Severin Films takes a chomp out of CRAWL with an earlier Italian killer croc film KILLER CROCODILE on Blu-ray.

A group of ecology students – rugged team leader Kevin (Richard Anthony Crenna, THE BLOB), studious Jennifer (Ann Douglas), perky Pam (Sherrie Rose, DOUBLE THREAT), weedy shutterbug Mark (Pietro Genuardi, HELL'S GATE), and diver Bob (John Harper) – are tracking rising levels of pollution in the swamps of an island off Santo Domingo and come across barrels of toxic waste among the reeds. When their local guide Conchita vanishes and later turns up in pieces, the only local law enforcement in the personage of the Judge (Van Johnson, THE SCORPION WITH TWO TAILS) tries to pin murder on them rather the possibility of a large crocodile suspected by local hunter Joe (Ennio Girolami, brother of Italian action director Enzo G. Castellari) lest anyone discover that he is being paid off by businessman Foley (Wohrman Williams, NIGHTMARE BEACH) to dump the waste. When the twenty-foot, scaly menace shows up and wipes out the dock while chomping on locals, the Judge and Joe are of the same mind about killing the creature while the students want to preserve the "unique specimen." When the students lose one of their own, however, Kevin goes against his own principals with a hunger for revenge on the beast.

Flatly directed by producer Fabrizio de Angelis (ZOMBIE) under the pseudonym "Larry Ludman," KILLER CROCODILE plays almost like a cross between JAWS and SCOOBY DOO for the first half with "meddling kids" threatening Foley's operation. Girolami is not much of a patch on Quint, and the finale turns him into a bit of a Yoda with his cry to apprentice hunter Kevin to "use the propeller." The crocodile creation of Giannetto de Rossi (THE BEYOND) and Paolo Ricci is quite a design advancement over the latter's collaboration with Carlo de Marchis (SLUGS) on THE GREAT ALLIGATOR a decade before, still moving unconvincingly and generating titters in close-ups but still technically more impressive (de Rossi also contributes some prosthetic gore but really not enough for a film with a torso-chomping crocodile). The film nevertheless trudges along between attacks, and the momentum of the action scenes is not at all helped by the possibly recycled, possibly reworked symphonic and electronic noodlings of Riz Ortolani (CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST) with a main theme that grates on the nerves. Apart from Johnson, everyone else appears to be dubbed, but performances are never more than competent. Crenna, son of Richard, would return in the sequel KILLER CROCODILE 2.

Unreleased in the United States or the U.K. despite direct-to-VHS releases of de Angelis' other "Larry Ludman" action flicks, KILLER CROCODILE was popular enough in Japan and Germany to warrant VHS and DVD releases which were the only options for English-speaking viewers. Severin's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray comes from a 2K scan of the original camera negatives and looks quite good when diffusion is not employed in the sunny exteriors. A handful of shots within the night exteriors look a tad gray in the black levels but that is not true of the entire film. The jungle greenery is lush and the crocodile's scaly surface has a tactile quality that unfortunately does not help it in other angles. English and Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono options are available. No complaints about the post-dubbed dialogue while the music levels were probably always uneven as if the post production technicians did not know how to effectively mix in Ortolani's cues. Optional English subtitles are provided for the Italian track and SDH subtitles for the English track.

As usual, Severin have supplied some generous extras with the help of Freak-O-Rama. In "The Fearless Crocodile Hunter" (23:23), actor Genuardi recalls saying yes to the offer without knowing what the film was about because of the opportunity to go to Santo Domingo and work with Richard Crenna's son. He recalls that a typhoon delayed the start of production by three days during which the cast bonded, de Angelis' temperament, the death of a crew member, and some of the happenings off-camera including a run-in with a drug dealer. "It Crawls" is an interview with cinematographer Federico Del Zoppo (15:08) who recalls shooting on locations with very little advanced preparation, including lighting and exposing daytime exteriors and trying to create a sense of depth, as well as photographing the crocodile.