First off let's call it like it is: If someone were to dig a six foot deep pit out in the middle of nowhere, toss the original elements for 'GATOR BAIT 2: CANJUN JUSTICE into the hole and shovel it under, nobody would care. The world would continue as it is now, unaware of the loss and unmoved by the film's absence from our culture. It is vile, degrading, misogynistic garbage that does not deserve any kind of consideration. There is nothing in the film to deconstruct, no subtext to understand, no message beyond the hatred, suffering and contemptible pandering to the basest side of the human condition. It is a geek show populated by people who may not have known better, though it's producers should be ashamed of themselves.
The only useful purpose the movie has is to show what a better production the original 1974 film 'GATOR BAIT is in comparison. Which is something of a feat. That movie was scummy, sleazy, misogynistic and exploitational to be sure, but it had the distinction of being entertaining and was made with a certain amount of craft. Lead actress Claudia Jennings was fun to watch as a bayou poacher in tight, tattered cutoffs, pursued across the swamps by veteran character actor Sam Gillman and a motley assortment of backwoods cracker types. The film had some laughs with the "Hicksploitation" angle, knew when to back off, and was more of an exercise in bad taste deliberately applied for effect.
By comparison, this 1988 "follow-up" effort is distasteful, tacky, lurid and unwholesome -- not for effect, but by it's very nature. Apparently inspired more by LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT than it's original namesake, 'GATOR BAIT 2 tells the tale of poor Angelique (Jan MacKenzie, whom I feel sorry for), a willowy redheaded city girl who marries the now grown up boy from the original film (Tray Loren, providing the only tenuous link which is never even discussed) who lives a simple life in his clap-board bayou house complete with a cage of water moccasins and a rack of $750 shotguns. Right. The big boy earns his keep by trapping crayfish, apparently, though how he met his bride is never explained. The film opens with them getting married, the reception is crashed by a bunch of white trash crackers who are promptly beaten senseless for their efforts, and for whatever reason their dirtbag leader decides to take revenge on Junior & his wife rather than the good rednecks who pounded the stuffing out of them. Right.
We get some expository scenes of Junior and Angelique shagging, his lessons to her about survival in the bayous, and eventually he heads off to collect his crawdad traps while Angelique takes a bath out on the dock that serves as their front yard. Right. The dirtbags creep up through the swamp (one with frosting from the wedding cake he was pushed into still clinging to his greasy hair), enjoy watching her bathe, then force their way into the cabin and proceed to abuse her. Junior returns, manages to free his wife, gets shot in the process, urges her to run for her life, and is left tied to a stump in the swamps. The rednecks then proceed to track her down, take her to an abandoned mission that they use as a kennel for fox hunting dogs, chain her up like an animal, and then take their turns raping her (off camera).
ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?? One of the scumbags decides he can't bear it, slips her the key to the chain and the chase begins anew as she scoots off in Junior's bayou skimmer which does indeed have the phrase "Pop That Cherry" spray painted on the side. The film then devolves into an extended pursuit of Angelique by the pack of hicks who are killed off one by one as Angelique uses the bayou skills Junior taught her starting at about the one hour mark, and for 25 minutes or so the film resembles the first 'GATOR BAIT movie -- though the winsome willowy redhead playing Angelique is no Claudia Jennings. She has a killer body to be sure and doesn't mind displaying it for the camera, but half of the appeal of the original film was centered around Ms. Jennings cutoff jeans encased derrière. Her derrière in specific, not just *ANY* derrière, and that is where the 'GATOR BAIT 2 producers made their most crucial mistake.
Ms. Jennings of course was not on-hand to reprise her role having tragically died in 1979, but by simply selecting some random buxom redhead who knows how to drive a motorboat the producers made a grave error in judgment. It could have been anyone in the role, where the first film is all Claudia. By removing that sense of identity the 2nd film has none and exists only as a kind of vicarious rape and revenge fantasy for people who are seduced by Angelique's leggy form on the video box cover. If rape and revenge thrillers are not your bag there is nothing in this film to recommend it.
Sure you can throw this on and slug down a stack of beers with the guys and perhaps have a few unintentional laughs, but in the end you will sort of wonder what else you could have spent your time watching, life is short and nobody is giving out prizes for endurance tests like making yourself watch this. The only reason to see it is to sort of bring the 'GATOR BAIT franchise to it's conclusion, and since the film was relegated to home video status and now out of print you probably won't encounter it in real life unless you bother looking for it. Here for once the obscurity is perhaps deserved.
3/10
