Bad CGI Gator from Full Moon Features certainly delivers on its title. There is a CGI gator and it does not look very good. Its Spring Break and six friends head where all college grads go to party; the swamplands of Georgia. An attempt at making a viral video turns a small gator into something far more dangerous.
Suffice to say, there are no twists or turns here. The film goes exactly the way expected. The audience gets to know the group over the first ten to fifteen minutes, before the Big Bad comes and wreaks havoc. It all takes place over the course of one night and Bad CGI Gator is over in right under an hour.
The brisk pace ensures that the ridiculous nature never loses its charm. Not every joke lands, but Bad CGI Gator is more about its wacky premise than witty comedy, anyway. And the monster never disappoints. Knowing that the joke of a poorly rendered alligator will quickly wear thin, writer Zalman Band and director Danny Draven make sure to add plenty of gore to keep things fresh.
Perhaps surprisingly, the characters are the highlight of Bad CGI Gator. They all fall into classic horror archetypes with a modern twist. Chad (Ben VanderMey) and Pearce (Cooper Drippe) are two over the top alpha males who are both hilarious and end up becoming more interesting than Hope (Maddie Lane) and Sam (Michael Bonini) who are positioned to be the heroes. Sarah Buchanan and Rebecca Stoughton also have some fun moments as the self-absorbed girlfriends of the bros.
Full Moon has spent decades delivering zany low budget horror movies to genre fans. Their latest offering takes a paper thin plot and makes it into something that is more fun than it has any right to be. Sometimes you just need some good entertaining fluff, and Bad CGI Gator is just that.
