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| All Images Courtesy Synapse Films |
Last year Synapse Films released Crocodile, a Thai/Korean grindhouse crocsploitation flick from either 1979 or 1981 (depending on which release you’re talking about – it gets confusing) on a web-store-exclusive, 1,500-copy limited-run blu-ray. Now they are back with a standard-edition wide-release variant, minus the slipcover packaging, but featuring the same excellent restoration and quality extras. It is one bizarre film: a mash-up of Jaws ripoff and Godzilla ripoff, blended together into a wild, trashy, sometimes fun, sometimes in poor taste, sometimes just pretty bad exploitation flick that only could have been made in the late-70s or early-80s. The titular gigantic croc is brought to life via a combination of real crocodiles stomping around miniature sets, and a massive prop used for the close-up carnage; a combination that rarely meshes together in a convincing way, but which is undeniably fun. Not at all fun, however, is the unfortunate use of some very grisly real crocodile killing, anchoring the film firmly in exploitation/mondo territory and earning it a strong content warning. If you can stomach those gruesome moments, however, there is fun to be had in this strangest and most unhinged movie of the brief crocsploitation wave of the late-1970s and early-1980s, and Synapse have put together a quite solid disc release, despite some obvious limitations.
THE FILM:
Filmed as a co-production between Thailand and South Korea, with some resources and talent from Hong Kong as well, Crocodile was a thoroughly international production, made for global distribution. It was quite an ambitious project for its day; a major production for the relatively small Thai film industry, made in answer to multiple major pop-cultural trends from Hollywood and Japanese cinema. The film was directed by Korean filmmaker Won-se Lee, although Thai producer Sompote Sands sneakily listed himself as the credited director on the various export versions that were made for various markets around the world. And there were MANY different export versions for markets around the world: the film was (as was often the case with international productions like this) filmed without sound, with actors speaking a mix of Thai, Korean, and Cantonese, and the movie was dubbed in various languages for each country it was exported to, with each country’s localization also having a slightly different cut. Either because it is the only version that survives in a 35mm source, or because it’s the version they were able to get the rights to, Synapse’s blu-ray uses the film’s 1981 American release, dubbed in English with no other language options, although alternate openings, endings, and deleted scenes from other countries’ versions of the film are included as extras, sourced from VHS.
Crocodile wears its cinematic influences very firmly on its sleeve: it is a more grindhouse/exploitation-leaning eco-horror film drawing equally from Japanese influences with Godzilla and American influences with Jaws. We hear talk about nuclear testing ravaging the ecosystem on an island chain off the coast of Thailand, and we see farmers (in unfortunately unsimulated documentary-style footage) wrestling and slaughtering crocodiles for the amusement of tourists. The film begins with what feels like divine retribution against humanity for these twin transgressions: there is a freak storm of possibly supernatural proportions, and it unleashes from the earth a gigantic crocodile which proceeds to destroy an entire village. On the Thai mainland, two overworked ER doctors who have just helped to treat the victims of that massacre decide that they need some time off, and they plan a vacation at a beachfront resort with their families. But of course this turns out to be the worst possible idea, as the gigantic crocodile attacks the resort with disastrous results. The two doctors decide that they must destroy this beast once and for all, and hire a gruff local fisherman to join them on the monster-hunting expedition. But the creature isn’t slowing down, massacring more villages along the Thai coast as our heroes try to find a way to kill it.
Yes, that premise is very literally just the plots of Jaws and Godzilla mashed together, and the movie doesn’t even try to hide this. But if you are the type of B-movie connoisseur who is going to enjoy something like Crocodile, this shameless ripping off is a feature – an inherent part of the audacious, campy charm – and not a bug. Likewise, it is a campy feature and not a bug that the titular crocodile seems to constantly change size depending on what each scene requires, and which of the two films it is ripping off, with very little thought to internal consistency or logic. If the crocodile is attacking tourists at a beach, or our heroes on their boat, it is simply a very large crocodile; if it leaves the water and is stomping all over a town – portrayed by a real crocodile trampling balsa wood miniature buildings – it is an absolutely enormous beast of more dinosaur-esque scale. If you’re even still reading a review of a movie called Crocodile after this many paragraphs, then surely you will find this freewheeling sense of scale and internal logic enjoyably cheesy fun, and not a run-of-the-mill plot flaw.
Unfortunately this incoherence about the size of the creature also extends to the creature effects themselves, and that is a problem that affects the enjoyment of the film. The shots of the real-life crocodile stomping around miniature models of towns look extremely cool, as do the close-up effects shots of the giant prop tail and jaws massacring armies of extras. But these two approaches to realizing the giant croc on-screen never mesh together in a convincing way; they always look like two wholly unrelated sequences spliced together poorly, and there is very little spacial geography or coherence. Director Won-se Lee says in the extras that the model work with the real crocodiles was done by a separate effects unit in Japan, while the giant props were on-set in Thailand, and… you can tell. It absolutely looks like these two halves of the creature sequences were shot in entirely different countries by entirely different crews. Both aspects of the production make for individually very cool moments of effects work that genre fans will get a kick out of, but it is a shame that they rarely gel together in a coherent way.
That is hardly the movie’s only major flaw. The pacing of the film is extremely uneven. There are moments where it moves along at a great clip and is quite fun, but then it also has long stretches that are just dull. It isn’t overall a boring film; it is just a very uneven one, with fun highs and tedious lows. It is also a very trashy movie in a way that wasn’t my cup of tea. The camera has a way of leering at the movie’s women characters during croc attacks in extremely sexualized ways that almost make the crocodile feel like a sexual predator. It also has some odd, off-putting moments of child nudity that, while not sexualized, feel quite creepy in their inclusion.
And then there is the matter of the movie’s inclusion of actual animal violence, which will be an understandable dealbreaker for many animal lovers. This is one instance where I don’t care about our site’s spoiler-free policy: you will see a crocodile stabbed to death, and then sliced open with its guts spilling out. It is a very upsetting sight, as disturbing as any of the animal violence in Cannibal Holocaust. And the moment has absolutely nothing to do with the plot – it’s just a pure shock-value moment with a croc unrelated to our monster. On their disc of Cannibal Holocaust, Grindhouse Releasing offers branching options to watch the film with or without the real animal violence included; I absolutely do not understand why Synapse did not do that on this disc. This would be a much more fun movie, and I would be much more likely to recommend it, if there was an option to watch it with the animal killing left out. As it is, this was almost certainly a one-and-done for me, and one that I have trouble recommending, even though there were aspects of it that I genuinely enjoyed and had fun with.
I definitely struggle to recommend Crocodile, even though it has its moments of enjoyably unhinged creature-feature fun; it just has too much working against it. Unless you like your movies quite sleazy and don’t mind real animal violence, that is, in which case have at it. If you are curious about it, or are a fan of creature features like this, it’s maybe worth a look, but there are much, much better crocsploitation movies out there that don’t have the same baggage. I would much sooner recommend the very fun Italian crocsploitation movies Killer Crocodile and The Great Alligator, or of course the John Sayles-scripted cult favorite Alligator. Crocodile is pretty much just for the genre die-hards who like their croc movies real trashy.
THE SYNAPSE SPECIAL EDITION
Crocodile may be a pretty questionable movie, but Synapse has put together a very nice special edition for it. In the main review I already voiced my two grievances with the disc: it is odd that it only has English-dubbed audio and no Thai language track, and I really really wish it offered branching options to see the film with or without the real animal killing. Aside from those two grievances, this is a very nice disc.
Synapse was able to restore the American cut of the film from the negative – although considering the stock footage involved, and the effects shots filmed by another unit in Japan, the movie was clearly a bit of a patchwork to begin with, and the negative took a lot of wear and tear as it went through a whole bunch of localized cuts. Given that messy background to the film’s post-production, it is amazing that Synapse was able to make the film look this good: their restoration is pretty stunning, considering what the film is. There is definitely some visible damage to the negative, and some fluctuating colors due to fading of the negative with time, but for the most part this is an amazingly clean and beautiful restoration. Detail is sharp, film grain looks very natural and the transfer has an extremely filmic appearance, and colors are bright and vibrant, and especially pop during the night scenes. Slight damage aside, this transfer is simply great.
The disc has a commentary track by the late Lee Gambin, a much loved and respected film scholar whose untimely death earlier this year shook the cult film community. Gambin’s commentary is largely a thematic analysis of the film, diving deep into eco-horror as a subgenre, and analyzing the themes of both the genre and this film in particular. It is a really interesting track, as he breaks down the film and places it in the context of larger eco-horror movement. It is definitely an analysis commentary more than a behind-the-scenes one, as he does not discuss the production of the film a ton, but it absolutely invites a much greater appreciation of the film. I dare say that I enjoyed watching the film with his commentary more than I enjoyed watching the film on its own.
The extras continue with a long sit-down interview with director Won-se Lee, which is likewise very interesting, and does go quite deeply into the production of the film. He has a lot to say about the process of running such an international production, and how difficult and complex it was. He has quite a good memory for most facets of the production, and some good stories about how tricky it was to shoot what was at the time a very complicated and elaborate production for the fledgling Thai film industry. He also has some absolutely wild stories that make the production sound genuinely dangerous: like that the prop crocodile mouth was so heavy that if it had been dropped by the stagehands manually opening and closing its jaws, it probably would have killed the actors inside.
Rounding out the disc are a few alternate openings and/or endings from various other international localizations of the film, and some deleted scenes – a couple of which include still more graphic animal violence. All of the deleted scenes are sourced from VHS.
Overall, this is a very nice blu-ray of an odd film that I mostly enjoyed but would struggle to recommend. It is a uniquely bizarre and trashy movie in the pantheon of Jaws or Godzilla ripoffs, no doubt about that. In its best or most insane moments it can be quite fun, with some genuinely neat special effects and moments of wild creature-feature camp. But its trashier aspects and real animal violence make it a tough sell, even though it can be great fun an its best. If you think it sounds fun and you don’t mind the animal violence, then check it out – you might have a good time with it. But mileage will definitely vary on this one, depending on your tolerance for that stuff. But if you are a fan of the film, Synapse has definitely put together a very successful package for it.
- Christopher S. Jordan