GATOR FACE

***

Directed by Padraig Reynolds.

Starring Tabitha Brownstone, Amariah Dionne, Nikolas Kolasinski.

Horror, US, 80 Minutes.

Reviewed as part of Tubi FrightFest 2026

Released in the UK On Digital by Signature Entertainment on 21st September

Slasher cinema now seems to be stuck primarily in a stage of meta musings and constant reinterpretation that a straight ahead flick like Padraig Reynolds no-nonsense bloody shocker set amongst the rural backwaters of the US is a more than welcome throwback. With no ideas above its station at all, other than throwing some alligators in to aid its masked killer as he goes about his axewielding business, GATOR FACE is a lean and mean throwback that goes back to basics in a way that will no doubt entertain and amuse fans of the stalk and slash genre.

Beginning with a trio of scantily clad females on holiday on what is seemingly the most deserted beach in Florida. Wandering around they come across a house with “3 DEAD INSIDE” ominously painted onto the wall. Like any sane and sensible person would they decide to go inside, finding themselves surprised when they encounter a large man with a scary mask and an even scarier axe and a really scary alligator seemingly waiting for them. Mayhem ensues.

GATOR FACE feels at times too silly not to be self-aware of what it is. At the same time there is a real honesty on display that plays to its strengths. In an age where most low budget slashers have wafer thin scripts that are padded out and cynically, and cheaply, executed with unconvincing CGI, Reynolds should be commended here for what he achieves with the resources he has to hand. All the tropes that slasher fans, and critics, have come to expect with its cast of attractive stars running for their lives through an evocative backdrop from a merciless killer with a memorable hook and a generous dollop of pleasingly bloody practical special effects. Also mixed in is a lacing of rural horror that helps pad the film out from its stablemates that suggests Reynolds is more than capable of delivering something of a more unnerving and paranoid nature if he wanted to.

More than a little reminiscent of Tobe Hooper’s sweaty and garish EATEN ALIVE, delivers exactly what you want from a late night slasher. With equal amounts of bloody violence and silliness on display that leads up to a memorably nasty ending as a punchline.

Iain MacLeod