Tag Line : It lives 30 feet beneath the city, it's 36 feet long weighs 2000 pounds....and it's about to break out!

Robert Forster plays detective David Madison, a tough Chicago cop who's trying to solve a series of grisly murders that have been taking place down in the city sewers. Several workers have mysteriously vanished and parts of them have been turning up at one of the city's filtration plants.

But as he is soon to discover, this is not simply a case of a maniac on the loose. After heading on down into the sewers with another officer, he finds the thing responsible for the recent slew of killings is in fact a giant alligator. It turns out this thing was flushed down the toilet as a baby, but has grown to gigantic proportions after eating the bodies of some dead dogs dumped down there by a nearby research facility that were pumped full of growth hormones.

At first the police chiefs don't believe his story about a giant alligator in the sewer, but after discovering the remains of a nosey newspaper photographer and finding the final pictures he shot, they realise Detective Madison was indeed telling the truth. So the fun begins as the SWAT teams head into the sewers, but the Alligator decides to break out and head into town, munching on unwary passers by. Police start combing the lakes and rivers and even enlist the help of an alligator hunter named Colonel Brock (Henry Silver), who only ends up serving as more gator bait.

Written by John Sayles, who also scripted "The Howling", this features some excellent scenes, from the swimming pool scene at the fancy dress party, to the wedding party massacre and the bit where it upturns the river police boat. Not to mention the "big budget" special effects scenes of (what is obviously) a small alligator on a scaled down set.

Gory, fun and action packed, this is highly enjoyable "vintage" early 80's horror fare.

Overall Marks : 7/10.

Other Information.

• Prior to this, Robert Forster was probably best known for his role as Captain Holland in "The Black Hole". He went onto appear in a string of B-movies, including "Vigilante", "Delta Force", "Maniac Cop 3" and "Scanners 2" before making a comeback as Bail Bondsman Max Cherry in Quentin Tarentino's "Jackie Brown". He's since starred in the 98 remake of "Psycho" and "Charlie's Angel's 2" as well as doing voice overs for the animated series of Spawn.

• The jokes in the script about the Detective Maddison's receding hairline were added by Robert Forster.

• The film was based on one of the old urban legends about full size Alligator's living down city sewers in the US.

• Director Lewis Teague also directed the Steven King adaptations "Cats Eye" and "Cujo", as well as the 1985 comedy "Jewel in the Nile".

• One of the groups of actors playing the SWAT team actually got arrested after someone saw them climbing out of the drains in their military style uniforms, carrying assault rifles, and reported it to the police.

• Although set in Chicago, the movie was actually filmed in Los Angeles.

• The graffiti on the sewer wall near the end of the film, where Robert Forster's character is climbing down into the sewers, saying "Harry Lime Lives" was a reference to the film "The Third Man", who was a character that was killed in a sewer.

Cast & Crew.

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