High Concept Gator Attack Film The Flood (2023) Streams Placidly

Title: The Flood

First Non-Festival Release: July 14, 2023 (Theatrical Release)

Director: Brandon Slagle

Writer: Chad Lw, Josh Ridgway

Runtime: 93 Minutes

Starring: Casper Van Dien, Nicky Whelan, Louis Mandylor

Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here

A prison bus makes a stop at a small-town jail to wait out a category 4 hurricane. Among the charges is cop killer Russell Cody (Casper Van Dien) who is unknowingly about to be rescued by his buddies from his last job. Sheriff Jo Newman (Nicky Whelan) is doing everything in her power to keep the peace and group alive when the mercenaries arrive until they are forced to work together when an unexpected infestation of alligators descends upon the station.

Barely above Syfy Original Quality, low quality gator mayhem makes The Flood feel more like a trickle.

Dumb creature features can be a fun way to kill time and enjoy a little bit of brainless entertainment, and The Flood almost fits the bill. A particularly rough cold open sets the tone, perfectly encapsulating the issues with the film from the get-go. Two paper thin characters seek shelter in the rapidly growing storm before unceremoniously getting eaten by an unprovoked alligator. Little buildup, no suspense, and an egregious lack of resourcefulness from the victims make the encounter more tedious than frightening. This is what is sadly in store for the remainder of the film.

The intensity of the situation is blunted by under emotive performances that make the viewer question is there even a gator stalking them. It’s wild how non-reactive the crew is when they accept the fact that they are pursued by several gators inside their crumbling shelter. Writing can be blamed for the baffling behavior of the various police officers, prisoners, and vigilantes, but the lack of urgency shines through in the direction and acting. Most of the cast tends to react with the flattest indifference vocally while flailing about, clearly unsure of where the eventual computer-generated beast will materialize. Nicky Whelan and Louis Mandylor give the best performances from the group but still fail to make their actions feel genuine. They aren’t helped by a constant lingering camera that cannot seem to cut off a scene at the opportune time, making their reactions look delayed and dull.

Poor design choices plague the film, making the already dreary script even more leaky. Nearly everything in the set looks fake. From the dilapidated office equipment to the poorly rendered alligator cgi, it brings down the believability, and thus quality, of the film significantly. At a certain point, it is almost laughable how the group end up in possibly the most underfunded police facility in the United States, somehow with multiple stories of depressingly barren office space and storage.

While it never rises to the occasion of its admittedly fun premise, The Flood manages to craft several squirm-in-your-seat sequences. There are only so many ways to make an alligator stalk, attack, and eat its prey. The moments where The Flood shines most are when they effectively remove the gator from the audience’s line of sight. This is most epitomized in the holding cell scene where only one flimsy door separates the beasts from the survivors. Suspense soaks the air as the group must climb up a makeshift rope of clothes to an air duct to avoid the rising water and evade capture by their unwelcome reptilian foes.

There is something to be said about having tempered expectations for a film, and The Flood is no different. The Flood is meant to be harmless popcorn fun and there is nothing wrong with that. Still, even B-movies need to be made with care. Its derivative script, flaccid performances, and rough visual effects drag the film down to a place that its occasional hilarious line of dialogue or intense set piece can’t fully save it from itself. Marginally fun and frustratingly short of being a good film, The Flood is best enjoyed by those who are here for mindless gator chaos and are content with whatever they get.

Overall Score? 4/10