The Bayou

Truth be told, I am a sucker for killer animal movies, and thus I needed no persuasion to sit down and check out the 2025 movie "The Bayou".

Writers Ashley Holberry and Gavin Cosmo Mehrtens put together a script that, while it was generic, was actually entertaining enough. It was a simplistic and straightforward script, and the writers didn't exactly bring anything new to the genre. Regardless, "The Bayou" proved to be an entertaining alligator movie.

I was not familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list, but I found the acting performances to be good. I actually do enjoy watching unfamiliar talents on the screen whenever I sit down to watch a movie, so that spoke well in favor of "The Bayou".

The effects in the movie were good, which is a must for a movie with killer animals. There is nothing worse than sitting down and watching a movie where the animals look like they were discarded from a 1990s computer game because they looked to fake. Luckily that was not the case in "The Bayou".

If you enjoy killer animal movies, then directors Taneli Mustonen and Brad Watson does deliver an enjoyable movie with the 2025 movie "The Bayou".

My rating of "The Bayou" lands on a five out of ten stars.

The release year of The Bayou (2025) states that it was 2025. Ok, but why on earth is such a movie like this produced in this day-and-age? With an estimated budget of $5 million (unconfirmed) I doubt that they saw a return out of this move.

Madalena Aragão (Alice) reminded me of Kaya Scodelario in her looks, I had to do some searching on that, as it happens, Kaya was in the movie Predadores Assassinos (2019) which was about gators. Crawl was a better movie.

Anyway, overall The Bayou was just ok, but below average for a 2025 movie. Athena Strates (Kyle) didn't quiet convince me that she was a gator expert. Elisha Applebaum (Malika) worked her magic and totally convinced me to dislike her character, so well done there, Elisha.

Other actors trying to do their bit were Mohammed Mansaray (Sam) seemed to be confused whether he had to be the comedic relief or a wanna be hero. The crazed pilot, Frank (Andonis Anthony), was not convincing at being a leader. Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong (Dom) was probably the hero, or close to one.

Overall, the effects were not too bad, the story and acting are what you would expect from the B movie. Would I recommend this? A few beers or wine and it is a yes.

No pun intended - I still am not sure what the differences are when talking crocodiles and alligators. Does not matter for this movie of course. If you like horror movies ... well this may float your boat! Well it would be better if it did float their plane ... but then we wouldn't have the movie, now would we? More rhetorical question.

Cliches and CG (deaths) galore ... climb on board with this ride or let it be ... early on you should be able to tell if you want to watch it through ... the added scene at the end is a bit confusing ... not sure if this was done to hint a sequel or a legacy or whatever ... anyway, do not care too much about it. Characters are mostly forgettable too. Looks good overall though (especially for low budget)

It's a shame, really, because the acting, cinematography, and score are all fine for a Horror movie. But the script and the directing are terrible. The best actors on the planet couldn't make these character interactions make sense. They wouldn't be able to make the dialog work either.

There's nothing original in the script. It literally sounds like it was cobbled together by AI, from other movies.

I feel bad for the actors... they clearly were invested in doing their best.

Maybe it was made to be a tax write-off. I'm just rambling now because a certain number of characters (letters) is required.

I have seen Rogue. This is not Rogue. This is of a lower quality, and some of the stock-footage of the actual animals is annoying. Some of the cgi used for the animals is decent, way better than one might expect from a movie like this, which is a lovely surprise.

The characters are distinct and likable enough, and the actors do a good job of portraying them, giving them all enough life so that you can engage with them without overstaying or overstating them.

This is not as tight as some other croc-related movies like Lake Placid or Crawl, but it is certainly better than Primeval or Black Water.

This is enjoyable.