User Reviews

This was a movie that I got the chance to see thanks to Laura from Scandal Coactive. This was a Full Moon film that when I saw the title, I knew this was going to be outrageous. Without watching this, I had a feeling this would be in line with the modern Full Moon films, which I'm not always the biggest fan of. I'm still shocked that I got the chance to review movies from this company so I jumped on the chance.

Synopsis: six college students get a cabin in the swamplands of Georgia. They decide to throw their school laptops in a nearby lake in an act of youthful defiance, which unknowingly turns an alligator into a dreaded and insatiable CGI creature.

We start this off with Jim (Lee Fealy) seeing a sign about not fishing in this lake. He ignores it, pulling it out of the ground and dropping it in the water. The reason is that there is an alligator living here. He sees the animal and it's not big. He makes a comment about it needing to get bigger.

It is then that we meet our group of characters. They are coming to Chad's (Ben VanderMey) uncle's cabin. With him is his best friend, Pearce (Cooper Drippe) and his stepsister Hope (Maddie Lane). Chad and she do not get along. It was Hope's mother wanting them to be friends so she was pushed to come. Chad also brings his girlfriend, Sarah (Rebecca Stoughton). She is best friends with Pearce's girlfriend of Paisley (Sarah Buchanan). Also with them is Sam (Michael Bonini). He is bullied by the group, but he has a crush on Hope.

Paisley and Sarah want to be influencers. They don't bring much to the table in sticking out with their content. It is generic. Them along with Chad and Pearce are 'typical Gen-Z' and annoying. Sam wants to fit in, but he's a nice guy. Hope is also different from the rest of the group.

As the synopsis said, Sarah comes up with an idea of tossing all their laptops in the lake for a TikTok. Sam doesn't want to do this as he has short stories he's written on his, but he succumbs to peer pressure. Hope refuses. The batteries from the computers create an electrical current that changes this alligator into a large monster. It can also now float. It traps our group in the cabin and picks them off one by one.

That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I'll start is that runs under an hour long. We don't get much in the way of character development, but we also don't need this. This gives us enough set up until the alligator gets changed. It is from there that our characters are then killed off until the climax.

Now that I've given that, this is a comedy first. This is also a movie that we are meant to dislike all the characters except for Hope and Sam. She is the most 'normal' woman of the group and thinks for herself. Sam wants to fit in with the jocks, but the more we see how he is treated, that might not be the case. This feels like a throwback to the 1980s, just using modern slang for Pearce, Chad, Paisley and Sarah. They feel like stereotypical jerks. It makes sense why we're rooting for the monster.

I did want to then pull in the acting here. Despite my not liking most of the cast, they do what they're supposed to for their characters. Buchanan, Stoughton, VanderMey and Drippe are all good looking. They fit the characters they're supposed to be. They also get a response out of me which is what I ask for when it comes to acting so this is well done. If I was going to blame anything, it would be the writing to not give them any depth. This is supposed to be a popcorn movie so it is fine. I thought that Lane and Bonini are solid though as our heroes. Fealy is also fine in his minor role. If anything, I wish they would have brought him back in the end. Not a major issue though, it would just be a fitting way to end it.

There isn't more to say about the story or acting so let's finish with filmmaking. If you couldn't tell from the title, the alligator is all CGI. It adds to the comedy, I'll give it that. My problem though is that this is trying to intentionally be a bad movie. I'm not a fan of that. I know there are those that are. I'm not the target audience. I did think that the practical aftereffects of attacks was solid. The cinematography was fine. I did love the setting. It is also funny that the cabin is owned by the type of person that it is. That adds comedy there and makes sense with the weapons they find. Other than that, the soundtrack was fine. It did fit with the vibe of the movie.

In conclusion, this is a fun, low budget shut off your brain type movie. This leans into being absurd. I did think that this was fine in the sense that we have a group of mostly unlikable characters to kill off. The CGI here is intentionally bad. The bright spot would be the setting and the cinematography there. I'm not the target audience though. If you want a movie that is bad on purpose, I'd recommend this especially with friends and drinks. This also feels in line with today's Full Moon films.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 10.

It lives up to its title with the absolutely worst CGI, I have ever seen in my lifey, progressively worsening in each scene. The deliberate horridness of the effects becomes a bizarre delight.

The characters are intentionally unlikable, ensuring a guilt-free thrill as they fall prey to the PS1 Lara Croft's worst nightmare.

Dark humor is top notch and sticks around to the very last moments.

However, the anticlimactic ending left me disappointed. While the whole movie is built upon cheese, taking "so bad it's good" to its ultimate form, the boring conclusion feels like "so bad it's just bad".

Of course with a title such as "Bad CGI Gator", then this movie was without a doubt a movie that I just had to sit down and watch. And when I saw that it was Full Moon Features that made the movie, my expectations went from none to some. Needless to say that I had never heard about the movie, prior to stumbling upon it by random chance.

The storyline is pretty straightforward, if not actually rather generic, for a movie about young people at a lakeside resort where a killer alligator is prowling. The movie never does take itself overly serious, so writer Zalman Band did actually put together a script and storyline that proved to be making fun of itself and being super cheesy, and that made it all the more fun to watch.

I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list, and that is something I enjoy when I sit down to watch a movie. And I will say that they had a good cast ensemble, despite the fact that I didn't like most of the characters at all. But they performed quite well in bringing the characters to life on the screen.

The majority of the character gallery in "Bad CGI Gator" is really horrible, but I mean that in a good way. I am sure that writer Zalman Band did that on purpose; making the characters into caricatures of today's youth, with their pathetic addiction to social media and mobile phones, and the way they talk and act. The only two non-annoying characters in the movie was Sam (played by Michael Bonini) and Hope (played by Maddie Lane). So thumbs up to Zalman Band for that accomplishment.

Just as the majority of the characters were insanely annoying, as was their dialogue. No surprise there. But again, thumbs up to writer Zalman Band for that accomplishment.

You get to see a lot of things that you never have seen before, nor thought you would ever get to see, such as an alligator instantaneously grow in size because it gets electrocuted, a flying alligator, an alligator swallowing a grown adult in on gulp, an alligator burping.

The title of the movie delivers exactly what it promises, because the CGI animated alligator looks bad. But it is so bad that it is campy, fun and goofy to look at. And you can't help but laugh at how bad it actually looks.

"Bad CGI Gator" is a movie that is campy and cheesy enough to actually make for a fun viewing. However, you're not in for anything grand here. Nor is it a movie that warrants more than just a single viewing.

My rating of director Danny Draven's 2023 movie "Bad CGI Gator" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Yes, the title didn't lie, there's a bad, very bad CGI gator, but there's also bad... But very, very bad everything else.

I watched this crap thinking that they would do a comedy or a parody of some sort, hell no!... It wasn't funny at all.

Not even to say, it's so bad is good. This is so bad that it's irritating.

I think that this current generation is so used to TikTok, Instagram and others like that, that trying way to hard is now the norm. There's no struggle or even care.

The mentality is... So what?... I do what I want, so what?. They tried to sell this as comedy just because someone realized that nobody would believe this was for real.

Yes folks, what did I watch was it a film or was it just play school. Atrocious acting, one actress doing silly dance moves, to some bad actors.

At the start a guy fishing just seemed he walked our of boozer and them talks to the crocodile saying your to small and the crocodile turns away.

The whole film looked like plastic. Wasted an hour or so watching such pathetic storyline at the end the crocodile 🐊 goes small wow.

Can we not have any good movies. Don't waste your time watching a cheap DIY movie. Why make movies like these full of amateurs who want fame.

Blooming scenes of crocodile killing is like Jaws being your best friend.

Absolute garbage...At least this debacle was less than an hour long. Whomever writes this garbage should look seriously in the mirror and take up another profession. The graphics were so fake that it was laughable. The acting was so crappy that it was laughable. This was a low budget EVERYTHING and I mean everything. Maybe AI is the way of the future in movies because the intellect creating movies in the last 10 years has fallen off the deep end. I am so glad there is fast forward on these computer video players. I cannot imagine anybody forking out $20.00 to go see this display of just tasteless and useless garbage...

What a little movie with a little humour. It lost all credibility when the crocodile started flying around. Seriously, who in their right mind would put such unbelievable and untrue things into a movie. They must have used that invisible wire that the Asian martial arts movie uses. However, I managed to push past this fictitious feat and was on the edge of my seat for the rest of the movie.

Bad CGI Gator (2023) doesn't pretend to be anything other than cheesy with bad CGI (as the name hints at). I have seen other movies with worse CGI than what was on offer here.

The movie itself could have been a little better, script wise. Some of the scenes felt like they were based on other movies. The first one that came to mind was Chad (Ben VanderMey) felt like Shawn Wayans (Ray) from Scary Movie (2000). Enough rambling to fill out the minimum character limit, I would recommend it, once though.

Six thirty year old college students go on spring break to a run down isolated cabin in a swamp. Who wouldn't want that experience? They must have booked the cabin a year in advance to get such a great place. Not understanding that spring break isn't the end of the semester, these future student loan debt relief recipients toss their school laptops into the swamp. A crocodile still recovering from shock that anyone would willingly occupy that cabin gets zapped by the shorting out laptop batteries and is magically transformed in a genuinely bad CGI rendering.

The bad CGI crocodile is bad, really bad, yet miles better than the acting. It's indescribably bad. Exceeded only by the dialog. It's indescribably indescribably bad. Ten stars for the crocodile. Minus five stars for the crocodile taking so long to do the audience wants in eliminating the cast. The longest hour you will spend being "entertained". Five stars.

I had to watch this because of the title. I do amateur CGI. It's almost all bad. There's little sign of improvement. If I were smarter, I'd pick a new hobby.

So, here's the plot: three sorority sisters (one decent) and three frat bros (one decent) go to a Cabin in the Woods to get drunk. I can get drunk in my bedroom, but hey, kids these days. The cabin's by a lake. It's a horror movie. There's "Gator" in the title. What do you think happens next? The gator rips the limbs off of the unlikable ones. I don't even consider this a spoiler.

Does anything else happen? No. What else would you want to see happen? It's a horror movie about a poorly animated CGI alligator.

First thing first: is the CGI, in actuality, bad? It *is* bad. But it's not as bad as a lot of CGI in days past. The gator isn't animated very well. Its limbs don't seem to touch the ground. Eventually, the filmmakers give up on pretending that the gator should interact with the ground at all. The electrical effects are also bad. But, hey, it's a lot better than the crap I've made. When you ignore the whole animation and electricity things, it looks pretty good. And who cares? It's not about whether the gator's legs touch the ground. It's about the fact that they don't. And also, it's about how people that use internet acronyms in everyday speech are ripped into small pieces.

Really, this is as B-movie as you'd expect, but Gator never pretends to be anything else. And thanks to the wonder of modern tools, the production quality is still great (well, minus the skating gator legs.) Plus, the acting is certainly good enough. Maddie Lane does an especially good job. Probably the weakest point is the writing, where they earn a few chuckles out of this horror-comedy, but never any guffaws. But, that's not a major criticism for a film that aims as low as Gator.

Don't expect Sophie's Choice, and I think you'll enjoy yourself. It's only like sixty minutes long. What do you have to lose?

I like to consider myself a connoisseur of low budget horror. It's a fine line to walk-- there are films that know their premise is bad, so the cast and crew don't try; there are others that try too hard to be more than what they're capable of being and end up being boring. There are very few "bad" horror movies where you can tell that everyone involved is truly enjoying themselves-- and that enjoyment elevates the film to something that you truly, unironically enjoy as well.

I've been anxiously awaiting Bad CGI Gator for a month, as it was coming out on my birthday, and it did not disappoint. The low budget did not stop the camera crew from doing a very professional job, and the acting was superb for a comic horror film; although I doubt we'll see any of these actors in the future, I'd be very happy if we did see their careers advance.

The script is charmingly mocking of Gen Z culture, in a way that makes it clear that actual Gen Z people were involved in writing it.

And the gator, oh, the gator! If you came to this review to hear about the eponymous gator, I promise it won't disappoint. There's an in-universe reason the gator is bad CGI, and I promise that the creature's descent from the roof will fulfill every promise the film's name offers.

If none of this compels you, the short run time at worst means it's worth giving it a try, and if you're like me, you'll be left wanting more.

This movie is 58 minutes long. With credits, I mean. When you start it up on Full Moon's streaming app, that's the total runtime that comes up. And it STILL had moments that dragged on unnecessarily long. But much like the runtime, I'll make this brief.

Let me get the positives out of the way. The cinematography was just swell. Simple, perhaps, but it took a single setting location, a Southern, lakeside cottage, and it made it work, and easy on the eyes. The POV shots for the gator and cell phones were less pretty, but used sparingly enough. The cast was attractive and fun; these may not be master thespians, but they were all game and looked like they were having a blast in their roles. There's a topless scene. Nice. The film takes great pleasure in mocking zoomers. Double nice. It doesn't take itself seriously, the ending is pleasant, and overall I got the impression that the filmmakers just want viewers to have an good time. And one last thumbs up for honesty in marketing; the CGI gator is, indeed, bad.

On to the negatives. I don't like the script. No one says anything of any importance, at all. There is no real story beyond 'there's a bad CGI gator outside the house', so the characters have nothing to do or say to move the story forward except intentionally leave the cabin and die, which they do. Some of the dialogue is just mind-numbingly awful, and some scenes in the second act go on too long because of that. There is no tension, a lot of the jokes don't land and there is no real gore to speak of besides a couple of severed limbs.

That's about it; if you're a Full Moon subscriber, and you need to kill an hour, this is available to you. You could do a lot worse. But Full Moon has also created much, much better, and I want them to be around for a long time. Hopefully this and the recently released AImee get sequels that do more with their premises.

I heard about it not so long ago. And i've been wanting to watch it, to see how bad & wild it is. Fun news! I got to watch the whole thing on tubi. It is one of the most enjoyable stupid, cheesiest and beautifully idiotic movies i've ever seen so far.... and.... i truly love every single bit of it! Seriously, every single cliche and stereotypical BS in cinema history, all in one movie!. The most fun part is... they made it that way, on purpose!. I love every single bit of it from start to finish. The whole thing is the same as the cgi gator... world class bad! Truthfully, it deserves the all razzie awards soon! Im very happy to say, it's made by the company that made one of my most favorite movies growing up... magic island!. I give bad cgi gator a 10/10 for being enjoyable bad!!!!!

Traveling together for Spring Break, a group of college students rent a house on the Louisiana swamps to hang out and party for a week, but when they find one of their viral pranks has unleashed a killer CGI gator on them must try to get away from the creature alive.

Overall, this was a pretty fun short-form genre effort. The simplistic setup that shows the group coming together and arriving at the house in the middle of the swamp and going about their traditional lives involving social media sharing, sexual hookups, or just trying to make a move all allows for a cliched if still fun time getting to know everyone. This does run the risk of making the group immensely one-dimensional as they spend the majority of the film complaining about their inability to get to their followers, acting like entitled douchebags, or trying to get their unwilling friends to finally hook up in the name of trying to gain internet famous. As a whole, this setup works incredibly well to provide some solid setup for the second half here. That part of the film provides the generally cheesy goods as this launches into the creatures' attacks with the titular creature springing up and striking the group one by one. Playing up the concept in the title by letting it spring up out of nowhere to chomp on one of the group. The suspenseful stalking scenes setting up the actual attack before getting into the wild nature of the actual attack makes for a nice combination which makes for a series of cheesy strikes here letting the patently fake-looking creature get the chance to perform some outrageous sequences to pull it off. It's all played lightly enough to be a fun time but is still overwhelmed by the absolutely silly special effects or the wholly unrealistic effects throughout even though this is all intentional.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, and Nudity.