Borrowing a page from 2019’s Crawl, The Flood aims to escalate the thrills by pitting man-eating alligators against cops and prisoners in a flooded Louisiana jail amidst a raging hurricane. It’s a high concept scenario that lends itself well to action-horror thrills and B-movie fun. The Flood doesn’t quite follow through on execution, though. It’s not the rough effects that sink The Flood, but an overly convoluted plot that bogs down the runtime.

Louisiana sheriff Jo Newman (Nicky Whelan) already has enough on her plate, trying to corral her officers into preparing the leaking police station from further storm damage during a ferocious hurricane. Then she receives a phone call announcing the unexpected arrival of a prison transport bus in dire need of temporary shelter for the night. Newman’s reluctance gets overruled, and she’s forced to contend with a group of dangerous convicts, including cop killer Russell Cody (Casper Van Dien). The mistrust between the eclectic group of strangers constantly threatens to erupt in violence, and that’s before rogue Rafe Calderon (Louis Mandylor) creates a dizzying plot to jailbreak Russell, and the alligators invade.

Directed by Brandon Slagle, working from a screenplay by Chad Law and Josh Ridgway, The Flood packs in the action tropes. The lone female amidst a sea of testosterone, Jo Newman constantly must prove herself with demonstrations of physical prowess and assertive cunning. She’s surrounded by dimwitted subordinates or violent criminals eager to knock her down a peg, save for sensitive cop killer Russell, of course. While both characters’ clear moral lines make them the apparent protagonists against a wave of stock baddie caricatures, The Flood wastes time attempting to flesh out various subplots for many of its fodder. This relegates the looming threat of alligators to the sidelines for most of the runtime and makes for a repetitious, overly complicated narrative as everyone fights for dominance.

That’s likely a result of budgetary constraints; it’s not just the rough effects work on the gators that distract, but the raging CGI storm outside also struggles to muster any sense of plausibility. Putting an emphasis on the human element makes sense. Except here, the human conflict is generic and overly complicated for a high concept thriller. Van Dien and Whelman fully commit and attempt to inject gravitas into stock characters. Still, neither their action chops nor attempts at pathos can elevate the frequently silly encounters they endure with one-note villains.

The Flood wears its patchwork of cinematic action influences on its sleeves but struggles to bridge them together in a cohesive and logical manner. The story touches on everything from Assault on Precinct 13 to even Point Break; all approached with a seriousness that belies the B-movie premise. That ultimately cuts to the crux of The Flood, an overly earnest yet generic action vehicle that shoehorns its creature feature horror into the mix when it must. It makes for an unfocused action vehicle that crumbles under the weight of rough creature mayhem, convoluted subplots, and a series of familiar story beats taken with utmost seriousness. 

The Flood releases in Theaters, On Demand and Digital on July 14, 2023.

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.