The Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell

This is an incomprehensible horribly low budget piece of awfulness.

I don't even have the vocabulary to say how dire, turgid, boring, confusing, and just plain strange this effort is (Hey what d'ya know I do....) Set in a post-Apocalyptic America some guys meet on a beach and slaughter and chaos ensue - it was all so incomprehensible I couldn't make head or tail of any of it.

Seriously how this got picked up by National Lampoon totally defeats me: it really is awful.

And not in a its so bad it's good cult way.

It is just awful, awful, awful, awful.

Honestly. If you still don't believe me then watch it with every intention of loving it then come back here and tell me what you think. Even gerbils on acid couldn't hope to understand this.

Avoid or even better destroy...

Starting with the title, this campy, hilarious, New American film is gushing with the zeal of the youthful, hip, and edgy filmmakers. Charting a primordial course towards a new genre, Writer/Director/Lead Kevin Wheatley and his directing collaborator Johnny Gillette, along with co-conspirator Cameron Pierce, have touched on something quite new and fresh. Hearkening back to the multi-format style of some of their predecessors like Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers and Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, the filmmakers lucidly blend time-shifting storytelling with "expert" testimony, hand drawn animation and graphics with live action, and clever writing with strong performances.

A first attempt at making a feature film is usually marred with over-acting, technical blunders, and misguided "post-fixes". This film, however, is an overachiever for these first time filmmakers. Their strong storytelling skills shine through in their History Channel-on-mescaline style, and the wait for their next foray has already been too long.

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Went to a midnight screening at the Crest in Westwood with some of my UCLA buds. Gotta say, I thought I might fall asleep since it started at 12am, but that wasn't the case. The movie's frenetic pace made for an exhilaration from beginning to end. It's akin to that rare sort of novel where you find yourself checking to see how many pages are left and hoping there are more, not fewer. A less imaginative movie coddles the audience. This movie opens up and says, "Here we go. You better hold on tight." The confidence the filmmaker's show in its audience's ability to follow every turn was such a breath of fresh air. But I could see a less savvy audience being turned off by this same confidence. If you like to try new things... If you like to challenge yourself... If you're sick of the tripe Hollywood is producing... You should see this film. With an embarrassment of riches at the filmmaker's fingertips, my only gripe is I will have to see it again to catch all the references and allusions.

I also attended the midnight screening at the LA Film Festival on Friday, June 23, 2006. I liked the film and got the impression that most everyone else did as well.

For a midnight showing, I was impressed that nearly every seat was filled. There was also more audience participation than I'm accustomed to, for the audience cheered when the title appeared, laughed and clapped during the film, and stayed for the credits. More so, about three-quarters stayed to learn more about the film during the Q&A that followed -- an impressive audience at 2:30 a.m.

I've never seen a movie quite like this one. It had a quick pace, over-the-top violence and gore, a sarcastic wit, and at least a dozen characters. It's one of those films you wish you could see again, in not to simply catch and appreciate all of its humor.

I got a chance to catch The Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell at its World Premiere at the L.A. Film festival. I would unabashedly recommend the film--especially to indie film-lovers and cult flick-enthusiasts worldwide. The filmmakers worked wonders in bringing a post-apocalyptic satire to the big screen on a meager budget.

The acting is, at times, pitch perfect and the story is a kind of Oh Brother Where art Thou meets Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas set in 2097, New America. The cinematography, editing, graphics and animation sequences are stunning and visually entertaining.

The film is a bit unconventional in structure, but the History Channel documentary/comic book style of the film is original and works well. While it has political and social overtones, the comedic setups were usually paid off with satisfying hilarity. The film started a bit slow, but it soon took off and kept me on the edge of my seat the rest of the way.

As this is only part one, I hope the filmmakers will be granted the budget and name talent to make part two even better than the first installment.