Thanks to the success of Jaws, moviegoers were pelted with giant animal attack movies seemingly every week for years with results ranging from the sublime (namely Alligator and Piranha) to the ridiculous (Tintorera, Cruel Jaws) and everything in between like The Great Alligator, Killer Crocodile, and so on. One of the most baffling of these golden age entries is Crocodile, a rampaging croc extravaganza shot in Thailand but with involvement from South Korea and Hong Kong as well (and even some Japanese effects artists). Korean director Won-se Lee was brought in for principal photography on what was the film's initial form, Crocodile Fangs (Agowa gongpo), before it got picked up for international distribution including its most familiar iteration courtesy of the infamous Dick Randall (Pieces, Don't Open Till Christmas). Despite being pretty successful at the box office (and being credited to producer Sompote Sands as its director on English prints for some reason), this one has earned a reputation as one of the worst of its ilk -- though that's largely due to the fact that it's suffered from some of the most miserable transfers in home video history. In 2024, Synapse Films finally gave the film its first worthwhile release in any stateside video format, as a Blu-ray special edition initially available as an exclusive limited "nudie" slipcover edition sold directly by the label and Diabolik.

As the prologue before the disco-tastic main story asserts, man has been doing his damnedest to destroy nature and will keep paying the price as long as this behavior continues. In this case, tragedy first strikes two doctor buddies, Tony (Puvanai) and John (Oo), who are enjoyed a stay in Thailand with their wives. Both women are killed mysteriously while swimming, which leads to some scientific sleuthing that indicates the culprit was a giant crocodile affected by exposure to nuclear testing. Soon the gigantic croc is running loose destroying towns, chomping on tourists, and downing any water buffaloes in the area for dessert. The two men recruit local fisherman Tanaka (Asavatep) to head out to the open sea to deal with this scaly menace even if it means their own lives.

Even if you don't know the confusing backstory of this film, it's obvious that this dubbed production is the handiwork of several countries and has been tweaked a bit for its most widely seen version, the U.S. Dick Randall cut. You can find a rundown of the differences here, though they're all mostly minor structural adjustments apart from a total overhaul of the closing moments -- and weirdly, the Randall cut is way more downbeat than the original Thai cut. At least when you watch this Blu-ray from the original 35mm camera negative of the U.S. version, the film is goofy, bloody fun with some wild crowd attack scenes, adorable shots of miniature buildings and trees getting sliced up by a croc tail, a pretty merciless body count of all ages, and some highly amusing fashion choices including Tanaka's Cruising-style getup. On the downside there's a scene of reprehensible genuine crocodile killing stuck in here for no good reason apart from a cheap mondo-style shock, so you might want to hit the fast forward button when the knife comes out if you're sensitive.

As mentioned above, this Blu-ray is really the only way to watch this film and retain your sanity. The earlier U.S. DVD from VCI was horrific, a non-anamorphic "letterboxed" presentation that simply slapped a matte over an already brutally cropped transfer which some on-and-off squeezing throughout. The Blu-ray truly looks like a completely different film, and if you've avoided this one like the plague after squirming through an older DVD or VHS endurance test, it's worth giving this one another go here. The DTS-HD MA English 2.0 mono track sounds just fine given this isn't a terribly demanding track, with no issues to report; optional English SDH subtitles are also included. The late Lee Gambin, author of Massacred by Mother Nature: Exploring the Natural Horror Film, is an obvious choice to do commentary duties here as he could do an animal attack track like nobody else. He doesn't disappoint here with a very perceptive and entertaining guide through the tropes of eco-terror and animal monster movies, the visual signifiers here including a beautifully handled research scene, the simple joys of wild carnage scenes, and connections to lots of other pertinent nature revenge films like Orca and The Food of the Gods. A very enlightening video interview with director Won-se Lee (31m44s) clears up a lot of the questions about this film including when it was actually shot (1977, as it turns out), the challenges of doing a Thai-Korean co-production, his rapport with Sands, and the censorship issues the film faced including some odd snipes in the Korean version. Also included are the U.S. trailer (in scope and nice condition) and a batch of deleted and alternate scenes sourced from fullscreen SD: the original Thai ending (2m37s), "The Monkey and the Little Boy" (4m41s), "Extended Town Attack" (5m50s), "Crocodile Cruelty" (1m16s) which is exactly what you think it is, an alternate Spanish release ending (3m32s), and a completely nuts alternate international opening (4m15s) from a Greek VHS that you'll just have to see to believe.

SYNAPSE BLU-RAY

VCI DVD

Reviewed on July 13, 2024