Giant and mutated
monsters have been around for as long as the Atomic bomb of Gojira (1954) signaled a cultural change
for an entire nation. Then of course
came Them (1954), Food of the Gods (1976), and Tarantula (1955), to name a few but when
people tired of the giant monster craze it faded into obscurity and became
nothing more than cannon fodder but then writer John Sayles and director Lewis
Teague unleashed Alligator (1980)
upon an unsuspecting audience and became a huge hit as it took an urban myth
and turned it into an urban nightmare.
It was a little more than a decade when the sequel Alligator II: The Mutation (1991) saw the light of day and was also
a film that had a lot more to say than just being a giant alligator on the
loose film.
The plot of this film is very similar to the original as
people start to disappear in a small city whose lake is connected to the sewer
system. A lone cop David Hodges (Joseph
Bologna) is the only one who believes that the deaths of some homeless people
and some minority fisherman are linked and that the city may be facing a bigger
and more aggressive alligator than anyone has ever seen. Add to the fact that local land developer
Vinnie Brown (Steve Railsback) is holding a fair that will put their city on
the map as long as there are no problems and Hodges has more problems than he
really needs. There are also shades of
government corruption and manipulation and minority race relations thrown in to
add more political intrigue to the story but the real star of this film is the
giant mutated alligator that has been exposed to radioactive waste and really
just wants to eat everything in its sight.
The Mutation may
seem like a pale comparison to the original but there is a lot going for this
film as Bologna proves time and time again that he is an actor that can be both
serious and funny when he needs to be as there are many funny moments in the
film especially with his interactions with his wife Christine (Dee Wallace) and
his rookie partner Harmon (Woody Brown).
There is also the “great alligator hunter” in the form of Richard Lynch
(always a pleasure to behold) and you throw them all together and you have one
hell of an entertaining film that’s quite
engaging considering the retread of a plot from the original (and
various other giant monster films out there).
