Verdict
Summary
At times, Crocodile is incomprehensible, while sometimes it takes its cues directly from Jaws with halfway decent results, but there’s just not much of a narrative to make it one of those exploitation movies that makes sense. It’s bonkers, but there’s certainly an audience for that type of flick, especially in the post-Sharknado era.
Plot:
A huge crocodile is terrorizing the coast of Thailand.
Review:
The coasts of Thailand are already teeming with sharks and crocodiles of various sizes, but after atomic radiation from a nuclear blast irradiates the waters, a mutation occurs (not to mention massive tidal waves that wipe out entire coastal populations) in a single reptile, and it’s not Godzilla … it’s CROCODILE! The croc grows to enormous size, but it’s also very elusive and evades notice, even when it begins feeding on swimming families, namely the wife and kids of two guys who vow revenge on the culprit. The two guys in question happen to be doctors of different fields (sciences seem to be where their expertise meet, but it’s vague), and they come to understand that their families were killed by the same monster, a mutant crocodile, and that it’s swimming in the ocean rather than in the marshy alcoves where most of the other crocs hang out. We eventually get a glimpse of the behemoth: It ventures inland and devours a water buffalo in a hilarious scene that had me howling for the wrong reasons. Anyway, the vengeful scientists manage to lure the monster out to sea again where they trap it with explosives and blow the smack out of it.
Whoa, guys: Whoa. Thai exploitation filmmaker Sompote Sands made a doozy of a humdinger when he assembled Crocodile from various sources and footage that feels like it came from a whole bunch of different movies. It’s wildly inconsistent with barely a narrative thread to keep track of, but there’s a story somewhere in the midst of it if you can manage the Herculean task of trying to make sense of it. There is lots of footage of panicked, overwhelmed villagers, swimming kids in lakes who get eaten, Mondo Cane-style footage of very real animal cruelty (one scene of a guy slicing a real crocodile from its brain down to its innards had me looking away in disgust), wildly over-the-top scenes of tidal waves crushing villages, miniature boats tossing around while toy crocs flip them around, tons of footage of big crocodiles walking away from the camera, lots of real crocs rolling their eyes very slowly, and the howler of a scene where the huge title beast shows itself to be nothing more than a mechanically operated prop that will undoubtedly make you slap your knees in amusement. At times, Crocodile is incomprehensible, while sometimes it takes its cues directly from Jaws with halfway decent results, but there’s just not much of a narrative to make it one of those exploitation movies that makes sense. It’s bonkers, but there’s certainly an audience for that type of flick, especially in the post-Sharknado era.
Synapse rescues Crocodile from obscurity and brings it to Blu-ray in a premium edition that has an audio commentary by the late film historian Lee Gambin, a video interview with the director of another movie called Crocodile Fangs, which this movie pulled footage from, a trailer, and a bunch of deleted scenes and alternate scenes. As per Synapse’s usual high quality transfers, this disc looks and sounds impressive, and the sleeve is reversible with alternate artwork.
