Crocodile is a truly amazing specimen of the Jaws knock off, that not only changed species from shark to crocodile, but poses the question, what if the great white was a Kaiju?
The film hit Blu-ray thanks to Synapse films recently, and if you’re looking to for a fun Jaws double bill, Crocodile definitely has you covered.
Shot in 1977 two years after Jaws hit theaters, the absurd Thai Eco horror toiled a few years in editing before hitting screens until about 2 or 3 years later. Produced by Chaiyo Productions and Directed by Sompote Sands the film is the story of two Bangkok doctors Tony Akom (Nat Puvani) and John Stromm (Min Oo) who while vacationing in Pattaya lose both of their significant others to the beast. Like Jaws, they then enlist the talents of an expert fisherman with a magical bird tattoo on his chest, to help them kill the beast, while it terrorizes the coastal community.
The tattoo bit is hilarious, because it was obviously drawn on with a magic marker, and since it’s on his chest, he never misses a chance to unbuckle his overalls to show it off. (See Below)
Crocodile feels like a surreal collage of animal attack films and genres. Footage of real animal violence is spliced into amateurish Toho like Kaiju sequences, along with some inconsistent forced perspective shots to create this ever changing, ever evolving narrative nightmare. First the beast appears to be released from an earthquake in the opening, with airs of mysticism. Then about halfway through the film, they say the beast is a mutant and the result of weapon’s testing. It’s bonkers in the best possible way, and it’s hard to get bored as they also combine the above with some rather bizarre bouts of nudity that linger way longer than they should.
Taking a page from Italian cinema there’s also stock footage incorporated into the film at various times to pad the narrative wherever possible and adds some “production value”.
While Synapse is known for their rather more pristine presentations, the choice here to leave some of the damage on the print, only makes this presentation that much better. There’s a charm to the obvious changing of stocks as they throw in every kind of in camera trickery they can manage, and it only makes the film that much more fun to watch. Now also keep in mind even though the film was a low budget affair, the cinematography is actually quite beautiful. There’s some excellent night scenes and the scope frame is used to great effect here to show the ever changing scaled of the beast. The film comes with not only deleted scenes, but an interview with the director and a feature length commentary by Lee Gambin.
I love a ridiculous Jaws knock off and Crocodile definitely fits the bill. It’s as entertaining, as it is bizarre and that’s not always the case with these films. Just when you nearly think Sompote Sands has run out of tricks, we get another narrative excursion or visual break to keep you watching wondering just what will happen next. While the ending is basically a copy and paste from Jaws, it still does so in such a way as to not let the insanity subside, but continue to maintain it. If you dig animal attack films Crocodile is most definitely in your wheelhouse and worth picking up. I hadn’t seen it before writing up this piece, but I will no doubt be breaking it out again in the coming coming years.
