Alligator (1980)

An urban legend comes to life in the comic thriller Alligator (1980). Boasting a screenplay by John Sayles, this R-rated indie flick tells the story of a teenaged Marisa Kendall (Leslie Brown) who made the fateful mistake of flushing her pet baby alligator down the toilet. Twelve years later, a huge and hungry human-eating alligator reappears via Chicago’s sewers. As (bad) luck would have it, Slade Laboratories was running secret growth hormone experiments on canines and tossing their corpses into the sewer system. Since Marisa’s rapacious reptile snacked on these Chicago dogs, it grew into a brutal monster — which now feeds on Windy City natives. As such, Detective David Madison (Robert Forster) is put on the case to search for the beast. Forster’s character actually inspired Quentin Tarantino to create Max Cherry (played by Forster) in Jackie Brown (1997). As for the motion picture at hand, Detective Madison eventually locates the killer but the scoundrel is of a scalier sort. Along the way, we encounter Chief Clark (Michael V. Gazzo), Slade (Dean Jagger), Colonel Brock (Henry Silva), and another Marisa Kendall (Robin Riker). Now that she’s grown up, the alligator-flusher has grown out and she’s a pleasure to view — especially when she bares her nude boobs in bed! The movie also includes Angel Tompkins, Bart Braverman, Jack Carter, and the final film appearance by Sue Lyon of Lolita (1962) fame. Since the direct-to-video sequel Alligator II: The Mutation (1991) was released, we’ve been waiting with masturbated breath for Alligator III!