Gator Face (2026) Review

A group of friends on a trip to Florida cross paths with Jess (Amariah Dionne), who is fleeing from an axe-wielding, mask wearing attacker. Narrowly escaping the killer, the group heads into the wilderness and stops at a church where friendly Father Eli (Scot Scurlock) is on hand to call the cops and provide shelter for our beleaguered tourists. Surely nothing suspicious is going on here and surely there’s nothing like an alligator-worshipping cult closing in on them…

Writer/director Padraig Reynolds is, I suspect, a fan of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (aren’t we all?) as the visuals of Gator Face have that sun bleached scuzz of Tobe Hooper’s classic. A couple of shots following Jess and fellow potential victim Claire (Tabitha Brownstone) bring to mind the moment where Terri McMinn’s doomed Pam first wanders up to the Sawyer residence. Hey, if you’re going to take inspiration why not take it from the best, and those references are respectful rather than rip off.

I’m delighted to say that practical effects are the order of the day and the murders are prolonged, bloody and squelchy and there are real gators being wrangled in scenes which had me questioning the sanity of those involved. There’s a pleasing sense of doom hanging over the proceedings which contrasts nicely with the brightly lit settings of the first half before things get much darker, both figuratively and literally.

That there’s so much right with the set up and set pieces makes it all the more frustrating that Gator Face doesn’t hit the mark nearly as much as it should. Dionne makes for an interesting heroine having to rely on her wits – and occasional good fortune – to survive and her performance is an engaging one which just about holds the tale together, aided by decent turns from Scurlock and Brownstone. As the titular character, Nikolas Kolasinski cuts an imposing dash in an excellent piece of costume design. Unfortunately, the remainder of the supporting cast never manages to convince which undermines too much of the early going.

As with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, there’s a fair amount of chasing going on and, as a homage, it shares that sense of wondering why the killer hasn’t caught his prey. The sequence in which Leatherface eats up the gap between him and Sally, then is somehow another twenty yards further back, is played out here and not all of the running is convincingly fast, no matter how cleanly shot it is. It’s frustrating because on the occasions the cat and mouse sequences work, they’re economical and tense and are in stark contrast to the increasingly ridiculous, lengthy pursuits. I understand the nods and, of course, this kind of shenanigans does pad the runtime but I was getting to the point where I was twiddling my thumbs and hankering for more gruesomeness.

Tonally, there are shifts as Gator Face swishes along, flipping from cheery slasher tropes to down and dirty, grindhouse style violence. Your mileage may vary depending on how you can take sudden leaps from humorous to just plain horrible. For those of us who don’t mind a few severed limbs and chomped heads, it’s undeniably bloody stuff. Many of the kills are uncompromising and downright nasty, extending to a pitch black climax that harks back to a nifty bit of early foreshadowing. This piece of detail is extra fun because it’s the very definition of hiding in plain sight.

Gator Face is often grisly fun and the idea of a gator-worshipping cult is an enjoyable wrinkle on the rural religious fanatic subgenre, even if the group’s history seems grafted on to the final act rather than evolving out of the developing plot. Still, if you’re looking for a thriller that’s heavy on 1970s style grunge and flatly refuses to buy into any of that CGI nonsense, you could do a whole lot worse. It’s just a shame that too many of the performances take the audience out of the authentically swampy setting.

Movie Rating:

Gator Face trailer