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Lynne Marta, the actress who appeared in films including Joe Kidd and Footloose, as a regular on Love, American Style and as a guest star on dozens of other TV shows, has died. She was 78.

Marta died Thursday in her Los Angeles home after a battle with cancer, her friend Chris Saint-Hilaire told The Hollywood Reporter.

The New Jersey native also showed up on episodes of such Aaron Spelling-produced series as The Mod Squad, The Rookies, Starsky & Hutch, Charlie’s Angels, Vega$ and Matt Houston and on Quinn Martin productions like The F.B.I., Dan August, Cannon, The Streets of San Francisco, Barnaby Jones, The Manhunter and Caribe.

As the companion of a wealthy landowner (Robert Duvall), Marta caught the eye of a bounty hunter (Clint Eastwood) in John Sturges’ Joe Kidd (1972), and she portrayed Lulu Warnicker, the aunt of Kevin Bacon’s Ren, in the Herbert Ross-directed Footloose (1984).

The younger of two daughters,...

Kerry Condon follows up her Oscar nomination with a thankless piece of Blumhouse schlock that tries, and fails, to make swimming pools scary

It’s long been an extreme palate cleanser, the first weekend of January following a season of weighty awards fare with a froth of schlock horror, from fine dining to a guilty stop at McDonald’s after. Masterworks such as The Devil Inside (6%), Texas Chainsaw 3D (19%), The Forest (10%) and The Unborn (10%) have all crept out of the gate in previous years, often unscreened for critics, and despite a consistent lack of quality, the practice has become profitable, audiences happy to see in the new year with the very worst the industry has to offer. Then last year, there was an unlikely win with sly evil doll horror M3gan, bucking the trend as not only a major commercial smash but also a critical one, and backers, horror hit-factory Blumhouse,...

Get ready to be scared out of your flip-flops! We’re diving into a collection of bone-chilling beach horror movies that will make you reconsider your next seaside vacation.

From killer sharks to ghostly fog, these films turn the sun-soaked shores into a playground of terror. So grab your beach towel and prepare for a thrilling journey through the realm of ‘bad beaches,’ where relaxation takes a backseat to spine-tingling horror!

Universal Old (2021)

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Old takes us on a suspenseful journey as a family’s tropical holiday turns into a nightmare. Stranded on a secluded beach with a handful of fellow resort guest, they discover that time is accelerated, causing them all to age rapidly. Years become hours, and hours become seconds. This unsettling premise adds a new level of horror to the sun-soaked shores.

Sony Pictures The Shallows (2016)

In this heart-pounding survival thriller, a young woman,...

Stars: Kelsey Nichole Black, Susan Feinman, Timothy Paul Jobe, David Johnson, Marc Lubbers, Paul Pallotta, Samuel James Pygatt, James M. Reilly, Josiah Schneider, Alisha Spielmann | Written by Adam Ambrosio, Jamison M. Locascio, Anthony LoCascio | Directed by Adam Ambrosio, Jamison M. Locascio

A first-person perspective opens this film from writing/directing pair Adam Ambrosio and Jamison M. Locascio, as an unseen figure enters a warehouse and shuts the door behind them. As screams are heard, the figure ventures deeper into the building before picking up a knife. The focus then turns to the sight of lit candles and a goblet, while the off-screen screams continue alongside someone chanting. This opening segment is meant to set the tone for the following film, yet what’s shown instead feels like a stale way of cutting costs.

The first segment is entitled Encounter Nightly, as the host of an alien sighting TV series journeys...

It’s no coincidence that Richard Laymon’s Funland is one of my favorite novels and Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys is one of my favorite films: I flat-out love horror stories set on the beach. There’s something undeniably alluring about the classic contrast between nightmarish scares and the seemingly idyllic setting of a public beach. So, when it came time to pick the films we wanted to celebrate during this year’s Class of 1981 retrospective series, I couldn’t resist choosing Blood Beach.

Riding the wave of aquatic and animal-centric horror that flooded the big screen in the wake of Jaws (and Jaws 2), 1981’s Blood Beach cleverly inverts just about everything concerning the sharp-toothed threat of its greatest cinematic influence. If you want to know what you’re getting into when you watch Blood Beach for the first time (as I did preparing for this retrospective...

Rlje Films, a business unit of AMC Networks, along with Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium service for horror, thriller and the supernatural, will release the horror film The Beach House on December 15, 2020 on VOD, Digital HD, DVD and Blu-ray. Check out this trailer:

Now you can win the Win the DVD of The Beach House. We Are Movie Geeks has two to give away. Just leave a comment below telling us what your favorite horror movie is that takes place on the beach. (mine’s Blood Beach It’s so easy!)

1. You Must Be A US Resident. Prize Will Only Be Shipped To US Addresses. No P.O. Boxes. No Duplicate Addresses.

2. Winner Will Be Chosen From All Qualifying Entries

The Beach House is the directorial feature debut of Jeffrey A. Brown who also wrote the screenplay. The film stars Liana Liberato (“Light as a Feather”), Noah Le Gros (A Score to Settle...

Check out these exclusive images from prolific filmmaker Dustin Ferguson’s (Angry Asian Murder Hornets) new made for television movie, The Beast Beneath, starring genre stars Brinke Stevens (Slumber Party Massacre) and Mel Novak (Bruce Lee’s Game Of Death).

The Beast Beneath is about a record Earthquake that rocks a small, resort town after a 2000 year old prehistoric beast is unleashed to feast on the local community. It’s up to Billy and his brilliant scientist sister Julie (Stevens) to crack the case and put a stop to the mayhem all while the cunning town Mayor George Reid (Novak) tries to cover up the monster’s bloody tracks. Said Ferguson:

I wanted to take this opportunity to create a throwback to the 1970s made-for-tv Creature Features I love so dearly. Films like ‘Rattlers’, ‘The Savage Bees’ and even the Drive-In hits ‘Bog’, and ‘Blood Beach’ served as big inspiration for this.

While October is officially just days away now, we have another batch of excellent genre home media releases in the meantime to help get us ready for the best month of the year. Scream Factory has put together an incredible box set for the [Rec] series that fans will definitely want to add to their personal collections, and for those who have made the upgrade, John Carpenter’s original Halloween makes its debut in 4K this week.

Arrow Video has put together a Special Edition release for The Baby, and for those of you who may have missed it earlier this year, Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich heads to multiple formats on Tuesday. Both The Swarm (1978) and The Cyclops (1957) head to HD for the first time ever courtesy of the Warner Archive Collection, and there’s a bevy of cult classics headed to both Blu-ray and DVD from the likes...

“Maybe you think too much. When it comes to Baby, I do all the thinking.”

The Baby (1973) will be available on Blu-ray from Arrow Video September 25th

Still traumatized by the loss of her husband, well-meaning social worker Ann Gentry throws herself into her latest assignment: the case of Baby , a 21-year-old man with the mind of an infant who crawls, cries and has yet to make it out of nappies. But Baby s family the tyrannical Mama Wadsworth and her two demented daughters aren’t the only ones with a warped conception of familial relations, and the full horror only begins when Ann sets her sights on liberating the drooling man-child… and in so doing unleashes the wrath of the Wadsworth women.

45 years after its original release, this film remains one of the most bizarre horror movies ever committed to celluloid. Directed by Ted Post and co-starring Marianna Hill,...

Forced to live together in a confined space and depending on each other for survival, the Dollanganger siblings from 1987’s Flowers in the Attic have always reminded me of the kids from The Boxcar Children book series I grew up reading, although instead of solving mysteries on fun adventures, they were busy dealing with a scissors-wielding grandma, a murderous mother, and some intense incestual feelings—not exactly the type of material you’d find next to Gertrude Chandler Warner’s books in the library.

Published in 1979 and featuring evil parental figures, inter-family violence, and sibling incest, V.C. Andrews’ Flowers in the Attic was a sought-after page-turner for readers drawn to its controversial elements, and its viability in the bookstores paved its way to the cinemas in the mid-’80s. A story about four siblings—two brothers and two sisters—locked away in a gothic mansion’s upstairs room (and the...

Stars: Mitchel Musso, Dean Geyer, Nikki Leigh, Brooke Butler, Meagan Holder, Jamie Kennedy, Hector David Jr., Cynthia Murell, Cleo Berry, Etalvia Cashin, Adam Powell | Written by Alex Greenfield, Ben Powell | Directed by Isaac Gabaeff

After an all-night graduation beach party, a group of hung-over students wake up under blazing sun to find their numbers somewhat depleted. An enormous alien creature has burrowed down deep and anyone foolish enough to make contact with the sand finds themselves at the mercy of a sea of flesh-eating tentacles.

Can you say Blood Beach?

Ok so maybe that’s not fair. After all Jeffrey Bloom’s 1980 fear-flick, despite having a similar premise – something eating people on the beach, dragging them under the sand – is world’s apart from the gory body-horror of Isaac Gabaeff’s film. Whereas that film often played for oddball humour both intentionally and unintentionally, The Sand plays things very straight.

For the last couple of months in The Daily Briefs, I’ve been counting down my list of the top 40 horror movies of the 80′s, and now it’s time to unveil #1. But first, here’s a look back at #40 – 2.

Thank you for all of your comments, and I hope I triggered some fun memories. But now it’s your turn! What are your favorite horror films from that bygone era? Do you prefer the Jason franchise, or Freddy? Any obscurities you think should be more well known? Let’s see your lists!

40. Rats:Night Of Terror

39. Visiting Hours

38. The Boogens

37. Blood Beach

36. New Year’s Evil

35. The Beast Within

34. Dolls

33. I, Madman

Director Tibor Takacs followed up his surprise hit The Gate with this sadly overlooked, well-crafted slasher, written by David Chaskin (who wrote A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddie’s Revenge). Sadly, there’s no gay subtext in this one,...

This weeks volume of Poster Friday features a random assortment of 70s and 80′s era horror films. That’s as far as I got for organizing any sort of theme…I’m…I’m a lazy lazy man. So without further ado…lets look at some posters!

You have to click the link. That one…right…down there. The “continue reading” one. There ya go.

First up we have a poster for Blood Beach which I included merely for that awkward tagline: Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…you can’t get to it.

Next up is a classic Hammer Horror poster for Dracula Has Risen From The Grave. I love the simple provocative design of this poster, as well as the snarky parenthetical remark.

Lastly we have a poster for Creature From Black Lake by Ralph McQuarrie. Yes, that’s right, Ralph McQuarrie.

Birthday shoutouts go to Michael Weatherly, (above) who is 45, Billy Crudup is 45, Kevin Bacon is 55, and Angelica Huston is 62.

From Exodus to Shock the Gay Away: An Lgbt History Lesson

Geeks Out is gearing up for the November release of Ender’s Game with the new site SkipEndersGame.com, your one-stop boycott shop.

The Melbourne Cabaret festival ended on a high note, with drop of golden sun Matthew Mitcham auctioning off the Funky Trunks he was wearing … to the tune of $1000!

Below you can see the trailer for the new point-and-click game My Ex-Boyfriend The Space Tyrant. You can download a demo or purchase the game at the site. “Take control of Captain Tycho Minogue, space adventurer, as he explores other worlds, encounters strange alien characters, and ultimately confronts the greatest tyrant the galaxy has ever seen.”

Congrats to Wimbledon champs Marion Bartoli and Andy Murray. I’ve been a...

Scream Factory has given us official release details for their August titles: X-Ray, Schizoid, Q The Winged Serpent, and Dark Angel:

“This August, loyal fans are invited to combat the summer heat with a quadruple dose of 80s high-camp horror classics when a double feature presentation of Boaz Davidson’s X-ray (aka Hospital Massacre), starring former Playboy Playmate Barbi Benton, and David Paulsen’s Schizoid, starring cult film favorite Klaus Kinski (Crawlspace), debut on home entertainment shelves together in a double-feature Blu-ray™ + DVD combo pack on August 20, 2013; Larry Cohen’s creature terror classic Q The Winged Serpent, starring Michael Moriarty Law & Order), Candy Clark (American Graffiti), David Carradine (Kung Fu, Kill Bill) and Richard Roundtree (Shaft); and Craig Baxley’s Dark Angel starring Dolph Lundgren (The Expendables) arrive on Blu-ray™ for the first time on August 27, 2013. Available for the first time on Blu-ray, each movie collection boasts original theatrical key art,...

Okay, kids! Time for the goods on Scream Factory's Schizoid / X-Ray double feature Blu-ray as well as Q The Winged Serpent and Dark Angel, which was better known here Stateside as I Come in Peace.

From the Press Release

This August, loyal fans are invited to combat the summer heat with a quadruple dose of 80s high-camp horror classics when a double feature presentation of Boaz Davidson’s X-ray (aka Hospital Massacre), starring former Playboy Playmate Barbi Benton, and David Paulsen’s Schizoid, starring cult film favorite Klaus Kinski (Crawlspace), debut on home entertainment shelves together in a double-feature Blu-ray™ + DVD combo pack on August 20, 2013; Larry Cohen’s creature terror classic Q The Winged Serpent, starring Michael Moriarty Law & Order), Candy Clark (American Graffiti), David Carradine (Kung Fu, Kill Bill) and Richard Roundtree (Shaft); and Craig Baxley’s Dark Angel starring Dolph Lundgren (The Expendables) arrive on Blu-ray™ for the...

Above: 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (Michael Curtiz, USA, 1932).

When I wrote about the posters of 1933 last week this was one poster I deliberately held back (though 20,000 Years in Sing Sing was released on Christmas Eve 1932, it is included in Film Forum’s retrospective). The early 1930s, no less than today—though the execution was a lot more interesting— was an era of big floating heads in movie posters. While 1920s movies had the occasional floating head poster for their biggest stars, artists and studios still favored the look of early silent posters with their head-to-toe portraits and snippets of narrative. Though Norma Desmond said famously of the silent era “We didn’t need dialogue...we had faces!” it was ironically with the coming of sound that faces started to dominate movie posters and, until Saul Bass, minimalism in American movie posters was almost non-existent.

All that makes the 20,000 Years poster,...

Any of you out there remember the Gaf View-Master? I sure do, and I still own one. In the days before home video, the hand-held 3D viewer was often the only way kids could replay images from their favorite movies, TV shows, theme parks and vacation spots. Sure, it was just a series of still images in a slideshow format, but it was in freakin' 3D, and you could watch it anywhere. Nathan Martin, creator of movie blog Cinecraze, remembers the View-Master fondly... so much, in fact, that he put together a series of mockup View-Master concepts that we'd all really love to see. “They sure don't make them like they used to,” he writes, “and I always wished they'd make 'em like they never did before.” To better visualize those childhood dreams that never quite came true, he created View-Master concepts for classics like Star Wars and the like,...

The executive producer and creator of the Halloween films, Irwin Yablans, is releasing his first book, The Man Who Created Halloween, just in time for the yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31st.

The full title is The Man Who Created Halloween: How a Bit of Desperation and Inspiration Gave Birth to the Movie that Changed Hollywood, and it's chock-full of insider info from Yablans, who is known for his work in the horror film industry. He produced films that include Halloween (1978), Roller Boogie (1979), Nocturna: Granddaughter of Dracula (1979), Halloween II (1981), Hell Night (1981), Blood Beach (1981), and Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982).

Synopsis:

The Man Who Created Halloween is the fascinating story of one man's improbable journey from the tenements of Brooklyn's Williamsburg to fame and fortune in Hollywood. It is also a chronicle of the shifting winds of change from the old studio system to the emergence...

I don’t care what sweet candy you get in your trick or treat bag this Halloween; this just posted trailer for Sand Sharks is the tastiest treat you’ll snack on all day. It’s the Piranha 3D meets Blood Beach movie you’ve been waiting for.

Spring breakers have gathered for the annual Sandman Festival. Organizer Corin Nemec smells money. Unfortunately, a species of prehistoric sand tiger shark smells blood. Deputy Sheriff Vanessa Lee Evigan wants to close the beach when revelers fall victim to a shark that can swim through sand like water.

If that premise sounds too far-fetched for your feeble minds, then now might not be the best time to mention the shark scientist they turn to is played by Hulk Hogan’s daughter, Brooke Hogan.

The demented geniuses behind Sand Sharks are screenwriter Cameron Larson and filmmaker Mark Atkins, a long-time Asylum director most...

All children of 80's horror will certainly remember Blood Beach and Blood Diner, and now the good people at Graffiti Playhouse Productions bring us a vision of the undead invading a tourist-soaked ski resort entitled Blood Lodge. Again, for those of you, like me, who cut your teeth on 80's films, think Return of the Living Dead meets Hot Dog...The Movie, indie style.

Very little is available on Blood Lodge thus far. You can see the official trailer below or at the Blood Lodge website. And the film's Facebook page indicates that Vincent Pastore (that would be Big Pussy from "The Sopranos") and Jasmin St. Claire (that would be the porno Hall of Famer who rose to fame after a "Springer" appearance where she bragged about her film World's Biggest Gang Bang 2 (a sequel to the critically-acclaimed original), in which she sexually pleasured 300 men in a 24-hour period).

Now,...

by Chris Wright, MoreHorror.com

A lesser known yet surprisingly good slasher from the prime of slasher films is “Hell Night.” This movie is the last movie to come from Compass International Pictures, which is best known for “Halloween” (1978). They also did some lesser known movies such as “Tourist Trap” (1979) and “Blood Beach” (1980) before closing up shop after “Hell Night.”

This flick slid by the slasher era in the 1980s but has developed a cult following as time progressed. Best known for her role in “The Exorcist”, Linda Blair is also a star in this movie. This movie was released by Charles Band’s Media Entertainment and Video Treasures in the 80s and re-released by Anchor Bay on DVD later on with commentary.

The plot is fairly simple. A fraternity is putting new recruits in an old mansion and trying to scare them. The goal is if they remain the whole night without leaving,...

Get ready for action with this week’s offerings from the Wii Shop Channel and Nintendo DSi Shop. Flowerworks: Follie’s Adventure challenges players to transform the world from drab to fab while Blood Beach sees you fighting for your very existence available to download this week on WiiWare.

Available for download from the Nintendo DSi Shop, DodoGo! Challenge offers players all-new challenges in the mission to save this dozy bird from extinction. Need for Speed Nitro-x will satisfy the speed demons amongst you, while for those wanting to test their brain as well as their fingers, Frenzic offers hours of puzzling fun. As for budding Rock Gods, Music on: Electric Guitar enables you to transform your Nintendo DSi into a pocket electric guitar!

Robox Demo (DreamBox Games) is a WiiWare demo launching this week which sees players crashing-landing on a strange planet, where they must unveil the truth behind their intergalactic mission.

Nothing says October like a horror convention, and Creation's Weekend of Horrors, returning to the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel this October 15-17, is shaping up to be one you don't want to miss. Take a look at the new names that have recently been added to the guest list.

Joe Pilato - "Captain Rhodes" in Day of the Dead (all three days)

Greg Nicotero - The FX master of the modern zombie himself (Saturday only)

Joe Bob Briggs - B-movie gourmand and host (all three days)

Gary Sales - Producer of Madman (Friday and Saturday)

Paul Ehlers - Star of Madman (Friday and Saturday)

Fred Williamson - From Dusk Till Dawn, That Man Bolt, Black Caesar (days Tba)

John Saxon - Nightmare on Elm Street series; Battle Beyond the Stars; Blood Beach; Silent Night, Evil Night; Queen of Outer Space (Saturday and Sunday)

Sybil Danning - Battle Beyond the Stars,...

The beach movie has come a long way from the days of Frankie & Annette, Gidget and The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini.

On second thought, maybe it hasn't changed at all. They've always been about the same things: babes, beefcake, and trying to get laid without getting sand in your nether regions.

Of course, the beach films of yesteryear could only hint at it, but you knew that beneath the Aquanet and Brylcreem, those kids were waiting to sexually explode (in between having to dodge all those giant radioactive insects so prominent in that era).

The beach films of recent times don't have to hint at anything, and can be as blatantly sexual and nuded up as they want. And they don't have to tiptoe around the "love that dare not speak its name" either, although if you read between the lines of those 60's films, we were always there,...

From Horror Squad

I wouldn't blame you for rolling your eyes skyward at the mention of the phrase "MTV Slasher Movie," but since My Super Psycho Sweet 16 comes from Jake Gentry, I'm feeling just a little bit better about the project. Why? Because Jake is one of the three directors who delivered The Signal, plus I've had some serious horror geek discussions with this guy, and he's the real deal. Like, you could mention Blood Beach, Hell Night, and The Gate in the same sentence, and he'll raise you a Funhouse or something.

So hopefully my optimism is well-founded, and I suppose we'll able to find out on October 23, which is when My Super Pyscho Sweet 16 debuts on MTV. Me, I'll hold out for the DVD release, because commercial breaks make me cranky and irritable. According to the IMDb, MSPS16 focuses on a party held at a roller derby that...

Hey, Paulington! Is a Cinephile advice column that looks at life, love, and the movies. Anyone can send in a question, and Paulington will answer it. Sure, it's a really cryptic, cliched concept that has been around since the dawn of time. But we're spicing it up a little bit. Topics can range from anything: Sex, violence, haints and taints, your favorite movie! Paulington doesn't care. He's basically doing it for a paycheck. He's not really an expert on anything. But he sure does know a lot about movies and human nature. You can send your questions to (as in, click on the giant red letters and you will automatically be sent to his email):

Hey, Paulington!

And he will be sure to answer all of them in a very timely manner. Here are this week's letters. Enjoy!

Hey, Paulington!

I am so sick of all things 3-D! What...