CROC
Directed by: Paul W. Franklin
Staring: Sian Altman, George Nettleton, Mark Haldor, Antonia Whillans, Chrissie Wunna, Stephen Staley, Beatrice Fletcher, Chris Cordell
Lisa King's dream wedding becomes a horrific nightmare, when she, her fiance and wedding guests become prey for a rampaging crocodile at their wedding venue, an English stately manor!
Croc is a relatively low-budget creature feature but it approaches its material with a mix of gusto and a straight bat, and has one hell of a hook which I did not see coming.
No one on Earth would be expecting a rampaging crocodile lurking in the grounds of a country manor, one which is lending itself out as a wedding venue. It is suck an outlandish idea but the film just shrugs and says, "hey, deal with it".
Even with the prologue, I assumed that I was witnessing two British characters abroad as the film establishes its lurking threat. In fact, that prologue is set in the same place as the rest of the film.
Croc doesn't waste much time either. It knows what people are wanting to see - people getting chomped. After a spin through a party set the night before the wedding (which has some drama of its own) its not long before we have our first victim (post prologue).
Being a low-budget horror, Croc unfortunately doesn't have a lot of money to spend on special effects. So, the killler croc itself is a CGI rendered beast. Having said that, its not a bad model and is animated quite well. One of the things I did like was that the film allows the croc to act like one - there is at least one scene where we see it gripping its victim in its mouth and rolling over and over, which is the crocodile and alligator's kill technique.
One of the other points in the film's favour is the human drama it manages to develop, albeit not as deep as I'd have liked. It turns out that Charlie, Lisa's fiance and very soon-to-be husband, is a bit of a heel and has a roving eye on the eve of his wedding. He is with Georgie when she is killed by the croc and his clothes get covered in blood. This could have led to an interesting turn of events where Georgie's body is discovered and Charlie pegged for her murder, but instead the croc attacks the wedding ceremony itself.
This leads to some good carnage (lots of people tripping in front of the croc and inexplicably can't get up again before being chomped), and splitting up the cast into smaller dynamic groups. The discovery of Charlie's infidelity is therefore a bit rushed.
THE VERDICT
CROC is a well-made, low budget film which makes good use of its location. The cast work well together and there is a very high bodycount, making this a perfect "beer and pizza" movie. There are times when things get a bit repetitive but overall this was a lot of fun to watch and the film definitely gets points for playing the absurdity of the situation with a totally straight bat.