Leofwine_draca For an Italian film about a killer crocodile, KILLER CROCODILE is about as much fun as you could want it to be. Sure, all of the clichés are there and its as indebted to JAWS as one might expect, but a fun cast, good effects, and not-bad direction from prolific Italian producer and former Fulci cohort Fabrizio De Angelis make for one enjoyable viewing experience. The only downside I can see to this film - aside from the unoriginality of the plot, which in turn appears to have been swiped by Hollywood for ANACONDA - is that some scenes involving people journeying to and fro on a boat seem to have been included merely as padding, and thus do drag a little.The film begins in classic fashion with two old guys in a boat at night being attacked by a sudden cheesy crocodile head. The film begins for real with a point-of-view shot of SOMETHING swimming through the Amazonian rivers on the look out for prey, whilst music which sounds VERY similar to the suspenseful music in JAWS plays in the background. Hilariously, the crocodile is played as a slasher in this movie, a Michael Myers imitation with lots of P.O.V. shots, appearances of claws, and heavy BREATHING sounding when its around! How can a crocodile be heard to breathe in air when it's underwater? I guess nobody thought of that.A typical bunch of attractive but bland Italian teenagers/twentysomethings are investigating somebody dumping radioactive waste into the river which leads to a conspiracy angle in the film, as the only authority in charge (played by Van Johnson of all people) is in on the scheme and wants everything hushed up. When one of the party goes missing, one guy says "This swamp's no amusement park". From this point on, extras get killed in gory fashions, people hunt the crocodile, attempt to kill it and fail, and finally there's a big battle between man and beast which ends as one might expect. The B-movie casting is adequate, with a majority of unknown faces with one or two older, familiar faces in supporting roles, in this case they are Van Johnson (one time Hollywood star relegated to supporting roles in Italian B-movies like so many) and Thomas Moore, aka Ennio Girolami, or Enzo G. Castellari's brother. Moore has a fun part as an old-fashioned game hunter and genuinely seems to be enjoying himself in the role, so the viewer can too.KILLER CROCODILE doesn't skimp on the gore effects either, thanks to the presence of ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS veteran Giannetto De Rossi in the crew. Highlights include a mouldering corpse popping out of the water and later being examined in detail, a man chewed in the jaws of the croc, another man being torn through a pier and a graphic arm-ripping which will delight gorehounds everywhere. De Rossi also created the cumbersome crocodile itself; it may not be much of an improvement on the dragons in peplum epics like THE LOVES OF HERCULES made thirty years earlier, but ignore the lack of realism and instead admire the artistry gone into creating the menace.Being a cheap Italian production made in the late '80s, when the industry had pretty much disappeared, there is certain unintentional humour to be had from the film. One such scene has Moore "riding" the back of the crocodile, only to disappear presumed dead as blood bubbles up in the water! Later on, a slow-mo flying hat signals that Moore has returned, covered in blood, to watch the finale and lend support from the sideline! Speaking of which, the cheesily over-the-top death for the crocodile involves a boat's propeller being thrown into its mouth, which causes it to explode (?), but not after spraying tons of blood everywhere very graphically! You'll also get leech attacks, explosions, and a twist ending which rips off CONTAMINATION for your money's worth. KILLER CROCODILE: only a moderately successful horror film, but one with a high entertainment value.

Paul Andrews Killer Crocodile is set in Santo Domingo & starts as several American ecologists sail through a swamp there, they are looking for proof that big business is dumping it's toxic waste into the swamp & causing an environmental disaster. Pollution levels in the water are extremely high & when they discover a pile of toxic waste barrels dumped in the swamp they intend to blow the whistle & put an end to the illegal dumping. However after setting up camp for the night Conchita goes missing, the other's fear for her safety & when her dead, mutilated body turns up the local medical examiner claims that she was killed by some animal. Local big game hunter Joe (Ennio Girolami) fears that a killer Crocodile may be on the loose & he is proved right when a huge twenty foot Crocodile attacks a small village killing a couple of people, the town Judge (Van Johnson) doesn't want to know so Joe & the remaining environmentalists set out to kill the Crocodile first before it kills anyone else...This Italian production was co-written, produced & directed by Fabrizio De Angelis & is a straight forward Jaws (1975) rip-off that is pretty awful, as a huge fan of the Italian exploitation genre it's safe to say that it's better days were well behind it when Killer Crocodile was made. The Jaws similarities are there for all to see, the water based menace that eats people, the fact that it lurks just under the surface with only part of it visible above the water, the craggy old hunter who sets out to kill the monster, the music is a virtual note for note reworking of the classic Jaws theme, the local businessman & town officials who want to keep the killer animal secret for fear of bad publicity & just the way the script is written screams of Jaws. As you might expect Killer Crocodile has none of Jaws effectiveness, it is really dull & boring with long stretches where nothing happens, the attack scenes are so poor & unimaginative that any self respecting creature feature fan will want their money back once the end credits begin to roll. The character's are awful, they are all bland & stupid who aren't helped by an awful script that contains some terrible dialogue. With a film such as Killer Crocidile it's easier & quicker to list the things that are good about it, well it has one or two mildly gory moments & that's about it. Listing all the things wrong with Killer Crocodile would take a lot longer. At 90 odd minutes long Killer Crocodile drags & crawls along, you get the occasional really bad attack scene, a few shots of the Crocodile in the water & those throughly dull humans who are hunting it down. This is bad, very bad.Reasonably well on location Killer Crocodile was made before CGI became commonplace & therefore we have a big rubber Crocodile that barely moves as it's floats in the swamp, it's never really seen eating anyone although it does bite someones arm off whose stump then spurts a lot of blood. There's also a couple of dead bodies seen & that's about it. Most of the victims are killed off screen. There's no nudity or sex either & overall Killer Crocodile is fairly tame & forgettable. There's no tension, suspense or scares in this annoyingly drab film. Filmed at the same time as it's sequel Killer Crocodile II (1990) which uses many of the same cast & crew.The acting is bad, well at least the dubbing is bad. In fact it's hilariously bad with seemingly no attempt to match the dialogue with the on screen actor's mouth movements. The special effects are average at best & don't convince but they aren't as bad as some that I have seen although that's not saying much.Killer Crocodile is a really dull & boring film that is your basic common or garden variety Jaws rip-off, the effects are dated & the whole film is forgettable. There are better creature features out there, don't bother with this one even if you can find a copy.

moldwarrior While its not the greatest creature feature out there Killer Crocodile. It has the makings of decent Italian B-Movie however it fails for a few reasons. First the characters are extremely flat and feel forced when near the end. Plus most of them don't have a clear personality. The second reason it feels is due to the complete disregard for certain plot elements. The radioactive material is just skipped over from time to time. It wouldn't be so bad but they reference the stuff a few times. Finally the crocodile while it looks decent is by far the weakest part of the film. It's mouth just seems to open its mouth wide every time it eats. However it makes up for these things with the dubs very cheesy lines and over-the-top death for the crocodile.

HumanoidOfFlesh A group of environmentalists discover that barrels of radioactive waste have been dumped along a Santo Domingo river.This causes a giant crocodile to emerge and start devouring the local villagers."Killer Crocodile" by Fabrizio De Angelis is an extraordinarily poor horror film that provides tons of cheese and amusing moments.The film rips-off "Jaws" and is filled with bad acting and idiotic scenes.The main star of it is of course the killer crocodile,who devours its victims incredibly fast.The existence of this bloodthirsty beast is never fully explained.Give this one a look,only if you enjoy trashy Italian horror films.6 out of 10.