Alligator

Giant animal horror, with a tiny slice of kaiju fun. The first half of Alligator plays like a pretty basic but serious dangerous animal-on-the-loose horror film. But then director Teague seemed to realize that wasn't much fun, and he sends his film completely off the rails. The result is a little baffling, but not terrible.

A tiny little alligator ends up in the New York sewer system. Without light and food, he is destined to die down there, but some cast away lab animals cause him to thrive and grow beyond his normal size. Twelve years later, he's ready to take on New York and have some good old human meat for lunch.

The first half is a little dim, but once the awkward animal hunter shows up and the beast breaks free from the sewers, all hell breaks loose. The second half is daft and completely nonsensical (gratuitous explosions included), but it's certainly a lot more fun than the more serious first half. It's a shame Teague didn't go rogue from the very start.