ALLIGATOR (1980)
Directed by Lewis TeagueStarring Robert Forster and Robin Riker
A giant alligator is chomping people in the sewers of Chicago. It seems that when a baby alligator was once flushed down a toilet, it mutated and grew into a monster alligator. It happens that a teenaged girl purchased the baby alligator while on vacation in Florida. After the little gator was flushed down the family's toilet by her father after they return home to Chicago it fed on covertly-discarded pet-corpses spiked with an experimental growth formula.
Super Alligator results, bringing with it a rash of killings. A cop (Forster) teams up with the now grown-up teenage girl who has become an alligator expert (Riker) to track down the creature. Add a tabloid reporter to the mix, and you get all the elements necessary for a bad horror movie. Naturally, an arrogant big-game hunter is eventually hired to track down and kill the animal, a la the shark hunter in "Jaws."
Lots of severed limbs and an amusing alligator attack on a wedding aren't enough to save this turkey, which is ultra-dated considering the monster effects being used today in film's such as "Dragon Wars."
This flick was popular in its time, then drifted out of print. In 2007, it was resurrected by Lionsgate with a remastered special edition DVD featuring some extras like an interview with the writer John Sayles.
A forgotten sequel was also made.