Gator Bait (1974)

Directors: Beverly & Ferd Sebastion

Starring: Claudia Jennings, Bill Thurman, Sam Gilman and a bunch more people you've never heard of.

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: Unless they get her first... she'll never let them out alive!

Plot: Desiree lives deep in the swamp and supports herself and her siblings by poaching. Ben and deputy Billy hope to get a little sexual comfort from the "Cajun swamp rat" when they catch Desiree trapping 'gators, and give chase. Desiree outsmarts them but Billy accidentally shoots Ben and tells his sheriff dad that Desiree did it. Ben's dad and sons join them in the search party and quickly get out of control. Soon the hunters become the hunted as Desiree exacts her revenge for their violence against her family.

View Trailer: What gives? There's nothing to show? So you'll have to find a copy somewhere?




My Rating: 6/10

Would I watch it again? Probably not. Give me I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE instead.

Way back when I was working at a mom & pop video store while in college I remember seeing this video cover and thinking, "What a piece of shit!". Well, while I wouldn't go so far as to say that, I can't say it's a new camp/sleaze favorite either.

It's actually pretty good until all of the men folk are stuck in the swamp and she's hunting them down one by one. Usually in movies it's the other way around; you get a long, boring, drawn-out set-up followed by 30 minutes of ass-kickin' revenge. Not here. The setup is good with this cajun girl (Jennings, a then recent Playboy Playmate) being lusted after by everyone and wrongfully accused of murder when she won't put out to the sheriff's deputy/son. Then we've got the sheriff trying to talk the dead boy's father into letting him investigate but that's a no-go. So now we're off to hunt down the filthy murderin' sexpot.




So far it's not to shabby. I'm with it. I'm diggin' it. Hell, in the first 15 minutes one of the dead boy's brothers trys to have sex with his sister who's way hotter than little Ms. September-with-a-shotgun. After a while they get lost in the swamp and, for the most part, they're on foot. Then she starts to pick 'em off. Now I'm ready for some action 'cause this is usually where it starts to pick up in these types of movies. They've given me a great first half now they slow things down to a crawl.

It's the pacing and lack of editing in the last half hour that killed it for me. It definitely needed to be tightened up. I kept distracting myself by looking at the microwave, picking my nose, picking my friends' nose...because I was getting fits of boredom and that bothered me. Maybe if I didn't watch it alone and had some friends and drinks over it would have been better. By the time things finally wound down to the finish line I just didn't care any more. I wanted them all dead. The did give a little twist at the end in addition to setting you up for a sequel for which you had to wait FOURTEEN FRIGGIN' YEARS FOR!!! I may wait that long before I see GATOR BAIT II: CAJUN JUSTICE. Ooooooooooh.

Here's my favorite part - the acting. Jennings is absolutely horrible. It'd be one thing if she were naked throughout the entire picture but she ain't. In the rare moments she opens her mouth to speak any of the probably 2 dozen words total, I couldn't help but laugh. They should have made her mute or something. Funny as hell. Except for the typical redneck/cajun types the best acting award of this film goes to.........this guy....



He's great and feels like he's the real deal. I'm sure he wasn't an actor or much of one which probably lends to his believability. It's only when he gets fightin' mad (like in the above pic) that his acting chops fade and fast.


Man I wish the last half hour were tightened up more. It would've made it so much more enjoyable. It's not a good sign when you watch a movie and get to a point where you start thinking about other movies of that type that are better. I should have hit a jug of hooch at that point. Maybe making a drinking game out of it would work. Drink whenever you get bored and if you're still awake at the end...YOU WIN!