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Crocodile
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Synapse Films Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (28th July 2024). |
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The Film
 Despite the devastation wrought by a torrential hurricane on the nearby islands, Dr. Tony Akom (Hands of Death's Nard Poowanai) and his colleague John Stromm (Min Oo) decide to take a break from treating the mass of victims transported inland by taking a vacation on the island of Pattaya with Tony's wife Angela (A Queen's Ransom's Tany Tim), daughter Anne, and John's fiancee Linda. When Angela, Ann, and Linda all vanish into the sea one morning and only Linda's remains wash up onto the shore, the locals believe the perpetrator to be giant crocodile that has been attacking lone fishermen and villagers. Devastated Tony and John, however, consult a wildlife expert but they do not have to wait for his findings as the creature wages a series of ever-more-devastating attacks on more populous areas, overwhelming the mainland services. With the help of local fisherman Tanaka (Kirk Warren) who believes it is his fate to confront and destroy the creature, Tony and John trace the route the creature is traveling as it feeds on its way to the open sea while trying to find something chemical or explosive strong enough to kill it. One of the many, many post-Jaws "when nature attacks" horror films which came in between the exploits of its scaly cousin The Great Alligator and Alligator, Crocodile boasts some wonderful old-school Japanese monster movie miniatures – introduced in establishing shots well before the attacks for some sense of continuity – and a creature whose scale ludicrously changes from shot to shot by a way of a real crocodile trudging around scale backgrounds Bert I. Gordon-style and mechanical jaw and tail pieces with the victims also represented as both live actors and Barbie dolls (long before the likes of a certain Children of the Corn sequel). In between the sequences of mass slaughter, however, the film seriously drags whenever it focuses on Tony's emotional state or even the theorizing and planning on how to destroy the beast. For all Tanaka is built up for the final showdown, he is no Robert Shaw and seems easily cut down by the beast while an obnoxious reporter tagging along on the climactic boat trip does more than Tony or John in the finale that would be bleaker than anything in Jaws if either the American version had enough coverage to work with – the notorious Dick Randall (Pieces) is listed in the American credits as a producer but we have no idea whether he was actually involved during production or produced the English version which is the basis of some of the other European versions – or if the Thai version did not just freeze frame after the big explosion without any concern to confirm that no one survived (see the deleted scenes below in the extras). The extras reveal that the film was a Thai/Korean co-production with a Japanese effects crew and despite directorial credit on most versions going to producer Sompote Sands (Computer Superman), the director was actually Korean Won-se Lee whose Korean version "Crocodile Fangs" is listed in references including IMDb as a separate film (although due to the cutting of the Thai and English versions, it may indeed be possible that Sands shot scenes with a Thai cast in place of Korean actors to intercut with common footage of the creature attacks). Whatever the case, Crocodile is no better or worse than the bulk of the ecological horror knockoffs of the period. 
Video
Released theatrically in the United States by Horrors of the Black Museum producer Herman Cohen's short-lived Cobra Media, the cropped Thorn/EMI video release looked as bad as the HBO Video release of fellow Cobra giallo import Watch Me When I Kill, and the early 1.78:1-cropped non-anamorphic VCI DVD edition of the film (along with their non-anamorphic release of the aforementioned giallo and its anamorphic reissue) suggest that a combination of the original photography and Cobra's cheap 35mm prints were partially responsible for the how poor these films have looked in the past. Synapse's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen Blu-ray – previously available in a Synapse website-exclusive "Limited 'Nude' Slipcover Edition" – comes from a new high-definition transfer from the "original English 35mm camera negative" which suggest that Randall acquired the original materials after the Thai and Korean versions were created. The restored aspect ratio and the higher resolution of the image reveal not only the wonderful artifice of the miniature effects but also a significantly richer color scheme than evident in the older transfers. Grain varies with the use of opticals and either some stock footage or some duped original footage, and the poor condition of the Thai video master and the abrupt cutting style of the American version along with the unavailability of the Korean version make it hard to determine how much of the uneven look is due to post-production on the various versions and how much is due to the original photography and opticals; however, the negative is probably best the film can look and it is in this particular English-language version which is miles ahead of literally anything that has come before. 
Audio
The English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track cleanly represents the original mix of this dub with clear effects and library music – once again, it is unknown how much of the library music is part of the American version and how much is original to the Thai or Korean versions as Cobra Media's prints of Watch Me When I Kill had also added library music to the shortened and replaced opening and closing credits sequences – but the blunt cutting style of the images also sometimes affects the soundtrack although those may have been clumsily laid down in the Thai or Korean dubs as well. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided. 
Extras
Extras start off with an audio commentary by writer and film historian Lee Gambin who discusses the film in the contexts of animal attack and ecological horror sub-genres, couching this film with other movies featuring man-made disasters that mutate wildlife. He also notes from the sketchy characterization and narrative of the film some of the common tropes of such films including city slickers getting away and anticipating an idyllic experience, "earthy" practical women, and detached men who have to "man up" to take on the menace. Gambin also notes the similarities between the animal attack films and the coming slasher genre including unknown, predatory point-of-views and the sexualization of female victims. He also observes the socio-economic element of the genre as the threat is not taken seriously until its escalates to an attack on well-off characters, drawing parallels between the wedding attack in Alligator and the first attack on a village full of foreign tourists here. Gambin passed away earlier this year but there are still a number of upcoming releases featuring his new commentaries including a couple more eco-horror films on other labels. Also included is an interview with original Crocodile Fangs director Won-se Lee (31:44) who reveals that after his success of his film The World Without a Mother he was game to try something different and got involved with the Thai co-production through the Hong Kong arm of a Korean production company. He provides some vague anecdotes about shooting in Thailand with a Korean cast, Thai crew and extras, the mishaps with the mechanical crocodile underwater, as well as offering up his assessment of the Japanese special effects. He has only seen the Korean version and was unaware that producer Sands is credited as director on other versions. A selection of deleted and alternate scenes is provided from different versions. The original Thai ending (2:37) freeze frames on the explosion at the end while the alternate Spanish release ending (3:32) features a shot of debris from the exploded boat washing up on the shore. "the monkey and the little boy" (4:41) is less circumspect than the American edit about the fate of these two characters while the extended town attack (5:50) is not so much more explicit but was trimmed in the American version for pacing and probably of some ropier effects shots, while crocodile cruelty (1:16) extends a bit of animal violence that precedes one of the big attacks. The alternate international opening (4:15) is a different credits sequence that appeared on some European versions featuring animation and clips compared to the credits-on-black of the American version. The U.S. theatrical trailer (2:44) is also included. 
Overall
Although it compares poorly to the "great" Alligator and also The Great Alligator, Crocodile boasts some nice old-school miniatures and some equally-ludicrous creature effects.
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