The Flood (2023) Review

Former heavy metal vocalist Brandon Slagle has directed a number of notable films over the past several years, with some of his most notable cinematic projects including Dead Sea, Manson, Frost, and Battle for Saipan. His most recent directional effort was The Flood, a new action horror movie about alligators trying to devour all the police officers and convicts who are trapped within a flooding precinct. With such an exhilarating premise, you really will wonder how The Flood turned out to be such a mess.

The film takes place in Louisiana, while the state is being ravaged by a horrendous storm. Because of the dangerous weather conditions, a bus transporting a group of violent criminals was forced to come to a halt, with the guards and the prisoners seeking refuge at a local police station for the night. The station was run by the no-nonsense Sheriff Jo Newman (Nicky Whelan), who explains that she learned to shoot when she was just eight. Newman’s proficiency with firearms soon proved to be incredibly useful, because her station was soon attacked by armed criminals who wanted to rescue a prisoner named Russell Cody (Casper Van Dien). To make matters worse, the building soon begins to flood as a result of the storm, with a congregation of hungry alligators also managing to make their way inside.

As strange as it may seem, the exact reasons why the invading criminals wanted to rescue Cody were never clearly specified. Writers Chad Law and Josh Ridgway apparently felt that clarifying the motivations of their villains would not matter in a film where alligators tear people to pieces. This proved to be a gigantic mistake, because the script clearly wanted us to like Cody and to see him emerge unscathed. But it goes without saying that it was very difficult to like the character when we did not even know why his nefarious colleagues were so desperate to help him escape. Cody was also portrayed as a bland and somewhat aloof individual who only spoke when he absolutely needed to, making it even more challenging to understand or care about his motivations. And the writers seemed to be unsure which plot threads should have taken precedence, with the uneven nature of the script making it difficult to remain focused as the story began to shift in different directions.

Van Dien and Whelan both delivered dull and ineffective central performances as Cody and Newman, with the chemistry between the two stars being undeniably weak. As a result, you really will not care about the fates of the two protagonists as the film reaches its climax. And most of the supporting characters were also relatively forgetful, because they were not given enough defining qualities to become truly notable or unique. For instance, Mike Ferguson appeared as Floyd McGraw, a prisoner convicted of hate crimes, whose only personality traits seemed to be that he detests minorities and that he feared the alligators which were lurking nearby. We were clearly supposed to hate McGraw, but he was depicted as such an unbelievably one-dimensional character that you will probably struggle to muster a single emotion when he inevitably meets his demise. While the otherwise talented Louis Mandylor starred as Rafe Calderon, the leader of the group of criminals who were responsible for attacking the station. Seeing as Calderon was a mundane villain who was not given much to do, he ultimately failed to leave much of an impression. The character seemed to be primarily concerned with endlessly barking orders at his subordinates, as the writers seemed to be unsure of what they actually wanted Calderon to be doing throughout the film. And most viewers will probably be too perplexed by Mandylor’s fluctuating accent to notice if there were any nuances to the actor’s performance. The only actor who actually appeared to be having fun with his role was Bear Williams, who starred as a fearless Afghanistan War veteran named Angelo Cooper. It was hard not to crack a smile when Cooper started to laugh uncontrollably when he learned that he had been thrust into an incredibly dangerous situation.

As a result of the film’s low production values, the visual effects left much to be desired. The alligators looked exceptionally poor, as they seemed to have been animated using digital technology from several decades ago. The filmmakers seemed to be completely unaware of how unconvincing the huge reptiles would seem to audiences, because there were countless prolonged shots of the appallingly-rendered alligators as they stalked their prey. While the practical effects were sadly not much better, because a severed head which the characters found drifting through the flooded building looked like it had been removed from the body of a clothing store mannequin.

However, there were a number of relatively impressive action sequences, which will hopefully help viewers to overlook the incredibly poor visual effects. These included a thrilling shootout sequence between the police and the criminals who descended upon the station, and a brutal fist-fight which occurred within the semi-flooded cell block. Unfortunately, these scenes were few and far between, and the majority of the film instead consisted of characters fleeing from the poorly-animated alligators while also occasionally being eaten. Even the occasional moments of character development were often abruptly cut short by the alligators, as the reptiles almost seemed determined to ensure that you would always be focused on them.

The filmmakers also did not seem to understand basic animal anatomy. We saw the alligators continue to chase after their prey after being repeatedly sprayed with bullets in some instances, and yet the beasts were also shown to be killed with a single shot in other scenes. The durability of the alligators seemed to depend on the whims of the filmmakers, and you will no doubt be frustrated by the level of inconsistency which was showcased whenever the reptiles appeared. Everyone involved with the making of The Flood should have been forced to watch hours of nature documentaries before the start of production.

Although The Flood tried to offer viewers a captivating depiction of police officers and hardened criminals fighting alligators, it sadly proved to be an ill-conceived monster movie which suffered from a weak and inefficient script. The lamentable visual effects were also a major source of irritation, with the digital alligators being about as convincing as the performances delivered by most of the cast members. Since there are dozens of vastly superior killer alligator movies available on the market, The Flood is ultimately a difficult film to recommend.

Movie Rating:

The Flood trailer