Director: Brandeis Berry
Year: 2016
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Investigating a series of animal encounters, a wildlife agent and the members of the local police force trying to figure out the bizarre bits of evidence keeping them from announcing everything as crocodile attacks realize the connection might be human instead and try to stop it from attacking locals nearby.
Review:
This was a rather fun genre effort with a lot to like about it. One of the finest features here is the highly enjoyable setup that brings about a great small-town feel. The dueling storylines where it deals with the residents of the town trying to go through their lives including the group of guys trying to flirt with the local girls in town, the deputy trying to show the new sheriff around and the wildlife expert trying to make inroads on the neighbors who are not sure of her qualifications o do her job. These combinations of interlocking storylines keep everything moving along quite nicely in the first half where the scenes of setting this one in motion by providing these storylines early enough.
That all gives the multitude of cheesy creature attacks to have a sense of goofy fun to it. By keeping it serious enough while generating a fun time with the cheesy looks of the creature, there's some fun to this one with the opening ambush on the victim by the water, a later sequence where it grabs an unsuspecting fisherman, and the lake attack on the partygoers where it grabs the couple in front of the others. While it comes down quite a bit in the finale where the gator isn't really a big focus as it switches to a different villain, this one does bring about a fine sense of brutality that is a different type of atmosphere altogether as everything goes for a brutal serial killer slasher effort to go along nicely with the cheesy croc effects present to give this some generally likable aspects.
There are some issues to be had with this one. One of the biggest letdowns with this one is the utterly unnecessary sidestory about the secondary villain being a part of the film which just doesn't really need to be here. This inclusion doesn't come off as integrated well into the film in the first place as these scenarios helping to build it up just don't make sense as the clues are just hamfisted into this it drags the pacing down but also introduces a concept that doesn't need to be there. The other drawback with this one is the lousy characters for the trapped group of friends on the island which is incredibly frustrating to look at as they're completely unnatural and keep the group in danger because of their stupidity which just makes it hard to root for them. These manage to hold it down the most.
Overview: **.5/5
A generally solid enough indie creature feature that's got enough to like despite its flaws, this one has quite a lot to hold it up even though its flaws are pretty big and bring it down quite a bit. Give it a shot if you're a fan of this type of indie creature feature or appreciate the creative crew while only those who don't like any of these factors should heed caution with this one.
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