La playa del terror

Something beneath the title area is grabbing people and pulling them underground to their grisly deaths! Harry (David Huffman), a local security guard, is desperately trying to work on his love life amidst the mysterious disappearances.

For a 1980's horror film, BLOOD BEACH has a lot going for it: #1- It's an original idea, straying from the typical slasher formula of the era. #2- Much of the mayhem occurs in broad daylight, in front of witnesses. #3- It has John Saxon and Burt Young as hard-boiled cops! #4- It contains many classic scenes, like the "rapist dis-MEMBER-ment" and "big hat retrieval" sequences! This movie is creepy, gruesome, and very entertaining. It deserves to be rediscovered...

After several people mysteriously vanish from a South Californian beach, authorities begin the search for whoever or whatever is responsible. Believing some kind of ravenous subterranean creature to be the cause of the disappearances, harbour patrolman Harry (David Huffman) and ex-girlfriend Catherine (Marianna Hill) begin looking for the beast's lair.

The cleverest thing about this predictable early 80s monster movie is surely it's amusing, Jaws-inspired tag-line 'Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water - you can't get to it.'; but even though Blood Beach displays very little else in the way of originality, rarely rising above routine B-movie fodder, there's just about enough fun to be had with it to still make it worth your while.

Huffman and Hill are forgettably bland, but the presence of seasoned character actors John Saxon and Burt Young more than compensate for the lacklustre leads, both guys giving enjoyable performances, Young as an uncouth copper from Chicago with zero tact, and Saxon as his tough but fair superior. Also worthy of mention is the lovely Lena Pousette, who shines as Marie, Harry's sexy blond air-hostess 'friend with benefits'.

The film also features several well executed deaths scenes, victims swallowed up by the sand in convincing fashion, and there's some fun to be had with the gore, including a would-be rapist having his junk chewed off by the monster and a cascade of dismembered body parts tumbling onto the unfortunate Catherine. Blood Beach's jump scares are about as clichéd as they can get (eg. a screeching cat leaping into frame) but they are still effective. Sadly, the monster is only revealed in the film's closing moments, and isn't all that impressive, looking like a giant papier-mâché plant (quite how that thing burrows underground, I'll never know!).

In an ending typical of 70s/80s monster movies, the creature is blown to pieces, but as the closing credits roll, new activity under the sand suggests that the horror isn't over yet (although a sequel has yet to surface).

5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

This one had been on my wish-list ever since I saw a few fragments of it when I was a little kid. But being a sober guy, I wasn't expecting much of it. And that was a good thing . Basically where "Jaws" made the water an unsafe place, "Blood Beach" tries to do this for the beach. But "Blood Beach" is very much inferior to Spielberg's classic. Mainly because "Blood Beach" is rather slow and boring. "Jaws", at times, also wasn't all that about action & horror, more about the characters really, but it had a fine plot structure, good dialogues and decent acting to keep things going. But I shall not just dismiss "Blood Beach" as a bad B-monster movie (though it certainly isn't a good one). The main attraction amongst the cast is John Saxon, who is the best actor of the lot, injects a nice amount of sarcasm in his role and simply has the best lines of the movie. Then there's Burt Young, who's just great as Sergeant Royko, bragging about Chicago all the time, eating various sort of junk-food in almost every scene and referring to someone's brain as "vegetable soup". The music was pretty memorable too, with a dark cello theme and some jazzy saxophones. And the beach-monster was just too weird. It looked like a giant, dusty, plastic flower. But unfortunately it's only shown in a few shots when it emerges from the sand near the end. The shots over the end credits leave room for a sequel ("Blood Beach 2: The Offspring", would have been a very appropriate title, I believe), but that never happened. "Blood Beach" could have been a cult classic, but unfortunately the movie feels just a bit too mainstream (and too uneventful also) for it to be one.

Blood Beach rocks, it has everything a Saturday night movies needs from a giant phallic monster to a scene where every few moments the mic drops into shot. A popcorn monster flick giving a unique angle on the Jaws theme. Some good gore FX and a good few jumpy moments elevate this one above the usual rubber monster crowd and the sand FX are actually deeply scary.

I have been keeping an eye out for this one for a while but have as yet not found a copy. It could keep you away from the seaside forever, Jaws will keep you out of the water but Blood Beach will put you back in the car and send you home.

This movie has an interesting story and you're not likely to predict what it is that is taking the lives of the characters in the film. The story takes place on a beach and when people begin to disappear it haves you wondering what it is. It will, however, keep you interested and the ending is not half bad either. To say that this is the best SCARY movie would be incorrect, however to say that it is the most unique is quite true. I really enjoyed this movie and I can honestly say that it had it's own unique style. See it if you haven't and if you can find it. It is a rare one and they don't make horror films like this anymore!!! This was a suspenseful film that caught me off guard on a few occasions and I hope I never have to experience that kind of terror. Released in 1980 to movie theatres and to video in 1982, this movie had a strange story, but a good story as well!!!