When Mother Nature rebels against humankind for defying her laws, she strikes back with unbelievable fury creating the largest and most savage crocodile on earth… There is a giant crocodile on the loose! Mutating and getting larger possibly because of an atomic explosion, the crocodile’s thirst for blood also grows as it rampages through a small quiet beach town devouring anything in its path. Dr. Akom and Dr. Stromm are on a perfect family vacation, but it takes a tragic turn when three of their loved ones suddenly disappear. When the bodies are found, the two doctors conduct a thorough examination of the remains and discover a killer crocodile is the culprit. Teaming up with Tanaka, a tough and rugged fisherman, Akom and Stromm head out to dangerous open waters to find and destroy the beast once and for all! This killer croc classic, originally filmed in 1978 as Crocodile Fangs (Agowa gongpo), was released in slightly different versions all around the world during its theatrical run. Synapse Films is proud to present the Blu-ray world-premiere of Crocodile in its original U.S. release version, meticulously restored from the original English 35mm camera negative.

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Video Quality

Crocodile comes to Blu-Ray courtesy of Synapse Films in its original 2.35:1 sourced from an impressive 4K restoration of the original English 35mm camera negative. The new transfer shows off a world of depth and enhanced detail that you may not have thought was possible with this material. There are elements like close-up shots of the killer crocodile that look humorously low-rent in execution. The transfer reveals wonderful clarity when it comes to other elements such as the textures on the outfits and in the landscape. The film impresses with a favorable amount of natural grain retained. There are few moments when things seem clumpy or swarm around the frame, as this encoding ensures things are nicely resolved.

Black levels are fairly deep with minimal black crush and compression artifacts, although some shots can verge on appearing a bit milky. The contrast is capably defined with highlights not appearing overly bright, and print damage has been cleaned up tastefully save for a few stray specks. This presentation is an amazing effort from the label that should make fans of this creature feature very happy. The photography captures the array of landscapes with great precision. This transfer serves as a solid presentation for the film.

Audio Quality

This Blu-Ray comes with a DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mono track in English with optional English SDH subtitles. From what we gather, this was originally a Thai production that has been recut and dubbed in English. Dialogue can be a bit fuzzy and obviously out of sync with the mouths, but it rarely suffers at the hands of any competing sounds. The film has plenty of cheesy dialogue, but much of the narrative is building tension for the creature with tense environmental effects.

The source material of the production was not at the highest end of the spectrum of quality, but things resonate just fine. Environmental effects and the music are typically separated enough to avoid buried information. The film employs some twisted sound effects during creature-based moments that are given the appropriate weight within the mix. Considering the overdubbing and overall age of the material, this audio track does everything it can to provide a nice experience. Special Features

Audio Commentary: Film Historian Lee Gambin provides a great commentary track in which he critically analyzes the film, explores how it fits into the eco-horror subgenre, details the background of the performers in the film, talks of the legacy of the film, and much more that makes this a valuable listen.
Video Interview with Original Crocodile Fangs Director, Won-se Lee: A 32-minute interview in which the filmmaker discusses the production of the film, how the film came about, the difficulties of filming in Thailand, working with an international cast, the reason some scenes were cut from the film, the special effects for the film, and more.
Original Theatrical Trailer: The nearly three-minute trailer is provided here.

Deleted and Alternate Scenes: An array of unused footage is provided in rough form.

- Original Thai Ending (2:37)

- The Monkey and the Little Boy (4:41)

- Extended Town Attack (5:50)

- Crocodile Cruelty (1:16)

- Alternate Spanish Release Ending (3:32)

- Alternate International Opening (4:15)

Final Thoughts

Crocodile is a schlocky, cobbled-together creature feature that amuses in its limitations. There is no shame in how the filmmakers forced perspective to make this crocodile appear to be a massive killing machine, but we have come too far to not at least acknowledge the seams. The plot is very straightforward with inconsistent performances made worse by the dubbed voices. It is a fun enough time, but it is not great cinema by any means. Synapse Films has released a Blu-Ray featuring a strong A/V presentation and an array of special features that enhance the package.

Crocodile is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Synapse Films has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.