The Great Alligator is a 1979 Italian action horror film about tourists on a tropical island who anger a local god, who turns himself into a giant caiman and chomps them.
The movie was directed by Sergio Martino (Mountain of the Cannibal God; Torso; et al) from a screenplay co-written with Cesare Frugoni and Ernesto Gastaldi. Luigi Montefiori [aka George Eastman] and Mara Maryl [as Maria Chianetta) contributed to the storyline.
Stelvio Cipriani composed the enjoyable funky soundtrack score.
The movie stars Barbara Bach (The Unseen; Isle of the Fishmen; Short Night of Glass Dolls), Claudio Cassinelli (Slave of the Cannibal God; What Have They Done to Your Daughters?) and Mel Ferrer (The Antichrist; Blood and Roses).
The ‘alligator’ (actually a caiman) was designed by Carlo De Marchis (Monster Dog).
Plot:
A photographer, Daniel (Claudio Cassinelli), is employed to take publicity shots for Paradise House, a newly opened tourist complex set deep in the jungle. Unfortunately, a giant caiman, which the local tribespeople revere as ‘The Great God Kruna’, begins to besiege the local area.
After a few of the tribespeople are killed, they blame the tourists and set out to kill them while the survivors try to rally on a boat with the hungry caiman attacking…
Our review:
An obvious reworking of Jaws, which despite the professionalism of Sergio Martino and his team, fails to add up to anything other than a slightly superior rendering of a routine concept. Richard Johnson, who was also in Martino’s The Mountain of the Cannibal God and Fulci’s Zombie Flesh Eaters, is wasted in a pointless cameo as a babbling, bearded clergyman who seems like he’s stepped out of the same year’s Life of Brian .
Nevertheless, the use of freeze-frame and red tints to denote victims of the monster is an interesting device and there is some fun to be had from relishing the spectacle of the oversized caiman chomping on annoying tourists.
Ade Smith, MOVIES & MANIA
Buy DVD: Amazon.com
Choice dialogue:
Peter: “What the hell’s got into these goddamned savages!?”
Original title:
Il fiume del grande caimano “The River of the Big Caiman”
Filming locations:
Sri Lanka
Technical specs:
1 hour 29 minutes
Aspect ratio: 2:35:1
Film Facts:
Despite the English-language release title, the original Italian title refers to a caiman. Although related, they are different reptiles. While the alligator has a small overbite, conical teeth, and the inside of its mouth is beige in colour, the caiman has a very large upper jaw with a mouth that includes many sharp, long, and narrow teeth and an interior that is orangish in hue. Caimans also have larger and higher set eyes than alligators.
Free to watch online on YouTube [1080p]:
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