The Horror of Party Beach

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.

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!

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".

It's hard to hate a film that creeped me out for years! made me leery of dark forests and deep water forever. I know it is drekk but it's definitely good drekk.What startled me at the time was how fast it got to the point. Beach scenes, spilled radiation barrels,the monster created,and gets its first victim a few minutes later with blood gushing everywhere.Then a few dull minutes of talk,then the classic slumber party scene!20 girls laughing,singing,and having pillow fight not knowing the things from hell are creeping outside!The attack is surprisingly gory,with shots of bloodied bodies all over the room.definitely get the 79 minute version,not the edited tv version.

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.