Arrow Video FrightFest wouldn’t be FrightFest without a creature feature. Paul W. Franklin’s Croc! helps to fill this year’s quota. Set in a Tudor Mansion, Franklin’s film pits a wedding party against an angry crocodile.
If the premise sounds a little silly, it’s because it is. Franklin has teamed up with producers Scott Jeffrey and Rhys Waterfield who have steadily been building up a catalogue of films that Asylum films would be envious of. The b-movie trappings of Croc! are important to highlight as those expecting something akin to Crawl or Rogue will be very disappointed. Though not quite as silly or over-the-top as Sharknado, Croc! definitely skews towards the funnier side of horror. Characters frequently make ill-advised decisions, often with hilarious consequences, making Croc! a great film to shout at with a like-minded crowd.
Whereas some creature features like to make their audience wait before revealing the animal menace, Croc! dives right in. The opening sequence sees a couple’s camping getaway cut short as they get devoured by the crocodile. A first-scene massacre is a common trait of genre films; it quickly communicates to the audience that there will be blood. This bloody opening is followed by one of the more confusing moments in the film. The scene in question features a tour around the wedding grounds, which culminates in some old-school gratuitous nudity, for seemingly no reason at all. With time jumping forwards six months immediately afterward, and one of the couple never seen again, it’s an odd scene that just hangs there without connection.
After these odd beginnings, introductions are made to the wedding party, which is riddled with contradictions and tropes. There’s the expected love triangle and the allusion to a pregnancy, the overbearing bride, and the uninterested groom. All work as shortcuts to the characters’ motivations and their future decision-making, but tell us nothing about who they really are. Having characters made from stock stereotypical personality types has long been a convention of film, especially horror, but when we are meant to root for these characters, it becomes hard if they’re purely one-dimensional.
There are plenty of other issues with the story itself. The story is set in England, a place not conventionally known for its crocodile population, and yet no attempt is ever really made to explain its presence. Were that to be the only niggle then it would be okay, however, this is just the tip of the iceberg. The most glaring issue is that our couple, Lisa (Sian Altman) and Charlie (George Nettleton), clearly come from money and yet the posh mansion they hire for their wedding appears to have no staff. With the exception of the Vicar, there is no other staff present at all. It seems very odd that an establishment that regularly does weddings would have no one working it. Furthermore, given the fact that it’s a working venue, and with the audience having already seen a crocodile on the grounds, why haven’t there been more attacks? Given the kind of film that Croc! is, it is best not to dwell on these plot holes too much, but once such thoughts enter the mind, they are hard to shake.
The effects demonstrate the super-tight budget nature of the production. Sadly the appearance of the titular crocodile doesn’t capture the imagination as it should. It screams low-budget b-movie effects, but sometimes that is part of the charm of these films. Seeing awkwardly rendered limbs being ‘eaten’ by the prehistoric predator only builds into the fun factor. When joined by the right party of viewers, these elements will get more cheers than grimaces, making it a great choice for the FrightFest crowd.
Croc! might not be a contender for the film of the year, but much like Sharknado and its Asylum brethren, it entertains with its silliness. Some of this does wane around the middle, as attention suddenly turns to the unformed characters. Here the film loses all momentum, and once the pace has stalled, Croc! struggles to find its feet again, eventually limping, rather than leaping, over the finish line.
Britain’s answer to American giant Asylum has churned out yet another low-budget, but oddly entertaining, tale of carnage. Not one for those that need their characters layered and plot ironclad and free of holes, with the right frame and mind and crowd, Croc! has the potential to be a silly but fun way to waste eighty minutes.
Croc!
Summary
The b-movie trappings of Croc! will help win around an audience that will have to battle through a lot of plot and character issues.
Croc! was reviewed at Arrow Video FrightFest 2022.
