Alligator II: The Mutation (1991)


Alligator was a humorous knockoff of Jaws with a giant alligator roaming the sewers of an unnamed city and snacking on anyone it could get its teeth on.  Written by John Sayles and directed by Lewis Teague, the movie featured a decent mechanical mockup of an alligator, tongue-in-cheek dialogue and great sense of fun.  At the end another alligator is flushed into the sewer.  These days that would be a signal that they were planning on a sequel but, back in the 1970s and 1980s, it was just a reminder that the problems just crop up again and again.

The movie was popular on cable and on regular television as well.  It was one of those b-movies that had staying power so, at some point, a sequel was bound to happen.  Predictably, when it did, it didn't differ much from the original movie.  However, it was nowhere near as much fun, despite the fact that everyone involved at least tried. 

David Hodges (Joseph Bologna) is a police officer known as El Solo Lobo by his colleagues and the community.  His wife Christine (Dee Wallace) is employed by a lab that often does work for the police department.  When two brothers go missing while night fishing in the lake in a local park and several homeless people are found dead the evidence begins to point toward an alligator attack.  At first it is dismissed but soon the evidence can't be denied.  Hodges's boss, Chief Speed (Brock Peters), allows him to unofficially investigate.

The investigation proves to be a problem for shady real estate investor Vinnie Brown (Steve Railsback), who is buying up homes in the area and has also been dumping toxic waste into the nearby sewers from a lab he owns.  He puts pressure on the mayor (Bill Daily) to get Hodges and a rookie cop named Rich Harmon (Woody Brown) fired for their efforts, but Chief Speed overrides that due to the emergency situation, while Harmon starts getting in good with the mayor's daughter Sheri (Holly Gagnier).  Vinnie also hires his own group, led by professional gator hunter Hawk Hawkins (Richard Lynch), to track down and kill the creature.

In typical sequel form the alligator is supposedly bigger and harder to kill than the original.  Problem is this movie appears to have less of a budget than its predecessor, to the point where a number of scenes, including of the gator, were recycled footage from Alligator.  The new scenes occasionally work, but many fail to convey the size that director Jon Hess would like.  I don't know if they built an actual mechanical model for this movie or just made bits and pieces to be filmed along with the actors it was supposed to be attacking.  The whole thing feels like it was made for the home video market, so much that I am surprised that isn't where it was initially released, as I don't remember a theatrical release for this movie. 

What does make up for some of the cheapness is Joseph Bologna's solid performance as well as Richard Lynch with his cod Cajun accent and pure bravado.  While Curt Allen's script is nowhere near as clever as John Sayles's, at least some of the people involved decided to have a bit of fun.  Steve Railsback for once pulls back a bit as Vinnie, making a convincing villain, while Dee Wallace and Holly Gagnier spend way too much time sidelined in this movie. 

It is still pretty much enjoyable, though it is too much like the first and there is a wrestling scene at Vinnie's club where a bunch of exposition goes down that just goes on way too long.  This film needed more alligator and more Richard Lynch and less attempts to stretch out the movie's length.  It's not a terrible sequel, but Hess deserved a bigger budget to really bring this to life. 

Alligator II: The Mutation (1991)
Time: 94 minutes
Starring: Joseph Bologna, Woody Brown, Richard Lynch, Dee Wallace, Holly Gagnier, Steve Railsback
Director: Jon Hess

 

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