Killer Crocodile is a 1989 Italian natural horror film directed by Fabrizio de Angelis and starring Richard Anthony Crenna (son of Richard Crenna), Pietro Genuardi, Enio Girolami, John Harper, Sherrie Rose, Anne Buydens, Van Johnson, and Wohrman Williams. The film follows a group of environmentalists who must defend themselves against an abnormally large crocodile while investigating the illegal dumping of toxic waste in the swamp where the animal lives.
The film was shot back-to-back with its sequel Killer Crocodile 2, which featured the offspring of the previous film's croc causing havoc of its own.
No relation to the DC Comics character Killer Croc.
This film provides examples of the following tropes:
- Animal Lover: Deconstructed with the environmentalists. They are against killing of any kind and want the titular reptile taken alive, despite the fact that it's dangerously large and aggressive. This gets several of them killed and/or dismembered by the croc.
- Antagonist Title: The film's antagonist is an unusually large and aggressive crocodile mutated by toxic waste.
- Black-and-Grey Morality: The environmentalists are shown to be rather foolish on occasion, particularly when their Naïve Animal Lover stance earns them messy deaths at the crocodile's hands. At the same time, the Corrupt Corporate Executives responsible for dumping the toxic waste in the croc's habitat are clearly the villains in the whole situation, and ultimately do get their comeuppance at the end.
- Chekhov's Gun: Two unscrupulous gentlemen attempt to destroy the evidence about barrels of radioactive toxic waste that were dumped into the river where the movie takes place. One brought dynamite for this task, but he manages to plant only one piece of it before things go south and both men end up crocodile chow. The environmentalists pass the the explosive, but decide to deal with it later. Using dynamite to kill the crocodile in the inevitable climax ends up averted when they instead use something else that was featured prominently: the outboard motor on their boat.
- Deadly Rotary Fan: The environmentalists throw a boat propeller into the crocodile's mouth and turn it on, tearing the beast to shreds.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: It's a film about a group of people being terrorized by a killer crocodile.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: The film features a giant crocodile mutated by toxic waste eating anything it can (mostly people) on a stretch of South American river.
- Sequel Hook: At the end of the film, the main characters find the nest of the title creature and destroy its eggs. After the climax, the film ends with a scene that shows that one of the eggs survived, and a little croc hatches out of it. Since the film was shot back-to-back with its sequel, continuation to this set-up was delivered.
- Rage Breaking Point: After Joe is killed by the croc following the other environmentalists being forced to set up camp in its swamp when their boat's engine dies, Kevin finally loses it and sets out to kill the beast.
- Toxic Waste Can Do Anything: In this case, it causes a crocodile to become unusually large and aggressive.
- Violence Really Is the Answer: After it becomes clear just how dangerous the crocodile really is following Joe's death, Kevin abandons his previous stance on killing wildlife and sets out to put an end to the creature's rampage.
- The World's Expert (on Getting Killed): Surprisingly subverted when the resident Quint Expy survives his apparent death and shows up at the climax to help the protagonists kill the mutant crocodile.
