Written by Tyrone Bruinsma Lake Placid, Rogue, Black Water, Primeval, CrawlMONSTER STORIES AND THE NUCLEAR AGE Since the invention of narrative-humanity has told story of monsters. Whether inspired by imagination or based on real beasts, the concept of man-eating monsters is as old as spoken language. So, when cinema presented a more visually visceral method for telling stories, it was only a matter of time before the monster movie was invented. While there are examples like the 1925 silent film adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, the early definitive monster movie was of course 1933’s King Kong that set the bar for future monster films to come. In the 50’s, following the invention of nuclear weapons in World War 2-Monster movies became an easy metaphor to reflect on man’s destructive nature-with films like Them, Tarantula, The Beast from 20’000 Fathoms and of course Godzilla as a reflection of the fear of nuclear weapons and total annihilation of modern humanity. THE IMPACT OF JAWS However, monster movies wouldn’t see an evolution until Steven Spielberg’s Jaws combined pitch perfect cinematic filmmaking with the blend of a realistic monster and b-movie thrills that became the new benchmark. Jaws inspired countless sequels, rip-offs and even admirable attempts with other animal species including Bears, Orcas and Insects. Today, I’d like to examine my second favorite killer animal film sub-genre: crocodilians. And I say crocodilians instead of crocodiles because it makes inclusive of the entire crocodilian family, so with that minor zoology lesson-let’s begin. While crocodiles where an obvious choice to make in deciding to make a Jaws rip-off, there were only two notable examples that came out immediately after Jaws. One was Eaten Alive, the follow up to the late Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre that more or less played out like if Norman Bates had a pet killer crocodile. Though it was initially panned by critics and has gone under cult reevaluation, it’s still on the forgotten side of Hooper’s filmography, though he would attempt a killer crocodile movie in 2000 simply titled Crocodile. But for the longest time, the most mainstream killer crocodilian film was 1980’s Alligator by Lewis Teague. While the premise borrows from the classic urban legend of Alligators in New York City’s sewers for its story, I’ve never found it to be more than an average monster film at best. Lewis Teague’s career has ranged from pretty good with Cujo, Cat’s Eye and Jewel of the Nile to the lacking in Navy Seals or Collision Course, so despite the popularity of Alligator amongst some horror circles-I find it slots in with the lesser part of his filmography. From 1980 to 1999, horror movies elected to mostly follow the slasher trend until it died, revived itself and died again. And only in 1999 did we get, what I define as the first truly great killer crocodile film-Lake Placid. LAKE PLACID Lake Placid came out in 1999 alongside another great creature feature in the form of Deep Blue Sea to re-establish the viability of killer shark films. The movie was directed by Steve Miner who directed the 2nd and 3rd Friday the 13th films as well as the 1986 horror comedy House, and with Miner’s skills in light horror-the film works in its simplicity. The film follows a group of small-town police and animal investigators trying to figure out how to catch or kill a giant crocodile, and that’s it. There’s no overly complicated backstory or mythology, no big twists and it’s all kept very small scale. The film doesn’t even attempt to copy the structure of Jaws and plays out like a good B-Movie with enough talent and budget to make it enjoyable instead of grating. The practical effects by Stan Winston still hold up today and while the CGI is at best decent by today’s standard-the direction, framing and performances always sell the presence this monster has. My favorite elements are Betty White’s character who is revealed to have been feeding the creature after it followed her husband home and ate him, and the underwater sequences that feel tense and tangible. If I had to reach, I could make the observation that the film is about humanity’s relationship with nature on scientific, law-based, emotional, spiritual or even fanatical ways and despite our intensions to control nature-it will always prevail in one form or another. Then again, this film is intended to be a rather simple monster movie executed as well as it can be and succeeds on all fronts. Unfortunately, the film barely made double its production budget and despite being initially produced by 20th Century Fox-Sony took over the franchise in 2007 and would spend the next 11 years running the franchise into the ground with terrible direct to DVD sequels. They even had Lake Placid crossover with their other direct to DVD monster franchise Anaconda in 2015 for Lake Placid V.S Anaconda. Yes, that’s a real movie and it’s terrible, but it’s not as bad as either franchise got. BLACK WATER Between 1999 and 2007, there were very few monster movies and fewer good ones. You had some strong efforts like Pitch Black, The Descent or The Host…but most were pretty lacking with Python, Raptor, Open Water, Red Water and Alone in the Dark. Thankfully in 2007 we were gifted with 3 crocodile films that if weren’t all good-were at least watchable and distinct from each other. The first we’ll discuss is Black Water, a film that much like Lake Placid operated as a simple story. A small group of people go fishing in the Australian mangroves, their boat flips and they’re left stranded in trees while being stalked by a crocodile. It resembles other simple confined monster films like the excellent 2016 shark thriller The Shallows, with an emphasis on survival. The filmmaking is the least flashy of all the films we’ll discuss in depth today as the film aims for a semi-documentary aesthetic, to the point where instead of using CGI or animatronic crocs-they mix in footage of real crocodiles to keep the authenticity. This style would be carried on with The Reef in 2010 with a stronger sense of isolation and survival. Black Water isn’t the strongest film and lacks even the B-Movie fun of Lake Placid, but it’s the most grounded film in the sub-genre and even earned a sequel in 2020 with Black Water: Abyss. Granted, the sequel is much weaker as it clearly tries to copy the B-movie thrills of films like 47 Meters Down and largely fails-though there is still one strong scene in the film ROGUE The best killer croc film of 2007 and of all time however is Rogue, by Greg McLean-the creator of Wolf Creek. Having made Wolf Creek in the wake of Saw, and in the same year that Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects came out (as well as Eli Roth's Hostel premiering in festivals), proved McLean had the skills of a great horror director, with Rogue encapsulating that perfectly. The film is largely based on the real-life crocodile Sweetheart who attack boats during the late 70’s though never attacked humans. The film follows a tour group in the Northern Territory of Australia being stranded on a small island by the rogue crocodile with the rising tide creating a ticking clock. The film’s beast doesn’t have an excessive amount of screen time compared to something like Lake Placid that takes almost every opportunity to show its monster. What I like about Rogue is that it handles its creature the same way Jaws does, using exaggerated realism to suggest this animal isn’t a normality for the species-but isn’t some mythological tier of monster. The environment and staging allows the crocodile to have a consistent presence after its initial attack, largely thanks to the performances, McLean’s directing and the brilliant score. When our monster is on screen or takes a bite out of the characters-it’s executed with a sense of realism by using ambush strategies and behaving as much like a real Saltwater Crocodile as possible. The final part of the film where our American hero goes to rescue the female tour guide is possibly one of the best sequences to keep you on edge. The most interesting element of the film is the small use of Aboriginal Australian culture to punctuate the film. There are only two notable instances: the opening of the film containing an Aboriginal choral chant before depicting the crocodile killing a water buffalo for one. And the more prominent one is when the tour boat is about to enter the lair of the beast, a photographer in the group observes an Aboriginal cave painting showing a truly giant crocodile. This appears to indicate that our main monster has ties to the ancient land of Australia, before the violent British colonialization and genocide, and well before the commercialization of Australian culture. Rogue easily stands as the most thematically interesting killer crocodile film to dig into as while it is just an expertly crafted monster movie, there’s more underneath the skin. Unfortunately, this would be McLean’s last truly great film. Despite positive reviews, the film flopped at the box office and his efforts to revive Wolf Creek on film and tv 10 years later didn’t pan out. His other films didn’t have any really effect-creatively or commercially. The Darkness failed as a Poltergeist rip-off and appropriated Indigenous American Indian folklore to a lacking effect. The Belko Experiment was an interesting Battle Royale-style premise written Guardians of the Galaxy’s James Gunn, but failed to reach any kind of notable impact. And then there’s Jungle, which had every opportunity to be an interesting film…and wasn’t. PRIMEVAL The last of the good 2007 killer crocodile films is probably the most interesting and uniquely envisioned one-Primeval, no relation to great British tv show of the same name that began airing that same year. I say it’s the most interesting as while all the previous films have been very simple, Primeval actually wants to be more interesting. It’s based on a real killer crocodile and the attempt to capture it, has a lot of political and geographical background, and tries to have a more nuanced plot. For context, Primeval is based on the real life “serial killer crocodile” named Gustave. His infamy lies in the claimed ‘murders’ over nearly 300 humans. This number is likely an exaggeration with either the number being entirely fabricated, or unrelated deaths/disappearances being attributed to Gustave. Fact or fiction, the concept of a serial killer animal makes for a good narrative in news or film-giving Gustave a form of mythological status like a modern-day dragon. What’s also interesting is the people behind the production. Primeval was the 2nd last film produced by Hollywood Pictures, a now defunct subsidiary of the Walt Disney Corporation that produced the likes of Arachnophobia, The Joy Luck Club, Color of Night, The Rock, Deep Rising and The Sixth Sense. So, the same company that released Ratatouille and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End also released a violent, visceral crocodile film in the same year. Never thought you’d read that sentence, did you? Then in terms of the individuals involved in the film, the lead character was played by Dominic Purcell who was mostly known as the co-lead in the ongoing Prison Break series at the time, the director was best known for some episodes of Smallville and the writers had helped pen movies like The Game, Terminator 3 and…Catwoman. So, this was a rather unique collection of entities gathered to make a pure monster movie. Rather than a minimalist approach like in Black Water or the slick horror movie execution of Lake Placid and Rogue, Primeval instead resembles a Hollywood produced war film set in Africa. The cinematography, color grading, staging and even action sequence less resembles a film like Jaws and instead recent African-set works like Tears of the Sun or Blood Diamond. It feels somewhat cliché, like grading a film set in Mexico to yellow as a shorthand to tell American audiences where they are by aesthetics. But this does make Primeval easily one of the most visually distinctive monster films of the 2000’s. The film’s focus is split between the hunt for the monster crocodile Gustave and political unrest relating to a mysterious crime boss named Little Gustave. It’s not a supremely shocking or surprising story, but does contain human characters more villainous that the monstrous creature depicted. There’s actually been some controversy regarding the film’s portrayal of the Burundi people as although many are displayed as just normal people trying to live a normal life, plenty are depicted as violent criminals and rapists. Looking into the history of Burundi, like many of African Nations reveals a violent history that includes ethnic cleansing and genocide. Even today, the country is not 100% stable due to Humans Rights violations, poverty and political corruption-but not without efforts by the people to make it a better place. It’s always a difficult subject when Western countries depict the problems with other less-developed nations as it can come off as condescending, even when based in truth. I think Primeval does try to portray the Burundi characters as evenly spread across the moral spectrum, but it wouldn’t surprise me if anyone found this to be an offensive portrayal-and I wouldn’t blame them. Lastly, I want to talk about the characterization of the scaly beast-Gustave. And I say characterization because Gustave is given somewhat of a personality in this film, despite being a CGI incarnation that rather unrealistically portrays realistic crocodile behaviors. Gustave is easily the most aggressive and monstrous creature out of any crocodile movie I’ve seen, both incredibly large and extremely fast-always with an intent to kill. Granted, crocodiles can become colossal and move incredibly quick, but Gustave’s size and speed are in no way realistic in the most terrifying way. There’s a scene in the film where Gustave gallops across the Savannah like a lion to hunt someone down and while yes, that’s dumb-it’s also incredibly horrifying to think about. And the way Gustave disposes of all his victims is violent, yet incredibly satisfying. However, despite the visuals simulating other big budget Hollywood films set in Africa and being made by a major studio-Primeval was neither a box office hit nor did it receive a positive critical reception. Now it remains as one of the lesser-known crocodile movies that only horror fanatics like me remember because it’s better than a lot of the trash that would follow LACK OF DECENT EXPOSURE After 2007, monster films were relegated to mostly a back seat in the following years. While major studios put out the occasional film like Cloverfield, mostly it was either indie studios or z-grade schlock houses like The Asylum making content for monster fans. Both Mega Shark VS Crocosaurus by The Asylum and Dinocroc VS Sugergator by Roger Corman came out in 2010, neither being anything more than garbage. 2013 onward began to show more promise for creature feature with Pacific Rim, Jurassic World and Legendary’s Monsterverse showing the return of big budget, well crafted monster flicks. Unfortunately, the only major films containing killer crocodiles in this time were Ridley Scott’s adaptation of the Book of Exodus, where the animals began to attack humans and each other to turn the Nile into a river of blood. The other was 2018’s Rampage, based on the video game of the same name which portrayed the mutant American Crocodile Lizzie as the largest and most deadly beast in the film. Then in 2019, we had producer Sam Raimi and director Alexander Aje create a new instalment in the killer crocodile genre. CRAWL Crawl is easily the 2nd best killer crocodilian film after Rogue and is a glorious horror film to watch. A return to form by Aje who made both High Tension and the remake of the Hills Have Eyes, two of the best horror films from the 2000’s. He even made the surprisingly strong Piranha 3D that was the perfect version of a well-made B movie. Unfortunately, between his Mirrors remake and the forgotten Daniel Radcliffe film Horns, his best work for a time was producing more interesting films like P2 and the Maniac remake. Thankfully, Crawl sees him make an amazing bottle film wherein a young woman tries to get her dad out of their family home during a hurricane-only to discover they’re both trapped in a crawlspace with aggressive alligators on the loose. While admittedly the film changes alligator behavior and attack techniques for the sake of tension or escape (on top of gators being one of the less aggressive crocodilian species), the film is still a nail-biting experience with an emotional core. The cast sell the film as we have Kaya Scodelario from The Maze Runner trilogy doing her best to be a teenage Ellen Ripley fighting gators, and Barry Pepper doing great work as a father desperate to keep his family together. Barry Pepper’s been in everything from Saving Private Ryan, The Green Mile, the 25th Hour, as well as the video games Prototype and Modern Warfare 2…although I feel fans of cinema on YouTube will mostly remember him as the lead human from Battlefield Earth. It’s a shame as Pepper has been in a lot of great stuff and Crawl shows that he’ll put in the effort, even in a B-Movie. The movie just works from its production design, direction, score, acting and set pieces for attack sequences playing out amidst a disaster movie setting. I’m surprised the film wasn’t screened for critics as most review were positive, with the only negative reviews coming from people who weren’t going to like it in the first place. POSSIBLE FUTURE? Could we get more expertly crafted crocodile films in the near future? Who can say? Shark films have been having a boom with the 47 Meters Down films lacking, but making the box office returns to show interest. The Meg was a (for back of a better word) monster hit grossing over 530 Million at the box office while being a fun B-movie that’s receiving a sequel. Other recent monster films like The Hallow, A Quiet Place and Annihilation continue to prove there’ll always be room for unique B-Movie thrills made by passionate filmmakers. I’d love to see a definitive take on a kaiju sized crocodile film with a real budget, but even another well-crafted survival thriller with crocodiles will keep me happy. Like I said at the beginning, man has always told stories about monsters-even if they’re nothing more than campfire stories exaggerating and capitalizing our fears. Crocodiles, like many animals we fear as monsters-are not bloodthirsty animals wanting to hunt us. But; they capture within ourselves the need for survival, the fear of the unknown beast lying in wait just beneath the surface and can encapsulate our darkest fears. Eaten Alive and Crocodile – Exploring Tobe Hooper’s Killer Crocodile FilmsI briefly mentioned the two films in that sub-genre made by the late Tobe Hooper. While he’s most famous for creating Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist, he had a rather extensive body of work in the 80’s. Retrospectively, films of his like The Funhouse, Lifeforce and his remake of Invaders from Mars are far better film than their initial reviews would suggest. Granted in later years his work devolved into films that were admirable, but never reached their potential like Spontaneous Combustion or the remake of The Toolbox Murders. But for this video, I’d like to cover how one of the pioneers in horror represented the scaly living dinosaurs, so let’s talk about Eaten Alive and Crocodile. EATEN ALIVE Eaten Alive was Hooper’s first film made after Texas Chainsaw Massacre, so one could understand the kind of pressure to follow up that cultural touchstone would’ve been enormous. I do give credit to Hooper for not just making the film a rehash of Texas Chainsaw with a crocodile in it. The film really does feel like Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho if Norman Bates just happened to own a Nile Crocodile. We mostly follow the murderous escapades of a psychotic motel owner over the course of a single night and the characters unfortunate enough to encounter him. As much as I’m a fan of Hooper, Eaten Alive is somewhat too simple for its own good. The film has a very relaxed pace and only occasionally indulges on its ultra-violence. While that’s the same methodology Hooper applied to Texas Chainsaw, that film was made like low-key documentary or home movie and it fit the narrative being told. Eaten Alive however uses a more traditional filmmaking process and has enough narrative opportunities to elaborate for the benefit of its main villain. Our psychotic owner Judd is incredibly hard to read in terms of motivation or mental issues. He seems to be always ready to hurt someone, but almost regrets doing so before reverting back into murderous glee. The only possible clue to his nature aside from his caged-up animal is one scene with what appears to be a crumpled Nazi flag on a chair in the background. Is Judd a Nazi or Nazi sympathizer? Does his caged-up crocodile represent how the Nazi’s treated Jews and others they wished to exterminate? I honestly have no idea. While his prior work had enough existing elements within the film and its cultural context to have things to say, Eaten Alive feels to minimalist and separated from context that it’s hard to read into. It’s by no means a bad film as the characters are unique enough to not feel generic, Robert Englund is in the film and delivers a line that clearly inspired Tarantino in Kill Bill and the violence is delightfully gory. It’s just that the killer crocodile of the film is seen too little and serves as basically a slasher weapon for the psycho. It’s why I can’t call this a “great killer crocodile film”, because it’s only okay and barely qualifies as a monster movie. It’s really more akin to a psychological slasher and would be like trying to call The Grey or 2010’s Frozen as killer wolf movies. There is some historical context about the film being based on a bar owner who murdered women and supposedly fed them to his attraction of pet crocodiles, but I honestly find this more an interesting footnote than any thematic point. I will say however the new Blu-ray transfer makes the film look absolutely gorgeous with its coloring. Being filmed on a sound stage with such rich lighting would make me say the film is inspired by Dario Argento’s Suspiria or Francis Ford Coppola’s One From the Heart…but Eaten Alive came out before either of them. I think one inevitable downside of when Eaten Alive was released was the recent success of Jaws before Hooper’s film came out. Meaning that while studios were pumping out films intending to capitalize on monster movies like Piranha or Orca, audiences were actually craving the near filmmaking genius displayed in Jaws. Eaten Alive is not Jaws and got tossed in with the list of pretenders, even if it clearly wasn’t even attempting it. Following Eaten Alive, Hooper would gain notoriety by working with Steven Spielberg and the Cannon Film group until his box office disappointments caught up with him. While he was often a point of inspiration for filmmakers and regarded as a horror master alongside Wes Craven, George A Romero and Joe Dante, he’d never direct anything again that reached success or appreciation. What’s probably most tragic was Hooper’s only notable success was helping produce the 2003 remake of Texas Chainsaw that grossed over 100 Million Dollars. The remake is actually a solid reimagining of Hooper’s original for a new audience, it’s just sad Hooper never made anything truly great before he passed away in 2017. CROCODILE During his 90’s direct to video phase, Hooper made the 2000 film Crocodile under producer Boaz Davidson and Millennium Media that at the time was called Nu Image. The studio and its producer were known at the time for making fairly forgettable schlock entertainment, but nowadays produce solid action fair like the modern Rambo films, the Expendables franchise, Olympus Has Fallen and The Hitman’s Bodyguard. That doesn’t make them schlock free those as they’ve released some bad films like The Wicker Man remake and 2014's The Legend of Hercules. The screenplay was written by two writers who’d go on to write the forgotten horror films Fertile Ground and the third writer would go on to write Brendan Fraser’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth interestingly enough. While the film still feels like a cheap horror film you’d find at a Blockbuster video on VHS, it’s one with a lot of effort put into it by the cast and crew. It honestly feels like the studio wanted to capture the comedic elements of Scream with its cast of characters and how the horrors intrude on the story. The story of young adults going to a lake for spring break and encountering a giant crocodile isn’t exactly the greatest opportunity for character development. And too be fair, the characters range from morally questionable to annoying, but they have unique dynamics despite the cliché characters. Hooper’s trademarked sense of humor keeps the human scenes from becoming unbearable to watch and he manages to make false jump scares actually work. At the end of the day, it’s a pretty standard horror story with teens getting murdered that benefits from a high propensity for gore and nudity by a master of the genre. The film has a high level of quality, Hooper knows how to utilize the practical crocodile and the backstory for the monster is far more interesting than it deserves. In the early 1900s, a hotel owner named Harlan worshipped a Nile crocodile they owned as they believed them to be an incarnation of the Egyptian God Sobek. Eventually, Harlan created a Pagan cult to worship the beast and the town burnt his hotel to the ground. With the legend stating this crocodile exists today, searching for its destroyed eggs at the hotel. Now, that ultimately sounds as a far more interesting horror story than the fairly generic one we’re presented with. The ultimate plot becomes this crocodile hunting our teenage body count because they unknowingly stole one of her eggs. So, it’s basically the raptor plot from Jurassic Park 3 as the entire conflict…except Jurassic Park 3 came out after this. Now I’m curious if the writers saw this movie and stole that plot point. The film overall is fine as a cheap monster movie. Annoying aspects include the crocodile being named ‘Flat Dog’ by the characters as that’s such an underwhelming name, the 2nd half mostly devolving into random kill after random kill and the CGI effects looking terrible compared to the practical crocodile. The ending is actually quite well done with one of the survivors giving the crocodile back its egg as it hatches, ending on the monster taking its baby and leaving the humans alone. Aside from also being similar to Jurassic Park 3, it reminds me of Season 3 Episode 1 on Primeval. In that episode, a prehistoric crocodile ceases it rampage when people bow to it-believing it was worshipped as Ammut in ancient Egypt. So, it’s very plausible this delivering of what the crocodile lost is the kind of worship it was treated to 100 years prior. Like I said though, a story about a Pagan cult worshiping a crocodile as Sobek in a hotel is far more interesting than the latest ‘teens in peril story’. That said, it’s ultimately worth a watch as a fun enough gory monster movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously and probably stands as the last genuinely good Tobe Hooper film. CROCODILE 2: DEATH SWAMP And 2 years later they made a sequel completely unrelated to the original. It shared the same producer and only one of the writers. None of the cast, Tobe Hooper or even the mythos of the original film returned. I’d ask why they didn’t just make it an original film instead of tying it to the first, then again it’s not like Millennium today hasn’t stopped milking a franchise for all it’s worth. Our director this time around for Crocodile 2: Death Swamp was Gary Jones, known at the time for the 1994 creature feature Mosquito and who’d go on to direct the 3rd Boogeyman film for Sam Raimi. I actually find it quite prophetic as in Mosquito he wanted to direct a robbery but lacked the funding, so this film opens with a robbery that feels inspired by Michael Mann’s Heat and Guy Ritchie’s Snatch. The film then slows down as we’re introduced to our main character, a flight attendant called Mia before her plane is hijacked from the robbers at the beginning of the film and inadvertently cause the plane to crash. The robbers and survivors now have to survive in a swamp with rampaging crocodiles running around. What’s clear is that this sequel lacks all the polish Hooper brought to the first film. Despite having a plane crash sequence, they didn’t have the budget to pull it off. The practical and CGI effects are both weaker and the overall directing and production design feels cheaper than the smaller original. It feels quite similar to how London Has Fallen feels cheaper and less polished than the original Olympus Has Fallen, more than likely due to the sequels having less skilled directors. Though I will say the lighting and color-grading in the film is quite aesthetically appealing. The film’s plot is pretty much the usual story with no subversions in any form. Aside from Mia, all the characters are irritating to boring and the would-be rapist of the characters doesn’t die nearly fast enough or brutal enough. The crocodile itself has too little screen time and makes the screen time given to the crocodiles in Eaten Alive or Alex Garland’s Annihilation seem like major roles. I will say the ending’s implications are actually pretty effective. Mia ends up having a PTSD induced nightmare about the crocodile and is clearly very traumatized, with the film implying either her nightmares or the horrors of the crocodile won’t end. Only problems are that the CGI crocodile used in the scene looks terrible, the haunting ending is under-cut by a techno beat over the credits and there neither was a sequel-nor did I want one. Going back over these films, I can honestly say I liked the effort Hooper put into his two films, compared to the effort put into Crocodile 2. It reminds me that even in his lesser films, Hooper always committed to making a horror film worth your time and would put in as much creativity as he could. I actually thing Eaten Alive deserves a sequel to elaborate on its main character and give its beastie more screen time, while someone else should make a horror film about a crocodile cult that worships Sobek. Crocodiles encapsulate our fears of monsters and the darkness lying beneath the surface. But viewing over Hooper’s interpretations of crocodiles, he seems to view them as reflections of our darker selves. Whether it be our desire to murder others in Eaten Alive or the vessel for vengeance and retribution in Crocodile. Granted, that might be a pretentious reading when it’s far more likely he thought they made for excellent horror material. And honestly, that’s a valid point-whether you make a meaningful monster or a pure killing machine. If a crocodile film scares you or entertains you makes you more willing to respect these 200 Million old beasts, maybe that’s all it needs to be. CROCSPLOITATION CINEMA AND THE GARBAGE WITH ITITALIAN FILM HISTORY Before we dive into this subject matter, let’s discuss how Italian cinema has made its claim on the world of cinema. In the post-World War 2 globe, multiple countries had New Wave film movements take over. The most famous of these movements are probably French New Wave and Japanese New Wave-both of which spawned classic films like Breathless and In the Realm of the Senses. In Italy, this film movement was Neo Realism-a style of filmmaking which emphasized down to earth scenarios, characters and a simplistic shooting format. This style of filmmaking focus comes and goes in cinema with the desire to “be real” including the found footage genre, the rather overrated ‘Mumblecore’ phase of filmmaking or when every film tried to be gritty “like the Dark Knight” and thus missing the point of that film. Italian Neo Realism eventually opened up to more unique adaptations of cinema after Federico Fellini’s 8½ became a creative sensation as a surrealist work of film. Arguably the most famous of Italy’s film movements was the Spaghetti Western, Italian produced Westerns that removed the gloss and heroism of the Americanized myth and brought it into the new era. Spaghetti Westerns were more violent and morally grey, but had amazing shootouts and were some of the best directed films of their time-creating classics by Sergio Leone like Once Upon a Time in the West and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. But by the 70’s, Italy would contribute again to cinema through a global trend that was shaping – Exploitation Cinema. Exploitation cinema was a global business, any and all countries could exploit taboo subject matter or even their country’s own cultural identity for cheap to produce schlock. Italy had already somewhat done this with the Mondo film genre, basically fake documentaries that presented themselves as capturing the real world. And spawning from that fake documentary approach, Italy invented the Cannibal Exploitation film with the most notable being Cannibal Holocaust. Even before that though, Italy had invented another iconic exploitation sub-genre in the form of the Giallo thriller. These were basically visually striking slasher and horror films made by the likes of Dario Argento with films like Suspiria and Inferno. And from the 60s though to the 90s, Italian cinema would maintain a presence in genre films. This was to the point you had Hollywood Mega Producers like Dino De Laurentiis who made films like Flash Gordon, Conan: The Barbarian and Blue Velvet. So, how does that relate to the unambiguously named films Killer Crocodile 1 and 2? Well…they’re the quintessential example of what Italian Exploitation cinema was-cheap, silly, but mostly entertaining. KILLER CROCODILE Killer Crocodile is an aptly named 1989 horror film courtesy of Fabrizio De Angelis who went under the pseudonym Larry Ludman. Although he’s not well known by most horror buffs, he’s at least responsible for producing the Lucio Fulci films: Zombie, The Beyond and House by the Cemetery. Killer Crocodile is about an environmentalist team investigating toxic waste being dumped in a Caribbean swamp. They discover it’s not only radioactive-but has created a bulletproof monster crocodile as a result. There are additional plot points like a corporate coverup involving a hidden criminal and an animal hunter, but it’s all things you’ve seen before. No one comes to a movie with such a blatant title to see the genre be re-invented, they come to see gore and cheap thrills. Luckily, Killer Crocodile is willing to put in the effort on both fronts. What’s admirable about this film is the commitment to the crocodile’s giant puppet body used in the film. In today’s media, producers would make the monster a CGI creation with no relation to the real-life locations or actors. But, because there’s a giant prop that can be used-the filmmakers could have shots pan to show the beast, move it into frame and interact with the cast. It’s not the most realistic or accurate crocodile effect, but the same way Jaws still works with its exaggerated beast-the physical presence of the animal is enough to create attachment. They’re able to use their practical creature to the point one character eventually rides the monster wile stabbing it and you can see it fully take place. One of my favorite aspects of this film and its sequel is the score by Ritz Ortolani. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because he’s most famous for the hauntingly eerie score from Cannibal Holocaust. While Killer Crocodile isn’t his best work, lacking the truly creepy tone of his classic cannibal film-he still manages to make a great score with two iconic enough songs that are repeated to delight instead of irritation. The film is that right kind of cheesy entertainment where enough of its plot is taken seriously that you can riff on it, but has enough light hearted and humorous moments to not feel like a dour experience with the gore and kills. If there’s one signifier of good Italian exploitation, it’s that they’re never boring. The film even commits to this ridiculous climax wherein the crocodile cannot be killed from bullets or blade to the outside, so the characters are only left to throw a running boat propeller into the beast’s mouth to shred it from the inside. And it ends up as a gory, ridiculous mess that makes you realize how gross the ending of Jaws must’ve been. Unfortunately, the film leaves with the promise of a sequel that was being filmed at the same time as this one so…let’s get into that. KILLER CROCODILE 2 Killer Crocodile 2, released only a year later is the perfect example of a disappointing sequel. It relies too much on the original as far as to reuse footage both for flashbacks and non-flashback scenes, brings back characters the plot didn’t need and overall feels like a lesser film. This is probably due to having a different director in Giannetto De Rossi who is mostly known for makeup and effects works on films like David Lynch’s Dune, Rambo 3 and High Tension. He’s not a bad director and can construct some shots rather nicely, but the movie lacks the confidence of the first film. The plot continues with the radioactive waste being dumped in the river, birthing a new giant killer crocodile that terrorizes people. At first, the film is about a journalist investigating the possible cover-up, before it decides to bring two of the main characters of the first film back for no well explained reason. I give credit to the first one for being a strong anti-pollution narrative with passionate characters, but this just feels like a re-hash that can’t make up its mind on what it’s doing. At first it has this strong female journalist who starts the film as a smart investigator who even calm fights off a would-be rapist. But when she’s brought into the arms of the male protagonist from the first film-she’s rendered into a pretty generic horror girl heroine who makes bad decisions and gets nude. In general, this film tries to show the feminine form for sexual gratification, whereas the first one didn’t have that. I know it’s an exploitation film, but it comes off as cheap, even by that standard when the first film didn’t need to rely on it. It feels like the gore was butchered out for the sake of placing in more T and A. The movie still has a campy charm and the practical crocodile still leads to some fun sequences like when it chases one criminal a ridiculously long way to kill him and his pals in their hut, but then it blows its load by the end. The end of the film pretty much follows the generic “blow the monster up by making it swallow explosives” gambit from every other killer monster film, but this film’s ending is worse by cutting between the practical crocodile and literal toys. Half the ending of this film is like the wide release ending of Jaws the Revenge. The film’s conspiracy plot isn’t even wrapped up in a satisfying conclusion and it all feels so cheap and lacking. To compare this with another Italian exploitation film around the same era, let’s examine The Rift. The Rift came out the same year as Killer Crocodile film and was a self-rip-off of a similar film from 1989 called Leviathan. I say self-rip-off as Dino De Laurentiis was a producer on both films, wanting to capitalize on the big budget Leviathan and its cheaper alternative in The Rift, during the underwater horror period that also gave us The Abyss and Deepstar Six. The Rift differentiates itself from Leviathan with a different plot premise, different style, different monsters and being a lot nastier than Leviathan was. The Rift isn’t great, but it’s a really fun pulpy and violent monster movie that plays to its strengths alongside having actors like R. Lee Ermey and Ray Wise. Killer Crocodile 2 doesn’t succeed as a self-rip-off. It’s just one of the many bad horror films that feels like a cheap cash in of its first film. I can easily recommend the first one as a fun monster movie that knows how to deliver, the second I can only recommend for either complete nerds of the monster movie genre like me or people who like to riff on bad movies. DARK AGE This 1987 film could arguably be the first truly good killer croc film, but in my original video I called Lake Placid the first ‘great’ entry in the genre because I don’t consider Dark Age great, only good. It has all the right ingredients to be a great horror film; it’s directed well, has a practical crocodile and even properly utilizes Native Aboriginal Australian culture and characters into the story. So, what’s holding it back? Well, it’s down to two issues. The first is the film visually tries to replicate Jaws and other monster movies that have come before it to where it lets the more inventive or unique parts feel unseen. The other is the film lacks a sense of iconography to where it has “that scene” in it. Scenes like the head falling out from the boat in Jaws, the tense cave ending of Rogue or the found footage reveal of the monsters in The Descent. Basically, if you’re going to make a monster movie-there has to be a segment that will automatically grab people’s memories about that film. I don’t know if that’s just me, but the film lacks that impact for me. Like I said, it’s not a bad film-but Dark Age came out in an era where Australian cinema was playing up Ozsploitation as a cultural export. Much in the same way Italy capitalized on the exploitation genre, Australia took advantage of the cultural impact Mad Max had given them and ran wild with some pretty inventive ideas. Unfortunately, and this comes from an Australian myself-most Ozsploitation was pretty lacking. The Mad Max aesthetic was mostly adopted into the iconography of post-apocalyptic worlds, running up to today even. There are some good Ozspolitation works like Wake in Fright, The Survivor or Razorback; but most films of this era in Australian film history require some rose tinted googles to appreciate. Dark Age is a good horror film, bordering on a great killer crocodile film that’s just lacking a few critical components. I know the subject of horror remakes always makes some horror buffs turn sour, but I think a filmmaker passionate enough to give this film a full remake could turn into something revolutionary. It just takes some love and care. BLACK WATER: ABYSS Earlier, I discussed how the 2007 film Black Water was a simplistic, low-grade thriller and gave a passing dismissal to its sequel that came out in 2020. Seeing as how I’m taking the time in this essay to cover as much ground as possible-I thought I’d cover that sequel more in depth here. Black Water: Abyss was a thoroughly disappointing return to the franchise that loses all the identity of the first film to copy recent creature features. I’m fairly confident this film was made to ride the coattails of the 47 Meters Down films as the premise of encounters aquatic predators in cave is very similar to the 2nd film in that shark franchise. While I may cover them another time, I found the 47 Meters Down films to be disappointing executions and the 2nd film particularly bad. So, when that’s the basis for your goals-I’m already concerned. Abyss starts out with a common bad trope in cheap horror films with a suspense free opening kill to assure us things will get violent after a ridiculously long time. The premise is a cave exploring group get flooded in with crocodiles after a storm rolls in. Good premise, but so much of this film is predicated on a character drama that I just can’t get into. Many recent monster movies have these melodramatic backstories and romance love affairs that just bore me while waiting for the monster to come back. 2021’s Great White is another recent example of this bad trend and it’s just tiring for obvious B-Movies to take themselves too seriously with characters we really don’t care about. Something that annoyed me about this film was characters saying crocodiles have bad eyesight in water when crocodiles literally have built in googles. It’s a less sensical version of the “T-Rex can’t see movement” idea from Jurassic Park. The movie mostly just ends up being characters standing on rocks away from crocodiles or needing to get in the water and quickly get out. There is one good scene where a lone character is in a flooded tunnel, going above and under the water to see the creepy still image of a crocodile in front of him. It’s very tense, but is the only good set piece in the film. After some elongated character drama, a pair of characters escape the cave and despite being free on the road-manage to drive into a river and get attacked by another random crocodile while in their car. It’s very contrived and screams of desperation that results in a lame ending. What made the original Black Water so good was the simplistic, non-concept film approach. It didn’t have melodrama or an unnecessary runtime, it just played the realistic scenario of being trapped by a crocodile. This film tries to copy the story and style of larger budgeted films like The Descent or 47 Meters Down to lesser results. If trying to copy a not-so good franchise was a bad idea alone; then copying a premise of one the best 21st Century horror films is just shooting yourself in the foot. BLOOD SURF I decided when re-writing this essay to talk about what I consider to be the worst Killer Crocodile film-Blood Surf. Here’s a killer crocodile movie that’s just awful. It starts off on a fun enough note, but quickly devolves into abhorrent levels of bad. The plot follows American surfers coming to the Philippines, but encounter a giant killer crocodile. Robert L Levy was a producer and writer on this film, which is odd as he also made films like Pay it Forward, Van Wilder, Wedding Crashers and Old Dogs-so I’ve no idea why he made this. The worst part about this film is a scene where one American surfer is about to have sex with a Filipino woman, but she jokingly says she’s underage before reassuring him she’s an adult and they have pornographic level sex. After that, she reveals she’s 17 and thus underage-to which he’s angry until he asks “is that legal here?” Now…while the film was shot and based in the Philippines and the actress herself was of legal age…that’s just weird and pretty gross. Seeing as how she’s killed pretty soon after, it feels like a cheap like a get out of jail free card for the guy. I know defenders of a certain persona-non grata My Little Pony YouTube creator would say it’s legal, but 18 is the age of consent in the Philippines. The extremely creepy fetishization and sex tourism of Asian cultures is already gross, I don’t need that in what should be a fun monster movie. Even trying to enjoy the monster segments is just impossible. There’s mild tension when we don’t see it at first, but the moment they show the ugly creation, all interest flies out the window. It’s not scary, not funny, not well made and not even the right level of bad taste. I don’t have high standards for cheap junk monster movies like these, but not even giving me the spectacle of a giant crocodile eating a surfer in an enjoyable way is how I know the film is bad. CROCZILLA/MILLION DOLLAR CROCODILE
And for the final Killer Crocodile film is this curious entry in the essay, the Chinese film-Million Dollar Crocodile…but we’re gonna call it Croczilla for fun. The name Million Dollar Crocodile comes from the plot point where it swallows a million dollars at one point. But I mostly love the name Croczilla and also the misrepresenting poster has this awesome city sized crocodile causing destruction. If I’m honest, calling it a “Killer Crocodile” film is rather inaccurate as the main creature doesn’t directly kill anyone and there’s only ONE death in the film. For a large majority, it’s a somewhat board comedy. Chinese films tend to align into one of the 3 broad genres-historical martial arts films like Hero, earnest action blockbusters like The Wandering Earth and genre heavy comedies like The Mermaid. Croczilla definitely lands in the latter category with a bumbling comedy criminal group, one joke side characters and the rich lady whose money got eaten by the crocodile. The plot is about an old, big female crocodile who escapes a crocodile restaurant and everyone needs to recapture it. Besides being a Chinese film, it has a lot of American clichés of the genre. Precocious kid with a cop father? Check. Semi-annoying female lead who becomes a surrogate mother and wife? Check. Wise old grandpa with relationship to the beast? Check. Needlessly melodramatic and unearned conclusion? Double check. Most of the film is people just running after or away from the monster, with there very rarely being tense scenes. I’ll admit I actually like the less aggressive monster crocodile displayed here as it’s more truthful to the reptile family and there’s narrative opportunities…that aren’t taken. Despite the fact the creature doesn’t kill anyone, characters react like all classic monster movie stories as if a massacre has happened. There’s just a strange disconnect between what we the audience see and the way the characters act. I know violent monster movies aren’t really a thing in China, but it could still cause mass destruction like a Godzilla film. If you want the Croczilla poster image presented for the film, I recommend watching 2018’s Rampage as it’s seriously awesome or the ridiculously dumb, yet fun Chinese monster film Land Shark from 2020. Otherwise…IDK, check out this Asiatic creature feature if you’re genuinely curious. And that’s my final word on killer crocodile movies. As much as I’ve preached their creative filmmaking and opportunities for thematic storytelling, they’re supposed to be engaging monster movies at the end of the day. Make them scary, make them fun, make them with passion and people will enjoy it. And maybe don’t put jailbait/borderline pedophilia in your content like the Jeepers Creepers director.
0 Comments
|
Tyrone BruinsmaThis is the Official Blog/Magazine for filmmaker, writer and content producer Tyrone Bruinsma Categories
All
|