Ragin Cajun Redneck Gators

After 4 years away from home while attending college, a young woman named "Avery Doucette" (Jordan Hinson) returns to her family in the Louisiana bayou one day prior to alligator hunting season. What nobody knows is that a local family headed by "Wade Robichaud" (Thomas Francis Murphy) has been making moonshine using a strange new chemical which ends up contaminating several batches which are subsequently dumped into the swamp. This causes the local gator population to mutate into extremely large and savage creatures of a type never seen before--and their feeding season on humans has just begun. Throw in a deadly family feud between the Doucettes and the Robichauds and things are about to get deadly in the bayou. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that it's the comedy-more than the action, horror or suspense-that makes this film even remotely interesting as the other qualities just mentioned are almost non-existent. Likewise, the extremely ridiculous ending certainly didn't help much either. In any case, if not for the aforementioned humor, I would have scored this film a bit lower but as things are I rate it as just slightly below average.

Bottomline, miserable. I don't know what was worse, the story, the way all the scenes were filmed, the alligator that looked like it was cut from a video game, the acting that was dreadful, or the quoting... 1-2/10

Even though they reach a limited audience, 2013 has been the year for Syfy films. With it's original name, Sci-fi, it's was a channel in the beginning that brought us reruns of old films and some original films that didn't really have an audience. As time went on, the channel delivered some popular TV shows including Ghost Hunter and also cult shows like Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Firefly. In 2010, it made a drastic change when it broadcasted WWE Smackdown drawing in the wrestling audience. Through the power of social media including twitter in 2013, it's original film Sharknado was a major hit that brought much more attention to the channel. Because of the Sharknado hit, their films are finding more of a audience. These films are very strange and all over the spectrum including Aladdin and the Death Lamp, Ghost Shark and Flying Monkeys. Ragin' Cajun Redneck Gators is another film to add to this strange collection.

Ragin' Cajun Redneck Gators is set in the swaps of Louisiana where a Cajun redneck community finds themselves getting attacked by strange killer gators. These gators are far from typical, quite dangerous and more than what they seem.

Like Sharknado and Ghost Shark, there is a definite lack of budget but an extra effort by the filmmakers to make this work is evident. There are Cajun rednecks that are funny and kind of realistic, mutant gators, and a Romeo and Juliet love story involving feuding families. It's all a unique and interesting combination.

Unlike the Ghost Shark and Shakando, we don't care much about these characters. Attractive lead character, Jordan Hinson plays Avery from one of the feuding families but nothing memorable really comes from her performance. Her love interest, Tristan (Victor Webster) is a character who is frankly limited and who we don't really root for even though he is in danger from the gators throughout. The only positive person who steals the show is Michael Baird who plays Avery's father Dale. He has an excellent Cajun accent and is a charismatic "life of the party" kind of character who kind of steals the show.

For what it is trying to be, Ragin' Cajun Redneck Gators should have been better. It has a good original idea and tries to go with it but falls a little flat because I think it tries to do much. Because of that, I think it is probably the weakest Syfy films of 2013.

Ragin Cajun Redneck Gators was lacking in a lot of areas but it did look as though there was more effort than usual. The scenery and the way Ragin Cajun Redneck Gators is shot and edited in a way that looks good and doesn't look that amateurish, Michael Baird is charismatic and likable(and this viewer agrees that he had the best accent, most of which out-of-kilter, in the cast), Amy Brasette is a blast as Candy, the story does have a good idea and actually has a story to tell in a somewhat coherent way and the gators do have moments where they're fun and menacing. The gators do look terrible though, their movements are awkward and their design has a rushed look, and while their personalities do come through they could have fared much better if the attacks had so much more tension and inventiveness and the gore less artificial. With the story while you can tell that there is one and that you can follow it, there is a sense that the movie didn't know what to do with it, good ideas but not explored very well, like when the movie takes a darker and more violent tone in the second half, it does feel like a different movie to the almost too-silly tone the first did. While the ideas are there there is a going-through-the-motions quality(the forbidden love stuff is a good angle but doesn't really register, often getting lost within the silliness), much of it is not that exciting or atmospheric, and the material is of the kind that runs out of steam far too early(with an ending that is every bit as silly as the first half but to bigger heights, to the point that it's difficult to take). The dialogue ranges from mostly forced attempts at deadpan humour(Candy's was genuinely funny though) and banal soap-opera quality, the pacing's inconsistent- feeling rushed in the first half and lacklustre in the second-, the science is wacky to the point of the nonsensical and the stereotypical characters are mostly cardboard-bland with some being annoying too, especially that of the banjo player(his purpose and premise comes across as truly ridiculous and with the subtlety of a sledgehammer). The direction is of the kind that does its job but without much character, journey-man-like is a good word, while the acting on the whole is a mix of hammy-to-the-point-of-annoyance(Thomas Francis Murphy) to forgettable. Jordan Hinson is not terrible at all, she is at least appealing but she does pale in comparison to Baird and Brasette so she doesn't come across as memorable. All in all, not bad for SyFy but very lacking on the whole, effort was clearly made but Ragin Cajun Redneck Gators is a good example of a movie failing at trying too hard. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Ragin Cajun Redneck Gators (2013)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Not only does this film have one of the greatest titles in the history of cinema, it also manages to be one of the most entertaining movies to appear on SyFy. The story is pretty simple as a girl (Jordan Hinson) returns home to see that her family is still feuding with their neighbors and worst of all is that these neighbors have been dumping bad moonshine into the swamps, which has created large, redneck gators. Once again I find myself reviewing a SyFy movie and wondering why so many people go into a movie called RAGIN CAJUN REDNECK GATORS and are expecting some sort of quality material. Again, if you're wanting CITIZEN KANE then don't watch a film called RAGIN CAJUN REDNECK GATORS. It should go without saying but this is a pretty bad little movie but thankfully there's enough camp to make it quite entertaining. I think the best thing going for this are the horrendous CGI alligators, which are among some of the worst things you're ever going to see but thankfully they're funny, which adds to the entertainment. The scenes of the gators attacking are so poorly done and the blood so fake looking that it's impossible to take these scenes serious, which is another good thing. The performances are quite mixed at best but I thought Hinson was good enough in the lead. The film manages to have quite a few funny moments, which is about all you can hope for when watching something like this. The direction is pretty good throughout since he does manage to keep things moving at a nice pace, which, again, is about as much as you can hope for in a film like this. With that said, this is still a "C" level horror movie that aired on SyFy so obviously the material is very thin, runs out of gas before the conclusion but it's a creature feature that has enough entertaining moments.