- Director
- Lewis Teague
- Year
- 1980
- Country
- USA
- Runtime
- 87 min
Also released as
- Der Killer-Alligator
- La bestia bajo el asfalto
- El cocodrilo mortal
- L'incroyable alligator
- Alligator: O Jacaré Gigante
Filed under
Alligator
A baby alligator flushed down a toilet grows huge on discarded lab animals in the sewers. John Sayles wrote it and it is a delight.
A pet alligator, flushed away years earlier, has survived in the Chicago sewers, feeding on the corpses of animals dosed with an experimental growth hormone, and is now the size of a bus and coming up through the pavements.
John Sayles, again, wrote it as a knowing, sharp genre picture: the urban-legend premise played straight, a cynical cop, and a satirical streak about the pharmaceutical company whose dumped experiments caused the whole thing.
Lewis Teague directs it with real energy, and the film is far wittier than its premise, with the alligator crashing a wealthy garden wedding as its class-conscious set piece.
Robert Forster is excellent as the balding, weary detective.
It is one of the best of the Jaws-and-Piranha creature cycle and its script is the reason.
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The sleeves
The same film, sold as a different film in each territory. Click any of them.
Where to watch
Australia
Canada
Germany
UK
USA
Legal sources only. Availability data from JustWatch via TMDB.
Checked 10 Aug 2026
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