Plot

Psychotic redneck Judd owns a dilapidated hotel in rural East Texas, where he murders people who upset him or his business, and then feeds their remains to his large pet crocodile in the swamp beside his hotel.

Judd runs the Starlight Hotel out in some sort of swampy place and is unfortunately a few slices short of a loaf. He has a crocodile conveniently placed on the other side of the hotel's front porch railing. The croc will eat just about anything, as the hapless guests of the hotel find out soon enough. A reformed hooker, an unlucky family, and the father and sister of the hooker all suffer various rates of attrition as Judd tries to implement damage control.—Ed Sutton <esutton@mindspring.com>

In Huntsville, the new prostitute Clara refuses to do anal sex with the troublemaker Buck and the owner of the brothel, Miss Hattie, expels her in the middle of the night. She walks to the dilapidated Starlight Hotel, located nearby a swamp, and the owner named Judd lodges her. But Judd is a deranged man and when he notes that Clara is one of Miss Hattie's girls, he hunts her down with a pitchfork and gives her body to his pet crocodile that lives in the swamp. Then the dysfunctional couple Roy, who is a disturbed man, and Faye check in the hotel with their young daughter Angie to calm her down. Roy decides to kill the crocodile with his rifle, since Angie is scared because her dog Snoopy was eaten by the reptile. However, Judd throws Roy to his crocodile; ties up Faye to the bed; and hunts down Angie to give her to the crocodile. But the girl escapes and hides below the house. Soon Harvey Wood and his daughter Libby check in the hotel and shows a photo of Clara to Judd. He says that she would be probably one of Miss Hattie's girls and denies having seen her. Harvey and Libby visit Sheriff Martin and Libby says that her father had spent lots of money with private investigators searching for her sister Clara and now they are looking for her whereabouts together. They go to the brothel, but Miss Hattie denies seeing Clara. Harvey returns to the hotel while Libby goes to a bar for dinner with the Sheriff. But Judd continues his crime spree and Harvey is his next victim.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

After refusing a request from frisky customer named Buck (Robert Englund) who wants anal sex, the naive and inexperienced prostitute Clara Wood (Roberta Collins) is evicted from the town brothel by the madam, Miss Hattie (Carolyn Jones). Clara makes her way across the local swamp to a decrepit hotel, called the Starlight Hotel, to check into a room for the night where she encounters the scruffy and mentally disturbed proprietor Judd (Neville Brand) and his pet crocodile in the swamp beside the front porch. Upon realizing Clara was a prostitute, Judd attacks her while ranting and raving. When Clara tries to defend herself, Judd stabs her with a pitchfork and feeds her to the crocodile.

Some days later, a fractious couple, the outgoing Faye (Marilyn Burns) and her mentally disturbed husband Roy (William Finley), along with their young daughter Angie (Kyle Richards) arrive at the hotel to check in since they are driving across country. They soon experience the trauma of the Angie's persistently barking and overly curious pet dog being eaten by the crocodile. Faye and Roy take their daughter to their room to try and try to calm her down.

The insane Roy decides to shoot the crocodile with a shotgun for eating their dog, but Judd intervenes. During the struggle, Roy shoots Judd in his right leg, but it is revealed that Judd's right leg is a wooden prosthetic which he apparently lost years earlier when it was bitten off by his pet crocodile. Judd angrily stabs Roy with a scythe before he is attacked and devoured by the huge crocodile which breaks through the porch railing and swallows Roy whole.

After getting Angie to sleep, Faye goes into the bathroom for a bath, however she is interrupted by Judd who begins to beat her. Angie wakes up and runs from the hotel. However, Angie gets trapped underneath the hotel by Judd, who proceeds to tie up Faye in a vacant room where he spends the rest of the movie sexually fondling her while Angie remains trapped under the floorboards of the hotel.

That evening, Harvey Wood (Mel Ferrer) and his daughter Libby arrive at the Starlight Hotel seeking information on the whereabouts of Clara, Harvey's daughter who had run away from home several months earlier. Judd calmly denies having ever seen Clara when he is shown a photo of her. Never less, Harvey and Libby check into separate rooms and then leave to try and locate her at Miss Hattie's brothel.

Accompanied by Sheriff Martin (Stuart Whitman), Harvey and Libby question Miss Hattie, who lies to them by denying ever seeing Clara (apparently still angry over Clara upsetting her business). Harvey returns to the hotel while Libby stays in town to eat dinner with Sheriff Martin. When Harvey hears Angie's crying underneath the floorboards of the porch, he begins to investigate and is attacked by Judd who stabs him in the neck with his scythe. Judd then drags his dead body to the swamp to be eaten by the crocodile.

While Sheriff Martin and Libby are at the local bar having dinner and drinks, Martin kicks out Buck and his sluttish girlfriend Lynette (Janus Blythe) after a fight nearly breaks out between Buck and another local redneck barfly. The pair venture to the hotel, much to the annoyance of Judd who had already warned Buck to stay away from his land. While in their room to have sex, they hear Angie's cries for help. Buck goes to investigate and is pushed off the porch and into the swamp by Judd, where he is quickly eaten alive by Judd's crocodile. Lynette hears the commotion, and goes outside only to be chased by Judd and his scythe into the nearby swamps. She manages to get to a road where she flags down a passing car and gets away.

At the same time, Libby arrives back at the hotel and goes up to her room. Judd arrives back also, and opens up the gate for the crocodile to get in under the house so it can eat Angie. Meanwhile, Libby discovers Faye tied up in the room. After freeing her, the two women attempt to leave, however Judd chases them back upstairs where he wounds Faye with the scythe. Libby escapes out a window and begins to help Angie out of the swamp she has managed to get into to evade the crocodile. Judd throws the severely wounded Faye off a balcony and then he attempts to push Angie back into the swamp while struggling with Libby. But at the last second, Faye arrives and pushes Judd over the fence into the swamp, where he is devoured by his pet crocodile. Sheriff Martin arrives at the hotel minutes later to arrest Judd after being alerted by Lynette only to find the bloodied but alive Faye, and the shaken but unharmed Libby and Angie. All that is left of Judd is his prosthetic wooden leg floating in the swamp beside the hotel.