Director: Steve Lawson
Year: 2021
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Alligator/Crocodile
Plot:
Arriving on a Japanese-controlled island, a team of British soldiers is sent in trying to locate the source of a potential weapons cache stockpiled in the area, but as they attempt to complete their mission find it compromised by the island’s man-eating crocodiles and must escape alive from the creatures.
Review:
This was a rather decent and enjoyable creature feature. Among the more noteworthy features of this one is the setup involving the group on the island in the middle of the war. As there’s a lot of fun to be had with the group hiking through the woods on their secret mission, trying to find their way across the area, the setup involves the group covertly going through the swamp with their prejudices constantly fouling up their chances at the mission. This naturally progresses rather well as the crocs enter the picture to take them out one by one alongside their attacks on the Japanese team, providing this with a fine setup.
There’s also the fun of the film going through a series of fun creature attacks that take place. Focusing mainly on the true-to-life ability of the creatures to pop up unexpectedly out of the water and grab their victim before dragging them screaming into the water, the straightforward approach allows for a series of shock ambushes. From the opening ambush on the patrolling officer, the group getting attacked in the middle of the swamp, or the big finale featuring the crocodiles coming onto shore to attack in the swamplands, there’s a lot of fun, short-form creature attacks which have some great gore, and give this a lot to like overall.
There are some issues to be had with this one. The main drawback to this one is the series of unnecessary storylines here that keep the action off the crocodiles. The idea of trying to sow racial discord within the group, with the one officer trying to do everything he can to prove the Indian is not to be trusted and continually pointing out everything he’s doing as being shady, is certainly fine in theory, but goes on way too long past the point it’s trying to make. This is much like the endless exposition scenes discussing their background stories, which go on for so long, the film’s forced to keep the croc action to the brief snippets here.
As well, this leads into the film’s other issue, where there’s no real clear conclusion to this one. It tends to end here with no real sense of tension or clear resolution, as the need for a post-action epilogue mentioning what happened afterward manages to make the action seem pointless and unnecessary due to this setup. The last minor drawback is the film’s lack of crocodile action, showcasing the real-world footage of the creatures, which is so obviously inserted into the film since the backgrounds never match up properly and become quite noticeable. Otherwise, this one was pretty enjoyable, even with these flaws.
Overview: ***/5
An immensely enjoyable if slightly flawed killer croc film, there’s a lot to like here as it gets plenty of worthwhile features that can hold it up over a couple of issues that keep it down. Those with an interest in this kind of genre fare or who are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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