Is Killer Crocodile Treasure or Trash?
Blu-ray Distributed By Severin / September 24, 2019
More than a decade after the Spielberg blockbuster, a dream team of shock maestros – including producer-turned-director Fabrizio De Angelis (DR. BUTCHER M.D., EMANUELLE AND THE LAST CANNIBALS), screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti (BAY OF BLOOD, DEMONS), gore guru Giannetto De Rossi (ZOMBIE, THE BEYOND) and Oscar®-nominated composer Riz Ortolani (MONDO CANE, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST) – created one of the most ridiculously entertaining JAWS rip-offs in ItaloSleaze history: When a humongous crocodile begins chomping on a tropical island community, a group of idealistic young environmentalists will clash with a crusty redneck hunter to destroy the monster reptile spawned by toxic waste. Richard Anthony Crenna (ROSWELL), Sherrie Rose (DEMON KNIGHT), Ennio Girolami (GREAT WHITE) and Hollywood legend Van Johnson (THE CAINE MUTINY) star in this Crocsploitation classic now scanned in 2k from the original negative.
Jamie’s Take 
(3.5 / 5)
I do like me some Jaws rip-offs. I seem to enjoy them all: Piranha, Piranha II: The Spawning, Tentacles, Orca, Great White, Cruel Jaws, you name it. I get a kick out of all these underwater monster movies and have always been amazed at how one film spawned a whole slew of imitations and knock offs. Killer Crocodile is another Jaws knock off and what’s funny about that is the film came out in 1989, fourteen years since the first Jaws movie.
Ok, enough kissing Spielberg’s ass and jerking off to the first “summer” movie – we are here to review Killer Crocodile, another Severin blu ray release and yes, another Italian horror film. Mama Mia that’s spicy meatball! I have watched so many Italian horror flicks lately, I need to go back and review a porn or something before my pecker turns into a spaghetti noodle.
Anyways, what can I say about Killer Crocodile? Well, from the very opening, the crocodile has its own theme music and sure enough, it sounds almost identical to John Williams score from Jaws. While some of you may be appalled, I couldn’t help but smile. I am all for Italian rip-off movies as most of you know by now and having just seen the film Crawl (alligators during a hurricane movie) I was in the mood to check out this killer croc flick that had never officially been released in the U.S. until now.
A group of environmentalists (lead by Richard Anthony Crenna, Richard Crenna’s son) visit a swamp area where they are investigating as to why the water has become polluted and deemed unsafe. The group finds barrels of toxic waste located in the swamp which causes them to believe that the water may not only be polluted but has caused some disfigurements and mutations in the wildlife.
The cause of the toxic waste dump is a local authority by a man named Judge (Van Johnson, who is slumming it here collecting his paycheck) who is being paid by a millionaire (played by Bill Wohrman from Porky’s) to get rid of this toxic waste for him since lots of rich people have too much toxic waste at their disposal apparently. Once the killer crocodile starts attacking villagers, Judge wants the animal dead and the environmentalists argue with Judge, wanting to keep the animal alive until it kills one of their own. This was actually a nice change of pace seeing these little hippie, save the world twenty somethings actually change their ways and agree with the “villain” that this croc has to die.
Ok enough with the plot and yeah, there isn’t much of it. What I enjoyed about Killer Crocodile was the sheer lunacy and random chaos that takes place in the film. The body count is high so that right there is a plus and while there isn’t a whole lot of gore, we do see a few limbs chewed off and plenty of spurting blood either bubbling up from the water or shooting up in people’s faces (one scene had me laughing as this guy was just screaming and screaming while blood shot up in his face). There is some great bits of dialog too (all dubbed) with characters saying that strangest things to one another (one character is called kid and he shouts that his “name is Kevin!” when it’s obvious he never was shouting during the actual take).
Oh but my favorite is this Quint-type character from Jaws with a little Crocodile Dundee thrown in for good measure. This guy at one point jumps on the crocodile and rides it like a surfboard, stabbing at it with a spear. In another scene he throws his hat to our lead character (his name is Kevin, damn it!) and tells him to put it on for good luck – all done in slow motion. No idea why that hat would give him good luck but whatever. It’s moments like that that had me enjoying Killer Crocodile – it’s stupid, silly fun.
Having never seen Killer Crocodile, I can only assume this new blu ray looks much better than previous sources. I found the picture to look fine and even though the colors looked a little muted or dull, the picture for the most part was crisp. Severin was able to get a lot of good interviews with some of the cast and crew and hearing their stories about drug use on the set and how the crocodile was made so cheaply, was very fascinating. A good disc for sure even though there is nothing more than interviews and the trailer. There is a special edition of Killer Crocodile that Severin is selling that comes with another disc that contains the sequel, Killer Crocodile 2 but alas I received just the one disc version to review.
While not a work of art, Killer Crocodile has some bite. Get it? Yeah that’s lame but whatever, I’m not fucking Roger Ebert here.
Hidden Treasure/Dumpster Fire?
Jamie says: Hidden Treasure!
| Jamie's Take: |  (3.5 / 5) |
| Blu-ray Extras: | (3.5 / 5) |
| Average: | (3.5 / 5) |
Special Features
- The Fearless Crocodile Hunter: Interview with Actor Pietro Genuardi
- It Crawls: Interview with Cinematographer Federico Del Zoppo
- In the Jaws of the Crocodile: Interview with Special Makeup FX Artist Giannetto De Rossi
- Of Crocodiles and Men: Interview with Actor Richard Anthony Crenna
- Trailer
- English with Closed Captioning
