Man vs Alligator. It’s the all-time classic battle between predator and prey that has informed hundreds of horror films across the years. Some are great, others not so much, but the latest contender in this sub-genre, Gator Creek, commits the cardinal sin of failing to bring anything original to the table.

Rehashing the central premise of Cocaine Bear (i.e. apex predator goes on a drug-fueled rampage), the film offers up a plethora of individuals as potential chow for a congregation of drugged up Gators following a spill at a meth lab in the Louisianan swamplands. The bass-pumping credits sequence suggests a fast paced, tongue-in-cheek splatter fest, but the following 80 or so minutes are surprisingly muted.

The plot of Gator Creek (also known as The Bayou) is so paper-thin that there’s little point wasting time to use full-sentences to describe it – random group, plane crash, lost in the wilderness, alligators attack, and there you have it. They wander around a bayou, get picked off by meth-head reptiles one by one, and have a few spats with each other along the way. The more horror orientated scenes are clumsily low-key and often too quick to register, robbing the film of its entertainment value, and whilst a couple of jump scares occasionally stir up proceedings, the majority fall painfully flat.

It doesn’t help that the most unlikable, obnoxious characters in the film never get their comeuppance (robbing the audience of that cathartic moment horror films excel at when dispatching annoying fodder characters), nor does the fact that the other characters are boneheadedly stupid to the point of nausea. Athena Strates is a decent enough lead who carries the film, even if she’s forced to deliver some of the clunkiest exposition we’ve heard in quite some time, whilst her co-star Andonis Anthony shows up as a likable enough alcoholic pilot who tries to get the group to safety, but beyond that, everyone else here is incredibly one-note, underdeveloped and utterly insufferable.

Ultimately, the uninspired kills, uneven CGI effects and dull dramatic stakes result in this rather lackluster killer croc film that lacks the bite it needs to entertain genre fans on the hunt for a bloody good time. Run in a zig-zag and get to higher ground to avoid this one if you can.

Gator Creek is available now on digital platforms in the UK and Ireland