The Bayou

As much as i love being in nature and explore different areas, i am aware that there is a possibility i could face a bear where i live in the north of Sweden. There have been several bears witnessed in different parts of forest areas here and some bears have even stepped into house areas. For example a male friend of mine who owns a house outside of the city he had a bear walking close to his parking lot. He had this recorded through his security system so you can imagine how shocked he was seeing a bear walk close to his garage. This only happened one time for him specifically but he have heard other house owners who have seen a bear get close to their home. As long as you stay inside your home you are safe, the bear will not attack you if he / she doesn´t feel threatened. I would imagine the bear was looking for food, because my male friend noticed that some apples were gone from the ground when he got back home. He didn´t mind the bear ate the apples i think he was more concerned if the bear would return since he have 2 children to think about. Event though i love animals and love to see bears from a distance i am very careful. One time i actually sat and watched a bear family from a mountain, as i witnessed a bear family walking together. I did keep a far distance because i know i should not get too close. When it comes to lakes or the ocean i have not witnessed more than fishes of different kinds. I have been thinking about visiting the Alligator Bayou in Louisiana, USA, simply because it would be fascinating to see alligators for real. Alligators have been included in a lot of different movie adaptations over many years and there are some classics that you should see. Perhaps one of the most well known classics when it comes to alligator horror films has to be the 1980 horror film Alligator from director Lewis Teague ( director of the classic Stephen King film adaptation Cujo from 1983 ). Gruesome murders are happening around the city´s sewer system where different body parts are found, Detective David Madison ( played by legendary actor Robert Forster seen in the classic Gregory Peck western film The Stalking Moon, worth a watch ) is on this case where he tries to find out who is behind all these horrible murders. Alligator is a classic creature feature horror film worth a watch and i highly recommend the UK blu ray release of this film from distribution company 101 Films, it has some really nice special features included. Speaking of alligators i have been curious to see a animal horror film simply called The Bayou that i saw a trailer for earlier this year. It looked like something similar to the 1980 horror film Alligator but takes place in the swamp instead. I picked up a physical DVD copy of The Bayou to see if this would be something in my taste. Is this one of the horror films you need to see this summer or is The Bayou a film so dull that you would be more excited watching British Chess Campionship?

Houston university student Kyle ( Athena Strates ), is on vacation with a group of friends. While they are flying in a smaller plane with some other  passengers as well the plane crashes into a swamp. Out in the middle of nowhere with no radio, they don´t know what´s waiting out there for them

Imagine if you mixed the 2023 action film Plane with Gerard Butler, spiced it up with a different version of the 1980 classic film Alligator and add influences from the film Cocaine Bear. There you pretty much have The Bayou and what audience this was made for. This is one of those horror films that clearly feel inspired animal horror films in the past and i have to say this is actually better than i expected. Don´t get me wrong, this is not going to be a future classic that everyone will talk about The Bayou. I do believe though that this could be a film that might find it´s audience if you happen to love this genre in the same category as Alligator. There are a few smaller details i feel could have been better but let´s get into the positive. I do think the alligator attack scenes work pretty good in this film and this is quite a brutal film at certain moments. The alligators design looks quite realistic except for the fact that these alligators have become stronger thanks to drugs. The story is very simple but works for this particular formula. One detail i actually think this film manage to do that a lot of horror films fails with is to have a big cast and manage to pull this off. I feel that the casting of this film is well done and in general the acting performances are alright. I especially enjoy actress Athena Strates as her character Kyle who have a lot of knowledge on alligators, so clearly she is the perfect person to have around if you are stuck in a swamp. I also enjoy actor Adonis Anthony ( who i remember from the 2015 war movie Soldiers Of The Damned ) as the character Frank who tries to find solutions of suvival in the swamp. So to the negative and i find the character known as Rufus ( played by actor David Newman ) to be annoying. His negative attitude and his phone scenes doesn´t really add anything to the story. The Bayou ends up being a positive surprise for me and this really feels like a love letter to B horror movie fans. Directors Taneli Mustonen and Brad Watson must have been inspired by the 1980 film Alligator while they made The Bayou, and i really appreciate their effort to bring back animal horror films to a classic formula that VHS fans will recognize. Definetely worth a watch, The Bayou is my kind of cup of tea.

Rating: DDD