We get a lot of scary DVDs here at the Bullz-Eye offices…and we’re not just talking about “I Love New York: Season One,” although lord knows that certainly qualifies. No, we’re talking about stuff that falls into the horror genre; sometimes it’s legitimately good stuff, sometimes it’s absolutely excruciating, but whatever the level of quality, it’s all brought front and center whenever October rolls around and spotlighted as part of the festivities surrounding Halloween. Since we’ve got a pretty decent backlog of stuff lying around here, we decided that we’d offer up a Scare of the Day for every day this month…and what better way to start off than with something from the A’s?
I can still remember when “Alligator” played at the Great Bridge Twin, in Chesapeake, Virginia. I didn’t actually see it there – I was only nine years old when it opened – but I definitely saw the trailer for it before some movie or other, and, damn, it scared the hell out of me…and I was still intimidated by the film a few years later, when we finally got cable and it was showing in regular rotation on some premium network or other. Unsurprisingly, watching the film now doesn’t exactly provide the same level of fright (to say the least), but what is surprising is that “Alligator” is actually a highly entertaining flick.
The original goal of “Alligator” seems to have been to parody “Jaws” while still creating a legitimately frightening film. The grade-B special effects means that it succeeds more at the former than the latter, but, for the record, I can still see how a 9-year-old boy, even if he wasn’t as naive as I was at that age, would get freaked out by it. (I mean, come on: a kid gets devoured by a giant alligator in his own pool, for God’s sake! It’s one thing to be scared of sharks in the ocean, but when even your own pool isn’t safe…?) Of course, the 37-year-old me is far more impressed by the fact that the film stars Robert Forster, who played bail bondsman Max Cherry in “Jackie Brown,” and was written by John Sayles, who went on to write and direct movies such as “Matewan,” “Eight Men Out,” “Passion Fish,” and “Lone Star.”
The premise of the film takes the old urban legend about baby alligators being flushed down people’s toilets and growing to gargantuan size in the sewers, then explains away the growth by claiming it’s the work of various scientific experiments with growth hormones; actually, the experiments are being done on dogs, but the dog corpses are being disposed of in the sewers, where the alligators are feasting on them. Forster plays the cop who first sees the giant alligator, but, naturally, no one believes him until the creature goes more public with its dining. Given that the movie is an unapologetic “Jaws” parody, “Alligator” provides a Quint equivalent in Colonel Brock, a big-time big game hunter who vows to catch the beast; Henry Silva plays the character with all the bluster and ego he can muster, even going so far as to hire urban youngsters to serve as aides to the Great White Hunter. Silva isn’t the only great character actor in the film; we’re also treated to enjoyable performances from Dean Jagger (Harvey Stovall in “Twelve O’Clock High”), Sidney Lassick (Charlie Cheswick in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”), and Michael Gazzo (Frank Pentageli in “The Godfather Part II”).
Probably the best bits about this DVD reissue are the special features; we’re treated to a lengthy on-camera interview with John Sayles about his experience working on the film, as well as audio commentary from Forster and the film’s director, Lewis Teague, who went on to helm “Cujo” and “Cat’s Eye.” Given this information, it may not surprise you to learn that Stephen King once went on the record in describing “Alligator” as his all-time favorite monster movie…but, frankly, if you don’t dwell on the highly iffy FX or the unabashedly fake blood and instead just enjoy the fun, you’ll totally see where King’s coming from.
