Gator Lake (2025) Movie Review

When one searches for a monster hunter movie to watch, they can go down two paths. One, a critically acclaimed route with the likes of Jaws or any of the King Kong movies. Alternatively, a silly movie with a big cast of future corpses, low budget and what feels like a first draft script, such as The Meg or Piranha 3D. Gator Lake falls into the latter category. The movie follows Florida’s Lake Jessup, which is told to be the “most densely infested alligator lake in all of America,” and follows their 13 days of hell.

This movie has all the tropes of your typical Jason Statham lead movie. In this, the Statham role goes to Derek Russo, who plays ‘Bubba’. Bubba is hired to take down the gator which is causing havoc in the city & big gator themed park, killing the stereotypical hillbillies and spoiled teens, and if he does so, his legal troubles will be forgotten.

With these types of movies, your expectations are the utmost importance aspect on whether or not youll have a good time watching. Gator Lake does not do much new, its a formulaic movie with formulaic characters, story beats and dialogue. However, what separates this from other monster hunter movies, is the “realism”. The way the story plays out is not that of The Meg where theres a big battle at the end with the protagonist and the monster. Perhaps it is the lack of budget, but it really separates it from others in the subgenre, for better or for worse.

The characters are very one note, give or take a couple. The characters show up to either die, or be a stereotype/trope. You have the previously mentioned “Statham Role”, the goofy mayor, the leads family, the rough ‘n tough female friend of the lead, & the “big star” who shows up for one scene, that being Danny Nucci (Titanic, Alive, Crimson Tide). The actors do their best with the material they are given, but given the low budget & subject matter, there is not much to work off of.

The biggest compliment this movie can get is that it was made with a lot of fun. It is clear that the cast & crew were having a great time making this, which can we really complain if a group of people have fun while making a movie? So grab a group of friends, crack open a beer, and watch a town get terrorized by a mostly off screen CGI gator!

Vortex Media releases Gator Lake on digital platforms on Friday, June 13th. Thank you to our friends at Route 504 PR for giving us access to this film!