Alligator (Lewis Teague, 1980)

You know how they say there are alligators in the sewers?

I feel it necessary to begin this review with the disclaimer that I am an X-Phile. I say this because watching Alligator I got very X-Filey vibes from the movie, and was struck by how comfortably the film might sit among any of The X-Files’ first three seasons.

There is something about the film’s tone (horror-focused, interested in science, serious but never taking itself too seriously) and aesthetic (dark, shadowy, all the scarier for the less you see of the low-budget monster).

Indeed, Alligator is a B-movie which does not restrict itself to the limited expectations of the genre. Despite the film’s budget, it feels like everyone is going for broke to make the movie the best it possibly can be. Everything — from Teague’s energetic direction, to Joseph Mangine’s moody cinematography, to the late great Robert Forster’s solid performance — works together to wring the absolute biggest bang from the movie’s buck and elevate it to far more than the sum of its parts.

All of which is to say that though Alligator might easily have been dismissed merely as a cheap Jaws knockoff, it is distinct and special enough to earn its own place among the pantheon of GOAT creature features.

Not bad for a film which is essentially about a massive killer alligator living in the sewers of Chicago.

Yes, Alligator is both inspired by and fuel for the urban legend concerning alligators in the sewers (as is mocked in Spielberg’s E.T. — a discreet nod to this film’s homage to his Jaws, perhaps?).

The origin of the murderous monster in this movie is a baby gator pet that was flushed down the toilet 12 years earlier. As it swelled to enormous size thanks to chemicals dumped by reckless capitalist scientists, so its young owner grew up to become a herpetologist who assists Forster’s detective in his crusade against the reptilian beast (in a neat touch, the characters never make this connection — it is for we the audience alone to enjoy).

As the alligator grew, it fed mostly on rats and other sewer-dwelling vermin, until it was unknowingly fed dead dogs dumped in the sewer by a crooked pet store owner — played by Sydney Lassick, who coincidentally has a memorable role in a season four episode of The X-Files. (Robert Forster was never in The X-Files, but he did feature in both Twin Peaks and Breaking Bad, which is close enough.)

But I digress…

After an accidental slip into the sewers himself, the pet store guy is eaten, and the alligator develops a taste for human flesh. And so ensues a fun horror movie which also borrows aspects of the crime procedural and disaster movie genres.

I meant it when I said that Alligator punches above its weight. Despite its small budget, it gives us a fantastic sequence in which the alligator romps along a city street and gives the illusion of a grander scale as individuals react to the beast (a kid grabbing a knife from his mother’s kitchen to go hunt the animal is a random highlight). Another great moment is when a pompous big game hunter gets his bloody comeuppance at the jaws of his prey (“Clever girl”).

As with the shark in Jaws, of course, the alligator itself is mostly obscured by shadows out of necessity — but it is all the more horrific because of it.

Alligator may not have struck the cultural zeitgeist in the same way as many Spielbergian blockbuster did, but it remains a solidly entertaining horror flick that impresses on every level.

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