Category: Full Moon Fridays
Love it or hate it, computer-generated imagery or CGI has been a tool in filmmaking for decades that won't go away. While CGI had been experimented on since the 50s, the technology wasn't fully realized until the early 90s. Blockbusters like Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Jurassic Park revolutionized visual effects and showed what CGI could do. However, even as the technology continued to grow, there's always been some pushback by people who found the effects unrealistic. This isn't helped by how most movies made in the last 20 years have mainly used digital effects. Plenty of low-budget studios crank out movies with intentionally poor digital effects, most notably The Asylum with their Sharknado series. Wanting to capitalize on this trend, Charles Band's son Zalman wrote a screenplay based around a digital lizard. With Danny Draven directing, Bad CGI Gator premiered on Full Moon's streaming service in late 2023.
%
Rating
Synopsis
College grads Chad (Ben VanderMey), Sarah (Rebecca Stoughton), Pearce (Cooper Drippe), and Paisley (Sarah Buchanan) are celebrating Spring Break. They rent a cabin in the Georgia bayou along with buzzkill Sam (Michael Bonini) and Chad's sister Hope (Maddie Lane). To try to go viral on social media, Sarah leads the others in throwing their school laptops into the lake. Little do they know that a miniature digital alligator starts growing when it comes in contact with their computers. As the group continues drinking and trying to get lucky, the gator lurks outside, looking for its next victim. Before long, the gator eats the college grads one by one, with those left scrambling for a way out. While the gator moves around unnaturally, flies through the air, and continues growing, our heroes try to stay together. It's terror rendered too cheaply when our heroes face the Bad CGI Gator!
Review
If nothing else, Bad CGI Gator lives up to its title: it's got a gator made from bad CGI. Like Cocaine Bear, the movie gives you exactly what the title promises, so you can't accuse it of false advertising. Unfortunately, that's where anything positive I can say about this movie ends since it doesn't have much else to offer. Aside from its titular gimmick, this is another feeble excuse for a film that Full Moon seems fine with releasing. For one, this barely qualifies as a movie since its runtime is just slightly under an hour. Granted, I'm glad they didn't add pointless filler to increase the length artificially, but it's still worth pointing out. It feels like Charles and Zalman had an idea for something that could be amusing but didn't think much further. Well, at least father and son are working on movies together.
The cast seems to follow the Eli Roth school of acting, which means being as unlikeable as possible. I'm sure they're trying to make fun of younger generations obsessed with social media, but it falls flat. Just because most of these characters are going to die doesn't mean they should speak only in stereotypical bro talk. It doesn't help that almost everyone plays their part as if they're in a comedy, which often doesn't work. It's much funnier when the cast acts like they're in a serious drama, contrasting with the silliness around them. Michael Bonini plays the stereotypical nerdy guy, but he is more like a football player trying to be a loser. My favorite character in the movie is Hope, played effectively by Maddie Lane, who seems just as annoyed as me. Thankfully, she's one of the few survivors, so the movie's got that going for it.
Despite my criticisms and issues with the film, this is one of those movies that's almost critic-proof. Much like the Sharknado series or movies like Llamageddon, this was intentionally made as a bad movie. While there's undoubtedly an audience for this kind of bad movie, I'm not part of that audience. To me, the best bad movies are the accidentally bad ones, either due to incompetence or the filmmakers not caring. For example, The Room is infinitely more entertaining despite being poorly made, horribly written, and badly acted. You can tell Tommy Wiseau tried making a great drama but failed in the best way possible due to incompetence. Danny Draven's film may provide a few laughs, but it will be quickly forgotten within a month or two. Overall, Bad CGI Gator has nothing much going for it besides a funny title and a cheesy gimmick.
Watch Bad CGI Gator on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3uQUo3c.
Disclosure: The above link is an affiliate link, which means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.