CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Tayloriona
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
Celia
A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
BA_Harrison
I've seen a lot of Jaws rip-offs and killer crocodile/alligator films over the years, and can safely say that The Great Alligator is one of the lamest (even worse than Tobe Hooper's Crocodile). Not only is it wholly unoriginal, liberally pilfering ideas from Spielberg's film, but it's also extremely boring, a shame, because director Sergio Martino can usually be relied upon to deliver a reasonably entertaining time.Martino's film is set in an unspecified tropical country, which one might assume to be in Africa based on the tribes-people and hippos, although some of the wild-life—orangutans, king cobras—suggest further east. Of course, alligators are only indigenous to the U.S. and China, so your guess is as good as mine. Anyway, in the middle of an unspoilt area rich with fauna, businessman Joshua (Mel Ferrer) has set up a luxury tourist resort, Paradise House, which promises to bring its guests closer to nature. Unfortunately, with the titular killer reptile on the loose (be it crocodile or alligator… both species are mentioned), the guests get much closer to nature than they wish for.It takes a long time before we get to see the 'great alligator', which the locals believe to be a vengeful god come to punish the white folk, but when we do it's a massive disappointment (or in the case of some of the shots, a miniature disappointment), the models inanimate and totally unconvincing. Martino should have compensated for his crappy croc (or alligator) effects with loads of splatter, but the film is relatively gore free, with just a little blood in the water and a few of the guests impaled by flaming spears when the natives go on the rampage.As if a crap croc (or alligator) and almost zero gore wasn't bad enough, the film also suffers from annoying characters. The hero, top photographer Daniel Nessel (Claudio Cassinelli), is extremely irritating, continuously snapping away randomly at whatever he can, never once taking time to alter the settings on his camera, take light readings, or adjust the focus. Snap, snap, snap he goes, using up what must be a whole suitcase of film on nothing in particular. When he's not snapping away, he's putting the moves on hotel manager Alice (Barbara Bach), whose raison d'être is to be woman in peril, offered as a sacrifice to the river god by the natives. Bach is beautiful but wooden. Worst of all are the guests, a slutty mother and her annoying ginger daughter, a guy who thinks it's funny to pretend that he has drowned, and lots of people who dance badly to terrible music.Martino ends this train-wreck of a movie with what is one of the most unintentionally funny moments in Italian exploitation: having massacred most of the guests who haven't been eaten by the croc (or alligator), the savage natives see that their river god has been blown to smithereens by Daniel, and decide to call off the killing, smiling cheerily at the remaining visitors as though nothing has happened. It's enough to give Italian schlock a bad name.
Chase_Witherspoon
The inhabitants of a remote South American village worship a prehistoric alligator god that is part reptile and mostly mythology. When a resort opens to tourists, they run afoul the tribe and their protective 'god'. Fortunately, hotel manager Bach also holds a degree in archaeology and can interpret all the signals with astonishing accuracy. It's also helpful that some of the tribesman speak English remarkably well. Cassinelli is the no-nonsense photographer who begins to suspect the natives are restless, a plea that falls on the deaf ears of Mel Ferrer as the consortium's rather passive financier.As for the alleged "great" alligator, looking more like a piece of driftwood with beaming torch-lights for eyes, it's far from an impressive or especially menacing looking specimen; even still, the sub-continental "natives" all have panic attacks at the mere thought of encountering the great rubber log. One-time Bond girl and Italian eco-horror staple Bach, quickly loses her safari suit, eventually succumbing to the locals as a sacrificial offering to their 'god', and it's left to the anti-hero of Martino's trilogy, the remarkably relaxed-looking Claudio Cassinelli, to do all the work himself. It's somewhat disconcerting to see Cassinelli alight from the helicopter in the film's opening sequence, knowing that he would later lose his life in a helicopter crash, while filming for Martino's "Hands of Steel" in 1985. A very capable actor, who was well equipped to move between western mainstream and Italian exploitation cinema.Given that this movie was made back-to-back with Island of the Fishmen, the cast is virtually identical, and both Ferrer and Richard Johnson (in a meaningless cameo as a traumatized Christian brother) again dedicate their time, while genre fans will also recognize the brawny action-man Romano Puppo in a frivolous utility role. It's the least of Martino's jungle trilogy, with tired looking set-pieces (there's only so many times the same personnel can stage a human sacrifice and make it gripping), and extras in grass skirts courtesy of Bollywood rentals incorporated. With miniatures doing the work of the special effects department (thanks to Carlo De Marcels for lending his kids' toys) and the dim hope of redemption in Johnson's appearance confined to a pointless five-minute cameo, there's not a great deal to recommend "The Great Alligator".
Coventry
Much more than the obvious Italian Jaws rip-off this appears to be, "Big Alligator River" is like a well-scripted and ambitious jungle-exploitation classic. The film was directed by Sergio Martino – an eminent filmmaker in the Italian horror field – and on many different levels it's almost like a sequel to his earlier triumph "Mountain of the Cannibal God". That particular movie mainly draws your attention by mentioning a gruesome cannibal-tribe, but the essence of the story handled about anthropology and learning to understand the curious religions a certain primitive tribes. "Big Alligator River" is exactly like that! There naturally is a giant alligator swimming around, devouring people, but I really defend that the actual emphasis of Martino's film lies on the African tribe members who believe that this animal represents the wrath of a native God. According the beliefs of this tribe, the Alligator-God is furious because a Western businessman built a tourist complex, neglecting the environment and recruiting the natives as slaves. Almost immediately after the arrival of a first group of wealthy tourists, both the alligator and the war-hungry tribe start a bloody killing spree. Surely, I can't deny that "Big Alligator River" cashes in on the huge success of Steven Spielberg's creature-feature milestone "Jaws" a great deal. Particularly the character of Joshua, who owns the resort and ignores all the warnings about the dangerous presence of the alligator in order not to disturb his clients, is an exact copy of the hypocrite mayor in Spielberg's movie. There are some more obvious influences of other horror movies in the script but, overall, "Big Alligator River" is a solid independent film with a fair amount of suspense, gore and admirable camera-work. Despite the fact that the DVD-cover shows a totally naked woman being eaten by the croc, the film contains few sleaze or gratuitous sex. The filming style is elegant and Martino's camera has more eye for the African wildlife than for the ravishing bodies of the female stars. Judging by the other user-comments around here, I seem to be the only one who thinks that the giant alligator looks rather convincing (especially considering the budget of this type of movies) and especially the many close-ups of his pupils come across as quite frightening. The acting is very satisfying and, naturally, Barbara Bach's good looks are a treat for the eyes. "Big Alligator River" is warmly recommended to fans of Italian horror.
cornjob-2
Very bad film. Very, very, very bad film. It's a rarity, but it defenitly is not worth hunting down. This Italian Jaws rip-off makes little sense most of the time, and no sense the rest. The "alligator" is not at all convincing, and many of the sub-plots go nowhere. If it's at the local video store, you may want to watch it if you're a fan of monster movies, but it's not worth hunting down.
