. I bought Alligator from a video store that was going out of business. I vaguely remembered the scene where the alligator crashes the birthday party from when I was a little kid. Anyway, I remembered enough to pick it up, so I was expecting another movie that I could sit there and trash, but once I saw John Sayles's name in the writing credits, I assumed that I would be in for something more. Instead of getting a movie that I could laugh at, I got one that laughs at itself for being a horror movie (about 16 years before that was cool). The script is super-sharp, with witty lines and the direction is tight. We also get a great, charismatic Robert Forster playing the role of the burn-out cop and Henry Silva makes a HILARIOUS cameo as a hunter. I don't know if his performance was intentionally bad or if he was just trying to be that bad, but either way, it worked. I loved his character and the funny noises that he makes. I'm sure it had to be intentional.

John Sayles has done some great horror scripts. Just check out Piranah and The Howling (the first one). He scores another knockout with Alligator and it put Lake Placid to shame. What that movie seemed to try so hard at (making a "parody" of sorts) Alligator pulls off with ease. The special-effects (of course they're dated by now) are actually really well-done for the time and, in many ways, a helluva lot more convincing than most of the CGI crap that we're force-fed today.

If you can find this movie, I highly reccommend it. No, it's not scary, but it is very entertaining and a good time all the way through.

A fun, entertaining film!

[youroldpaljim · 20 October 2001]

When this film turned up on T.V. I was prepared for the worst. Much to my surprise this was a good thrilling monster movie with just the right amount of tongue and cheek to make the far fetched premise acceptable; ie the idea that an alligator this big could slip in and out of the sewers with out being detected. Robert Forster as the detective out to track down the killer gator gives a good performance. ,real stand out is Henry Silva as the military man sent to destroy the monster gator. He plays him like a broad stereotype of a general from some Latin American dictatorship.

FYI: If you think the idea of a 36 foot plus alligator is impossible, there is a fossil skull on display in the American Museum of Natural History in New York of an extinct crocodile. The skull is over five feet long. Image that such monsters once did roam the earth!

Alligator is a GIANT classic

[Rautus · 10/10 · 2 May 2007]

First there was Jaws then Piranha both great movies and then in 1980 there was a giant Alligator film written by John Sayles who wrote Piranha and The Howling, using the urban legend of Alligators flushed down into the sewers and becoming giant due to the stuff in there they made a great B-movie with an Alligator twice it's normal size. Sometimes it's just a real Alligator in a small set to make it look big and other times it's a big rubber Alligator but that's what makes it fun.

The atmosphere is creepy when in the sewers especially since the Alligator is prowling around ready to jump out and get them. The main characters are likable and the acting is good. Alligator is a classic B-Movie that's great and fun to watch. 10/10

Alligator is punk rock

[Yukster_uk · 9/10 · 31 March 2001]

This film has a superbly paced story and much style. It is great entertainment matched with wry comment from writer John Sayles: witness the rich old man who locks his posh car, allows his friend to get eaten and is then pounded flat by the monster. This could so easily have been boring and run-of-the-mill. Although accomplished on a low budget, the film makers put in much effort and created something unique.

Jaws goes to suburbia

[TTKKane · 10/10 · 13 July 2007]

This is the movie that Lake Placid wanted to be.

After the massive wave (pun intended) of underwater horrors that Jaws had created, Alligator is the best in my opinion. Sure there were a number of others that deserve recognition (Piranha, Jaws 2, Orca), but Alligator swallows them all up.

The reason is that its both sharply witty and frightening at the same time (which is a hard thing to achieve). The acting is good, with Robert Forster ringing the alarm bells about an over-sized gator living in the sewers. Our poor old gator was flushed down a toilet as a baby (you'd be a bit mad too...) and after feasting on some dumped lab animals grows to over 30 feet and is ready for some human munchies.

As for the effects, they're done really well. Direction is very good and the script is way above average for this type of fare.

TTKK's Bottomline - Alligator does for swimming pools (and suburbia) what Jaws done for the beach. Highly recommended for those looking for aquatic thrills.

My favourite movie and I've seen plenty of stunning movies!

[Alligator_80 · 10/10 · 5 January 2007]

I first saw this flick about 5 years ago and was absolutely blown away by it. The monster movie was nothing new, though and could have been easily dismissed as a Jaws imitation, but thankfully it has become a cult classic in its own right. John Sayles' sharp script, Craig Hundley's chilling soundtrack and a side-splitting performance from Henry Silva as sweet talker Col. Brock are just some of the wonders of this film. "Alligator" also benefits form being as hilarious as it is suspenseful with one particular involving a kid's party, the alligator in the pool and a prank gone horribly wrong. As far as I know, this was the first monster movie to the have the now cliqued ending of the baby monster being born before the credits roll. As a matter of fact, "Aliigator" remains one of the few Jaws inspired flicks to have a favorable response. Even the normally unfavorable Leonard Maltin awarded this movie a 3/4 and noted it for its good script and mix of Horror and Comedy. I am surprised though that the IMDb rating is only approx. 5.3/10. If you enjoy fun, scary or funny movies, watch this feature. If you enjoyed this movie, vote and increase the IMDb rating.

"I could bring my mother..she could talk him to death!"

[Foreverisacastironmess123 · 10/10 · 3 May 2014]

A certain old urban legend that you may have heard of brilliantly takes on a life of its own in this underrated horror classic. There were scores of these straight-to-video monster movies that were made in the eighties and early 90's, and so many of them are so cheap and boring that they're barely memorable, and you watch this film and every scene has got the genuine charm and really great dry wit, the script is superb and the story terrifically-paced, most genre movies these days would take forty minutes to cover the same amount of ground that this one does in a quarter of an hour. There's no bulls**t, just flush, boom, and right into the action! To me it's just an extremely fun film to watch, a throwback to an old-fashioned great B-movie, in the best sense of it. I think it looks very professional considering how old it is, which you can tell, but I really wish more films would have been made like this, as I find its style more entertaining than most of the big-budget Hollywood monster films. I don't deny that a couple of hundred-thousand dollars more for special effects couldn't have hurt, but I don't know if that would have made it a better picture in the long run or not. I personally love the effects, there's a very effective mix of various practical effects and scenes where they'll have a real live juvenile gator crawling through a miniature set, and even as a little kid I could tell that's what it was. But it just works, the effect still looks pretty good, whenever they show the victims trapped in the huge jaws of the scaly beast it looks real! The models look a little funky at times but they fit the picture, and are used in a competent way that you buy into them. The sequence where I think they show way too much of the alligator is the big crazy wedding massacre which is too over-the-top and silly for me now, with the ridiculously obvious looped screaming in the background and oh no, not the wedding cake! And how long does it take for a crowd to clear one party? Apart from that, I'm glad they don't show the creature all that much. I find it far more frightening and sinister when it's mostly unseen and lurking in the dank darkness of the sewers... The parts of this movie that I enjoy the most are all the sewer scenes, they're so fantastically creepy and atmospheric, it makes me uncomfortable just watching those scenes! They combine the fear of water and the dark. Anyway less is often more when it comes to practical effect monsters. No matter how good a beastie they created, the more it's seen the less effective and interesting it becomes. You start to say, "oh look how well designed and animated it is", but you're not afraid of it anymore, you become accustomed to it. When you look at something like Alien, where you never really see the monster, that's really scary and fun. I think about this movie and others like it from the time, that again a lot of them are far more entertaining than flicks like the 1998 Godzilla say, because it's about character,then humour, then the horror. It's not all about the special effects, and that's what makes this film endure where other films where they did all the perfectly planned special effects, they're soulless vacant kind of movies, and this one still really holds up. Especially when it comes to the characters. Robert Forster's burned-out performance delivers such a perfectly jaded, well-rounded likable gruff hero that you really want to see win and kick that gator's ass! His kind of dead-pan delivery was so spot on. And Robin Riker's nerdy yet sexy, cool and collected reptile expert who still lives with her mother is also solid. I found their romantic chemistry virtually nonexistent, but they still made a great team together. I just loved the lively old gal that played Marissa's mother! She was so natural, it wasn't even like it was acting, it was like the nicest lady ever, what'd they catch her on a coffee break and stick her in front of the camera? And also the tobacco-chewing Perry Lang was witty and gorgeous.. The picture basically exists to me as a horror thriller with overtones of comedy brought out by the characterisations. It just had comedic aspects to it, but never goes into downright parody. There's such a great balance between the horror and the humour. I find the scene where the little boy is made to walk the plank and is devoured very grim and disturbing. The way the mother turns on the light and reveals the hungry maw of the gator just as he's being pushed in, it's totally the stuff that nightmares are made of. And that was damn ballsy at the time, daring to kill a kid. Hell, even Friday the 13th had Jason spare a little girl! All you see is a cloud of blood, but it's still a horrific shock moment that's very memorable. I also loved the moment during the creepy sequence where Madison and Kelly are searching the sewers and when the torch shines behind them you catch a glimpse of the alligator for a second as it stealthily moves back and the light reflects off its eye, and it's one of the film's eeriest moments, and a very effective use of lighting effects. The movie is also aided by a fantastic score that does a great job of accentuating the fun yet scary tone, I find the theme that plays over the end credits seriously chilling. It's a monster movie that knows what it is and has fun with it. Always a true pleasure to watch again and again. Bless you Alligator!!!

Later, Gator... ;=8)

[MooCowMo · 6/10 · 14 July 2000]

Ahhh, one of the classic 80's Guilty Pleasure flicks, right up there with "Humanoids From the Deep", and "C.H.U.D.". Ramon, the cute little baby gator who gets flushed into the sewers of Chi-town eats some dead dogs on super-steroids, and becomes a giant, ravenous walking handbag with teeth. Chicago is terrorized, and only a handful of veteran B-moovie actors can save the day! Robert Forster("The Black Hole", "Delta Force", "Satan's Princess") is our balding, square-jawed hero; Robin Riker("Buffy the Vampire Slayer" tv series, "Dead Badge")plays the snuggly herpatologist; Henry Silva("Chained Heat", "Megaforce", "Amazon Women on the Moon") plays a surly big-game hunter; Michael Gazzo("The Godfather II", "Sudden Impact") is the over-worked police chief; Dean Jagger("Twelve O'Clock High", "X: The Unknown", "Game of Death")is the evil corporate bigwig who gets smooshed in his own limo; Sydney Lassick("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", "Shakes the Clown", "Fast Walking")is a twisted pooch purveyor who gets pulverized. In fact, LOTS of people get chomped, stomped, and crushed by the mad gator, but it's all done with wit and enough sense not to take its self too seriously. Udders cowplain that "Alligator" is merely anudder "Jaws" rip-off, but fail to appreciate the film's tongue-in-cheek humor & fun. Penultimate scene of the hungry gator running amok at a garden party is an all-time classic! Cud have been really stupid, but the film benefits from a smart script by John Sayles(w. "The Howling", "Matewan", "Eight Men Out"), and solid direction by Lewis Teague(d."The Lady in Red", "Cujo", "Navy SEALS"). Pretty good fx further cowplimant the moovie. Not a perfect film, by any means, but a great choice to pop in on a dull Saturday night with a greasy pizza & some moo juice! Stop flushing those baby gators down the john!! The MooCow says rent "Alligator" today! ;=8)

The best giant alligator movie ever!

[batturtle · 8/10 · 14 May 2000]

This movie is the best damn giant alligator movie I've ever seen. They just don't make then like this anymore. Featuring very cool pre-CGI animatronic fx & a real live alligator. And any time a lil' kid gets eaten by the monster in a horror movie, you know that they're not messin' around.

So Underrated

[departed07 · 8/10 · 17 May 2004]

Before crappy films like Lake Placid took the idea of a giant crocodile, Alligator came out in 1980, in which Richard Corliss of Time Magazine placed it on his top ten list. Alligator takes place in Chicago, in which a giant alligator that was flushed down in the toilet by a little girl's father, years later it terrorizes the city going on a rampage for anything it sees. Robert Forester who plays the city cop is the only one to stop it. Nobody else seems to know how to kill the animal except him and the female doctor. There's not that many stars that come on this movie except for Henry Silva who has a brief cameo as a alligator expert. None the less this is a fun popcorn movie to watch from beginning to end.

Cool Movie!

From 6 inch pet to 36 feet long pest.

[michaelRokeefe · 5/10 · 4 November 2001]

Get a grip on this good 'gator' flick. Some tongue-in-cheek dialog and gruesome special effects makes for an entertaining and fun movie to watch. A little girl's science project is flushed down the stool and a dozen years later grows to about 36 feet long living in the sewer system of Chicago. Sustained by a diet of pet carcasses used in an experimental growth clinic, this monster 'gator' is not going down without creating some terror and having a few snacks first. A very good mutant creature running amok movie.

Very able cast led by Robert Forster and Robin Riker. Doing notable work in support are Henry Silva, Michael V. Gazzo and veteran actor Dean Jagger. The sewer scenes pretty well set a creepy atmosphere. My favorite scene is during a brief encounter with the munching menace..."Do you think two sticks of dynamite will do?"

Surprisingly enjoyable monster B-movie

[bowmanblue · 7/10 · 16 December 2014]

Alligator is one of those films that people will either love or hate. I doubt it was supposed to be very 'A-grade' when it was released back in 1980. Now, well over thirty years old, I was hesitant to see how well it's stood up to the test of time.

I was pleased to say the answer is: pretty well.

If you can excuse the seventies haircuts (in an eighties movie!) then you'll find quite a tight little monster-munching movie. Lake Placid may have better effects, but Alligator still has its own special charm - think 'Jaws,' but with an alligator instead of a shark (oh, and in Chicago, rather than the sea, obviously).

Basically, what little plot there is revolves around a little girl having her per alligator flushed down the toilet when it was still young. Once in the sewers, over a period of twelve years, it mutates, getting much, much bigger and basically comes back for revenge. Yes, revenge. It seems to have a natural instinct as to whose fault it was, but, hey, just suspend your disbelief and enjoy it.

Alligator is played out on that fine line between 'tongue in cheek' and 'straight.' It has a foot in both camps and somehow it manages to pull both off.

If you're a fan of general animatronics monsters eating man, woman and child (yes, child - you wait and see!) then give Alligator a go. It's just a shame that with a solid movie like this, the alligator himself didn't move on to better things. He was certainly the star and I was hoping to find him in a nice indie flick or even a romantic comedy. Well... maybe.

* * * out of 4.

[brandonsites1981 · 10 September 2002]

John Sayles brings as another memorable horror effort that mixes horror and comedy rather effectively. Giant alligator is flushed down the toilet as a baby and grows to giant size in the sewers of Chicago. Not finding much food down in the sewer, gator brings his act to the street and begins to make lunch meat of the city's population. Violent flick has a killer pace and never has a dull moment. Beware of the awful sequel though. Rated R.

A fun and funny monster movie that's a cut above the norm.

[Hey_Sweden · 8/10 · 13 May 2012]

Continuing the trend of the killer animal genre made popular by "Jaws", "Alligator" is thoroughly enjoyable all the way. We can thank screenwriter John Sayles, then a writer for hire (his other genre credits during the period being "Piranha" and "The Howling") for its wit and ambition, and Lewis Teague ("Cujo", "Cat's Eye") for the efficient, right-to-the-point direction and genuine thrills.

It exploits the old urban legend of "alligators in the sewers" for maximum entertainment, telling the tale of a gator named Ramon flushed down the drain as an infant and making its home in the Chicago sewer. It grows to mammoth proportions after having feasted on dead dogs that had been injected with a growth hormone by a dubious pharmaceutical company. It's up to dedicated police detective, David Madison (the likable Robert Forster, in a perfect Everyman role) to find and destroy the out-of-control beast when other attempts by the police prove to be unsuccessful.

Sayles shows here that the trend of referencing bits of pop culture most assuredly did not begin with "Scream", as here he makes jokes referring to Ed Norton, the character on 'The Honeymooners' who worked for the sewer department, and Orson Welles's character from the classic "The Third Man". He gets some great chuckles from some of his lines, and also adding to the humour is the performance of Henry Silva, as an egomaniacal big game hunter. Adding sex appeal is husky voiced redhead Robin Riker as the movies' reptile expert. A wonderful supporting cast includes swaggering Dean Jagger as the corporate creep, Bart Braverman as the pesky reporter, Perry Lang as an eager beaver young cop, original "Lolita" Sue Lyon as a TV reporter, Sydney Lassick as a pet store owner, Jack Carter as the sleazy mayor, and the hilarious, raspy voiced Michael Gazzo as Madisons' boss on the police force. Other familiar faces in small roles include Angel Tompkins, Royce D. Applegate, Simmy Bow, Stan Haze, Micole Mercurio, John Goff, and Mike Mazurki.

Among the touches Sayles and Teague bring to the material are the idea of the gator eating its way up the socio-economic ladder, heading for the man who created it in the first place, and a willingness to treat many characters as fair game, even children. The sequence where the gator (brought to life by more convincing special effects than usual) first emerges into the outside world is a corker, as is the big set piece where it runs amok at a wedding; there are some amazing stunts during this sequence. The pacing never flags and Forster and Riker are an endearing main couple; he plays exactly the kind of hero for whom WANTS to root.

Any monster movie fan tired of the routine cheese fests, featuring animated creatures, that come out nowadays, is strongly encouraged to check out this solidly entertaining little flick. They won't be disappointed.

Followed 11 years later by a sequel.

Eight out of 10.

Urban legend played out on the big screen.

[TOMASBBloodhound · 6/10 · 1 June 2008]

Either this film is based on an urban legend, or it inspired one. I'm not sure which. Alligator is a skillfully made horror film based on the premise of flushing a small pet down the toilet and it one day growing to an enormous size. The title of the film pretty much says it all. Though the film is creepy, and filled with gore, this is one of those horror films that knows its really kidding when all is said and done.

The film kicks off with an alligator attack at a wildlife refuge park somewhere in the south. A daredevil in a pit with some alligators just about has his leg torn off whilst a frightened crowd looks on. "Sometimes the gators win," the announcer points out over the loudspeaker after the victim is hauled out to safety. A little girl in the audience is so taken by a baby alligator that she buys one and takes it back home with her. One day her angry father, for no reason that I could discern, flushes the tiny gator down the toilet. Flash ahead twelve years later and....

Body parts start turning up in the sewer system. A cop (Forster) and his partner take a look around in the sewer to see if there's anything wrong down there. Big mistake! The partner becomes gator food, and we finally get a good look at what the pet gator has become. It seems that for years, a local chemical company has been dumping the corpses of genetically enhanced animal test subjects down in this sewer system. The alligator from the beginning has been eating these animals for years and has grown to the size of a large sedan. Not including the tail! The police send a swat team into the sewer to find the beast, but all it does is drive him up into the city where he terrorizes anyone in his path. It is up to Robert Forster and a pretty biologist to find and destroy the gator before he eats up the city.

The film is a decent mix of horror and humor. Some scenes, like a boy falling into a swimming pool and being eaten are absolutely terrifying. Especially since this kind of thing does sometimes happen in Florida and places in the deep south. Other scenes, like when the alligator breaks up a wedding reception, border on hilarious. Not only does this gator have a sharp bite, but he also can whip the heck out of you with his tail! He whips one unlucky guest right through the wedding cake! Then, he destroys and entire limo by just swatting it with his tail! You have to see it to believe it. The film has an abrupt, yet exciting conclusion. The acting is quite believable, and the cast is full of recognizable faces. Great support from Michael Gazzo, and Henry Silva! John Sayles of all people wrote this film, and you can get a feel for his intelligence and sense of humor at every turn. Lewis Teague, who was quite successful in the 1980s, gives great direction. Definitely worth a look. 6 of 10 stars.

The Hound.

We were hoppin' and boppin' to the "Crocodile Rock"!

[dvox · 10/10 · 16 May 1999]

Scaly scares from beneath Chicago's swampy sewers as signature (John) Sayles saga slithers onto the silver screen. Toothsome, titan tale re. urban legend of what happens when you flush your petstore alligator down the toilet. With perennial character actor Robert Forster, and a cameo by "Lolita" (Sue Lyon) herself! Check out "Knot's Landing's" Pat Petersen as a terrified-yet-take-charge tyke who tries to tank the gargantuan gator (long before he himself was flushed by femme fatale Nicolette Sheridan). But where is the immortal Beverly Garland? After all, the casting director could have at least given her a walk-on as homage to her role in "Alligator's" grade "B" 60's predecessor "The Alligator People" (no one can scream like Beverly Garland, not even Janet Leigh!). On a "scale" of 1 to 10, this one slithers slickly to a slimy nine!

Alligator: Hardly a "Classic"

[Platypuschow · 5/10 · 6 September 2017]

I was informed that this is considered a classic within the genre. I'm not sure what genre that is but either way it was somewhat of an anti-climax.

A baby alligator is flushed down the toilet and twelve years later its big and it's angry!

It's one police officer & his scientist buddies job to track it and kill it while surrounded by people who simply don't believe them.

Is it wrong that I was cheering on the alligator? After all it's not some evil monster, it's just an abandoned hungry animal.

Alligator isn't bad, it's just not that exciting. It looks decent considering it's 37 tears old but it hardly grips you.

The Good:

Creature effects aren't that bad considering it's age

The Bad:

No consistency regarding the Alligators size

Robert Forster's hair

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Alligators can be easily purchased as pets

Alligators make great jump ramps

Picture Deadly Eyes (1982) Reptile-Style!

[SusieSalmonLikeTheFish · 9/10 · 27 December 2014]

Meet Ramon, probably the most adorable little baby alligator I've ever seen. His owner, a little girl named Marisa, loves him dearly... that is, until good ol' Pops flushes poor Ramon down the porcelain express, where he ends up in the city sewer system, surviving on the illegally dumped bodies of lab animals from a corrupt corporation above-ground, Slade Pharmaceuticals (Umbrella Corporation, eat your heart out). When little Marisa grows up, she becomes a scientist, and as for Ramon, he's grown up as well... literally. Those dead lab rats he's been feeding on had growth hormones injected into them, which accumulated in Ramon and made him huge, and now he's out for blood, heading for the snobby country club community. Oh, good heavens! >:)

What else can I say? I loved Alligator, it has a vague environmental message (which I don't enjoy since I'm pro-pollution), but it wasn't really enough to disrupt the movie. The effects weer cheesy but classic, I liked the soundtrack, and the acting was great! Let's face it, the story is original, and Ramon was so damned cool he's hard not to love right away. If you're a horror film fan, you'll definitely want to add this one to your watch list!

One of the greatest monster movies of all time

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 9/10 · 30 August 2012]

When a series of mutilated body parts surface in the sewer system, a detective and a herpetologist discover a gigantic alligator living in the area and try to stop it before it escapes into the city.

This was one of the greatest animal-on-the-loose films of the time and still ranks as one of the better ones anyway. What makes it work is the fact that there's just so much fun to be had from this one, from the blistering pace that generates tons of quality from the creatures' ambush attacks, the growing discovery of what's in the sewers and the eventual escape and ensuing rampages are all awesome action set-pieces that generate a great deal of fun with several scenes being quite exciting including the main attack on the mansion, the SWAT team stalking in the sewers and the ambush in the canal that leads to the finale, which has even more fun here. It's quite suspenseful at times with some impressive stalking sequences, a creepy location and effective lighting to make it pretty chilling when mixed with the high-quality action, gruesome deaths and absolutely fantastic animatronics work for the gator. While there's some shoddy work at the end with the real gator in miniature sets, it's not enough to hold this down and become quite fun.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, some language, and several scenes depicting and describing animal cruelty.

Owes much to Jaws, but it has a certain spark of its own

[Samiam3 · 7/10 · 18 October 2009]

Alligator is yet another creature feature that has its root in Jaws, but it is certainly not a blatant rip off. It is ridiculous but in a self-acknowledging way. Taking itself seriously is the mistake that Orca (the first Jaws rip off in '77) made. and although I can't say that it Alligator is necessarily more intelligent, the script it offers frequent enjoyable banner, and an attempt to make characters that you want to see live rather than become lunch. Topping all that, Alligator features one of the most frequent trade marks of the genre, an ending that opens the doors for a potentially worse sequel. It is something that seeming fly cannot be helped, even Jaws went that way. Sequel or not, check out Alligator if you can, it is better than it may sound.

In the beginning, a girl buys a baby alligator at the zoo (well her mother buys it for her). She names it Ramona (after the Beverly Cleary books), but that is irrelevant, sorry. Next scene, her father in a moment of frustration takes his anger out on the six inch reptile and flushes it down the toilet to its doom (actually to its growth spurt) Jump forward twenty years and into the life of detective David Madison. He and his parter have begun an investigation of a possible illegal animal experimentation in a local facility. Their search for the bodies, takes them into the sewers. Madison's parter meets his end, and it doesn't take long before the creature manages to break out. All of a sudden the city becomes the site of an enormous 'bug-hunt' for a forty foot eating machine. Nobody really knows what to do except for Madison and his new girlfriend who is a reptilian specialist.

Let me now point out right now that the most important trick to shooting a convincing monster, regardless of how much money you spend on effects is choosing your camera angles. This is something that Alligator does quite well. The beast doesn't look like a giant fabricated puppet, it looks like a scaly, fleshy reptile, actually sometimes it is. A number of wide shots were done with miniature sets and a juvenile gator about a meter in length.

Something else worth noting about Alligator which helps is that, the plot not only acknowledges its absurdity but it tries to build on that with a certain sense of humor (although Lake Placid did this a little better). Sometimes however, it gets a bit too absurd. One scene in particular is especially ridiculous. Around the ¾ point, the gator crashes a garden party, and kills about twenty people. When I say kills I don't just mean kills and eats, I mean that it kills. The way the creature chomps on one person drops him in a puddle of blood and moves onto another person is scientifically incorrect. Also the way it flattens a limo with its tail is even more ridiculous considering the shape of its backbone. Then again to be fair, Jaws also had its share of scientific inaccuracies.

Alligator does what it intends to do, which is offer campy fun in Jaws tradition. Considering what has come out since, the film actually works even better. From the bowels of the city to the bowels of a giant reptilians digestive track, Alligator is weird/quirky and occasionally bloody ride, which will sustain viewers for a good hour and a half. That for me would be considered a success.

This is one monster movie with bite!

[kirk-246 · 7/10 · 27 July 2009]

For a creature feature made in 1980, 'Alligator' is a pretty good movie that doesn't rely on special effects to entertain the audience.In fact, 'Alligator' doesn't really have any special effects.The closest thing to special effects in this movie are explosions, car crashes, and the giant 30 foot alligator.If you're the kind of person who relies on special effects from movies like 'Hancock' to keep you entertained, then you might as well stop reading this review and forget that you have even heard of this movie because you will end up hating it.If you are that kind of person, then you really have issues.There is only one movie in the world that doesn't need special effects and happens to be one of the best movies of all time.The name of that movie is 'Jaws'. So know that this movie has some similarities with other monster movies, and that's why this movie is being called a classic by people who really know how to enjoy a good movie.'Alligator' may be no 'Jaws', but it does have enough potential to make this 87 minute monster movie a real pleaser.

Monster romp that really delivers the goods

[Leofwine_draca · 7/10 · 17 March 2015]

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...

Just what you should expect

[Meredith-7 · 7/10 · 6 April 2003]

I saw this film when I was a kid & thought it was pretty good. I saw it again recently and it's really not that bad. It's very tongue in cheek - which is what makes it so enjoyable. Not to be taken seriously, this is more in the tone of Piranha than Jaws. By todays standards the Alligator looks incredibly fake, and the acting is pretty bad, but it doesn't matter. It's still great entertainment - if you like monster picks.

Horrors! A giant alligator in the sewers!

[warlorde · 10/10 · 25 January 2003]

I just can't believe this great movie is rated so low! I thought it had great elements of horror and comedy. The acting was top-notch and the special effects,,,were effective. And by the way folks it did have a plot. If you like those giant animals movies which eat the local population, I highly recommend this movie.

10 out of 10. Jaws in the sewers.