The Horror of Party Beach

Horror of Party Beach, The (1964)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Insane cult classic from director Del Tenney who also made the infamous I Drink Your Blood. Dumb scientists are dumping toxic waste into the ocean, which in turn creates half fish, half zombie monsters that start attacking the locals and drinking their blood. This is one of those infamous bad films that has gained a huge cult following over the years and it's easy to see why since this film has pretty much everything. This is certaily a very poor movie but there's just a certain charm that keeps it entertaining throughout. We've got jocks, bikers, sluts, sea monsters, bad rock 'n roll, insane dialogue and everything else. The sea monsters are some of the dumbest looking monsters ever created but that adds to the charm. The dialogue is also very silly but this here gets plenty of laughs as well. If you're into these 'so bad they're good" films then this here is a must see. The original rock 'n roll songs in the film are also terrible, especially "Zombie stomp".

The monster had a striking resemblance to the Creature from the Black Lagoon, which was a much better picture with great cinematography. To make a correction: the substance used to kill them was sodium, not sodium chloride. Sodium burns on contact with water. It's a soft metal, not a powder, so it would take a lot to kill them. But why not just use flame throwers or some other flame source? The music by the Del Aires was really corny. I did a search and found nothing relating to them. Did they ever put out a record? You wonder where they plugged in their amplifiers on the beach. And how were the canisters of toxic material so easily broken open? I wonder what became of the actors. I don't recognize a single name from the cast.

Spawned by nuclear waste which has been dumped into the sea, these hideous creatures rise up from the ocean depths to prey on innocent teens!

Actually the creatures aren't that hideous and the teens aren't that innocent, so there isn't really much horror at Party Beach.

But there's still some fun to be had if you're into the mood for a so-bad-it's-good movie. The monster suits are perfect comic caricatures of all those `Black Lagoon' imitators, so you have to laugh WITH the movie as well as AT it. The creatures have cartoonish fish heads atop slim bodies with oversized scales that look more like floppy feathers. The suits must have been reasonably light and maneuverable, because the spry creatures invade several beach parties and dash off with armloads of bikini-clad beauties.

Musical guest stars: The Del-Aires. Filmed during the height of Frankie and Annette's `Beach Party' craze, `The Horror of Party Beach' was a pure natural for the thousands of drive-in theaters that flourished during those by-gone days.

The Horror of Party Beach has got to be one of the all time great "Z" grade movies. To a 12 year old kid these monsters were so cool. I didn't care about acting or production values back then, this was great cinema! While it featured the very first slumber party massacre on film, (quite bloody and graphic for its time), it also had some of the funniest dialog and scenes ever put on film. Some teenagers recruit the help of the local college professor to kill these radioactive sea creatures. He discovers by accident( the family maid Eullabelle spills some salt onto a severed limb left by one of the beastly denizens) that sodium can destroy them. This sequence with the maid is hilarious! The fact that the professor has to drive from Conn. to N.Y. just to get a large supply of salt is absurdly funny in and of itself. The Del-Aires are on hand for your musical pleasure, singing their smash hits Zombie Stomp and Elllllaaaiiinnneee! Where was Dick Clark when all this was happening? I rate it a Fiiiiiiiive!

All in all, this movie still holds a special place in my heart. But if you want a similar type of film, only better, check out Roger Corman's 1980 cult classic " Humanoids From the Deep".

At the beginning of this film, you'd think you were watching one of those "beach party" musicals as The Del Aires - a so-so group of the day - provide us with some rock music of the time period. Hey, we even got a folk song later by a couple of girls. It wasn't exactly Joan Baez and company, but they weren't bad.

Alice Lyon as "Elaine Gavin" may be one of the all-time worst actresses I've even seen on film. It is no shock this is her only movie. Some of the other actors ranged from bad to decent.

However, it's the "monsters" - the guys with the "Creature From the Black Lagoon" suits but with better eyeballs and hot dog-like appendages hanging from their cheeks - that mainly make this horrible film a hoot, making not really horrible but good because it was fun to watch.

To its credit, it was fairly fast-moving, too, with enough action to keep one's interest. The "creatures" were an active bunch! It all makes for decent viewing if you are a fan of the 1950s schlock monster and/or sci-fi films.

Recommended!