User reviews

Here in his attempt to shamelessly imitate the success of American teen slasher-movies, veteran Italian director Umberto Lenzi bids you welcome to a lot more than just Spring Break! Welcome to clichéd situations and ridiculous stereotypes! Welcome to cheesy gore and gratuitous nudity! Welcome to zero tension and maximum nonsense! Welcome to horrible rock music and awful dialogs! In short, welcome to the glorious and wonderfully entertaining world of 80's horror film-making! The overall quality level of this movie may very well be less than mediocre, but it guarantees a damn good time and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to tolerant fans of the genre. Some people and websites describe "Welcome to Spring Break" as a Giallo, but that's probably just because its director is Italian and maybe even because the DVD-cover proudly depicts the image of a maniacal killer wearing a pitch black motorcycle helmet (which was one of the favorite disguises of Giallo-killers), but it's actually a full-blooded and prototypic slasher in the trend of "Friday the 13th", "Happy Birthday To Me", "April Fool's Day" and other so-called holiday-themed splatter junk. The simpler the concept; the better. Unleash a killer – preferably one with an eerie disguise who likes his murders gruesome – among a group of stupid, drunken and hormone-laden teenagers in sunny, beach area. Try and raise confusion by suggesting the killer may be the vengeful reincarnation of a wrongfully executed biker, cast the almighty John Saxon as a sadistically corrupt cop, throw in some totally random images of a wet T-shirt contest and you got yourself the true definition of an 80's guilty pleasure. If you've seen a few movies like this, it shouldn't be too difficult to guess the maniac's identity quite early in the film already, but at least Umberto Lenzi's efforts to provide red herrings are admirable. The maniac's favorite method is interesting as well, as you don't see a mobile electric chair too often. The acting performances are mostly atrocious, with the exception of the aforementioned John Saxon and Michael Parks ("From Dusk Till Dawn", "Planet Terror") as the alcoholic doctor. There are a lot of things wrong with this film, but why bother getting annoyed over them? The girls are beautiful, the boys are dorks, the killer is cool and John Saxon is the man!

Umberto Lenzi (the Italian exploitation director who gave the world the incredibly gruesome CANNIBAL FEROX) spawned this entry into our beloved stalk and slash cycle under the amusing ‘all American' alias of Harry Kirkpatrick. Unleashed in 1988, I don't think that WELCOME TO SPRING BREAK ever got a UK release, so I had to hunt down a NTSC copy. I was kind of looking forward to receiving my print and didn't quite know what to expect. Knowing the work of Lenzi, I thought that this could either be a cheap bargain basement flick or a gruesome gore filled monster. I hoped that the latter would be the closest to the truth as I opened the jiffy bag in which my shrink rapped VHS arrived in and placed it into my video recorder…

It opens with a menacing looking guy – whom we later find out is named Edward ‘Diablo' Santor – being escorted to the electric chair for being found guilty of the murder of a beach bunny named Mary. He protests his innocence by shouting things like ` I've been framed' and `I didn't kill your sister bitch!' to a young attractive teen – Gail (Saran Buxton) – who's in the box viewing the execution. The convict gets strapped in and asked if he has any last words. He swears that he'll return to seek revenge upon those who wrongly accused him. The lever gets flicked and the unlucky inmate gets fried. Cue a cheesy eighties pop atrocity named ‘Don't take my heart', and on roll the credits… We are now introduced to a few of the residents of a sunny, sandy beach. You've got the Demons, a trouble making biker gang who terrorise all the local youths that are not a part of their group. Diablo - the guy sent to his death – was the leader of this rebellious pack and lets just say that the surviving members are not too pleased that he's not here to lead them astray anymore! You've also got a group of randy party loving teens who seem to enjoy nothing more than pulling dumb pranks upon each other, attending the beach wet T-shirt contests, chasing the opposite sex and drinking copious amounts of beer in the local bar. Gail (the sister of the pre-plot murder victim) pours the liquors in this seedy drinking establishment; and it's there where she meets Skip (Nicholas De Toth) and the two strikes up a romantic relationship. All these wild and fun filled nights are watched by an over zealous police chief named Striker (John Saxon) and a commandment abiding sinister minister (Lance LeGault) who warns the enthusiastic youngsters that they shouldn't sin! Before long a maniacal killer disguised in biker leathers and a helmet complete with tinted visor begins holding his own executions among the unsuspecting townsfolk. Each slaying becomes far more grisly than the next. The authorities try to keep the vicious murders under wraps, but when the bodies begin turning up in public places, it becomes incredibly difficult to keep the chilling fact a secret. So has Diablo kept his promise and returned from the grave to raise hell among the living?

To describe this flick to you in the best possible way, I'd have to say it's like a late night Baywatch complete with a psychopathic killer working his way through the lifeguards! If that takes your fancy then this may well be the movie you've been hunting for! It's blessed with some genuinely original death sequences, including one unlucky female getting chained to a post before she's, well, how shall we put it, ‘Flame grilled' by a large incinerator! It's also hilariously cheesy in a number of places and fans of bad cinema will find a few laughs scattered around freely here and there. It's pretty gory in a cheapskate kind of way and the killer's identity manages to remain quite well kept secret until he is unmasked in the closing five minutes. I was pleased to see John Saxon made a welcome appearance as the sadistic cop. Fond memories of his career best performance in Bruce Lee's ENTER THE DRAGON always allow him to hold his own in a movie. It's all located around a beautifully sandy sun splashed beach and we get some decent and inviting shots of the clear blue sea. Suspicion is chucked at everyone and the killer is hardly camera shy, managing to electrocute quite a few jocks and beach bunnies. The lead characters are likeable enough, giving you enough time to relate to them and hope they avoid getting slaughtered. Lenzi is also successful in keeping things interesting and has added all the relevant clichés without overdoing them to the point of becoming annoying.

Sadly however, WELCOME TO SPRING BREAK can't help but feel shamefully average, at best. The cast don't give us any memorable performances. And even the once charismatic Saxon looked bored. Likeable as he is, he seems to have lost his charm somewhat since the rapid decline of his once promising career. Things are also a little too predictable. You just knew all the way through what was going to happen next and the director doesn't even try to create any sense of fear or suspense. The kill scenes are painfully rushed without any stalking or effective build up. Our psycho just turns up when an unsuspecting victim is alone and then he quickly kills them! There isn't even a decent showdown when his identity is revealed. Although his motives for the murders are resolved and explained things still couldn't help but feel somewhat halfhearted and incomplete.

If I were to put this flick on a double feature, I'd pair it up with Ruggero Deodato's BODYCOUNT. The two are similar in many ways, if not for the fact that the two directors have a great deal in common. All in all this isn't excellent but it's not a complete waste of time either. Just a relatively simple ‘by the book' slasher, no less and certainly no more!

Nicolas De Toth and Rawley Valverde play Skip and Ronnie, a pair of college football players who, along with thousands of other like-minded youngsters, head to the beach for spring break in search of sun, sea, sand and sex. The pair's fun is interrupted, however, when they get on the wrong side of the town's local biker gang, and a mysterious killer begins to bump off the Easter revellers in truly shocking style.

Hiding behind the pseudonym Harry Kirkpatrick and shooting on location in Fort Lauderdale with an all-American cast, Italian horror director Umberto Lenzi is clearly intending to pass off this 80s slasher as a product of the US of A; to complete the illusion, he sets his sexy spring break shenanigans and murderous mayhem to a suitably loud hair metal soundtrack (he's not fooling me though: with a Claudio Simonetti score that sounds like leftovers from the Demons and Phenomena soundtracks, a really silly motorcycle that electrocutes its pillion passengers, and a daft denouement that could have come straight out of a giallo, this film's Italian origins seem only too apparent).

Whenever Lenzi's attention is focused on either the wild antics of the sex-mad teens (wet t-shirt competitions, drunken zany pranks etc.,) or the gruesome activities of the psycho killer (best death: the roasting of a young woman in front of an open incinerator), Welcome To Spring Break is reasonably enjoyable trashy fare. Sadly, the plot frequently wanders into territory far less likely to entertain, the business with the bikers soon getting tiresome and a ridiculous sub-plot about the town's corrupt officials (which sees John Saxon slumming it as a sleazy sheriff) only serving to add to the tedium.

All in all, this is a pretty uneven effort, one for those who have already seen the slasher classics and wish to explore lesser known examples of the genre, or who simply enjoy their 80s horror extra cheesy.

4.5 out of 10, rounded up to 5 for all those lovely, big-haired, 80s beach babes.

This juicy slice of summer happens to be one of the most professional Italian movies made on US soil. You get young people partying, 80s metal non stop, wet t-shirt contests, pretty girls making a buck or two on the side with older gents, sharply dressed biker gang, shady local government figures, and a leather-clad masked killer who offs everybody in high voltage fashion. The story isn't very special, a beach town biker gang leader gets fried on electric chair, while John Saxon the sheriff and Michael Parks the doctor see to it. BTBGL's last words consist of a vow to avenge his own death. Later it's summertime and horny young people start turning up dead. Amidst all this two friends ride into town to join the party. Will it all turn out well? This film is one of the most watchable slashers out there. It's so well made, well paced and well acted (well, it's campy but not horrible) that it almost qualifies for a "feel-good slasher". You might not like it if you're a "gore hound" and only want to see people suffer, because here everybody's having fun.

First, the movie istelf starts pretty well because it has all the ingredients to be cool; 80's vibes, cars, girls, parties, drinks, gore and a little of Sci-Fi.

Second, I really enjoyed the first 60 minutes. Good memories from the 80's and some nostalgia from here and there. What it really worked here are the mistery aura from the killer, the gore and the main characters as acceptable actors.

Third, the settings are cool and the bikers gang and music are the best probably. The Sheriff is a classic actor from Horror movies. Don't want to spoil anything.

Last, the bad. The last 20 minutes are terrible. It ruined almost everything and everything ends really fast. Poor. Really poor. Not to mention some characters "disappear" and we don't know anything about it.

So, overall a horror entertaining b-movie with 80's vibes.

Nightmare Beach may not be a very good film in the classic sense, but in terms of entertainment value; the film certainly has a lot going for it. Nightmare Beach is known as a Giallo in some circles, but I think it's quite clear that the main inspiration has come from the overpopulated slasher genre. I'm not a big fan of this type of film, but Nightmare Beach succeeds where other slashers fail because it doesn't try to be anything that it isn't, and the focus is always on the dumb teens at the centre of the story and the over the top murder scenes. The movie seems to take a lot of influence from Lamberto Bava's 'Demons', as trashy eighties metal is mixed in with just about every sequence...and was that the logo for said film that I saw on the back of the biker's shirts? The plot focuses on the annual Easter celebration known as 'Spring Break' at a certain (nightmare) beach. A biker by the name of Diablo was put to death by electric chair after supposedly being framed for murder by the local officer, and now the authorities have a problem on their hands as the biker going round electrocuting people threatens the business boom.

Umberto Lenzi's career peaked in the late sixties to early seventies with Giallo classics such as Seven Blood-Stained Orchids and several awesome crime flicks such as Almost Human. It's safe to say that his career went downhill in the eighties when he started to imitate the likes of Lucio Fulci and Ruggero Deodato with enjoyable yet trashy flicks such as Cannibal Ferox and Nightmare City. While Nightmare Beach is nothing like as good as Lenzi's earlier efforts, and certainly doesn't represent a return to form, at least this film is enjoyable throughout, and personally I didn't care too much that I know the director is capable of better. As you might expect, the acting is truly diabolical, with nobody except cult icon John Saxon coming out of the film with any credibility; although Saxon does lift the entire production with hard man role. The electrocution style murder scenes are well shot, and while they don't all look particularly realistic; and don't feature much in the way of gore, it's nice to see a slasher that doesn't just feature knife killings. The mystery surrounding the identity of the murderer is never too well explored, and by the end there really is just one suspect left. Overall, this film is bound not to please everyone; but it's a lot of fun to watch, and if you can put with trash films - this one is well worth seeing!

The leader of the biker gang "The Demons" is convicted for murder and is electrocuted in the electric chair. Before he dies, he yells that he'll take revenge on the town. But the beach community main focus for now is the truck load of college students making their way there for "Spring break". Although, things turn bad when the biker's body is now missing from its grave and a serial killer biker has hit the scene and is killing teenagers. This leaves a depressingly good-guy collage football player and a barmaid to figure out who's behind the killings, while the authorities try to cover it up so it doesn't spoil business.

SPRING BREAK! Time to riot and be completely idiotic! When watching this, I was thinking that I was going to get mostly a slasher film, but Umberto Lenzi (who's going by Harry Kirkpatrick for the occasion) seemed more occupied with the pointlessly low-brow partying. I thought this aspect would be more in the background, but instead it came to the forefront. This costs the mystery element of the story with Porky's-Revenge of the Nerds II antics winning out.

This low-budget, b-grade effort is pretty much a loudly obnoxious copy and paste slasher/goofball item that recycles the usual stereotypes, clichés and red herrings with less than desirable results. These tools are laid on thick… very thick. This goes for the token characters, which the camera seems to follow about. You got the thief, prankster, misguided girl conning older men out of their doe, loud-mouth lout, peeping tom, sex-crazed dope, mopey football player, trouble makers (bikers here), Rev.'s skank daughter and the list just goes on… and on. Random characters simply come and go in a stereotypical mish mash. I don't mind this, if it didn't uninterestingly drag, which I found it to do. These certain aspects and gimmicks involving these different characters do get tired, like the thief constantly stealing money and everyone believing the prankster's gags. In no time you're thinking how can they keep on falling for it? Everything about this side of the story was so heavy handed, predictable and one-dimensional in its build-up that when it came to "who-dunnit" slasher development it just falls flat on its back.

The cardboard premise is chocker block with possibilities as it goes all over the place in what it wants to be and a tepidly dismal script offers very little help. The red herrings are poorly justified and unbelievable that you can see who it is miles before it's even revealed and there are coincidences' too many. Lenzi's statically lazy direction can hardly raise an ounce of sweat with weak attempts of suspense, but there are few effective touches amongst the dross and his pacing is quite stable. Make-up special effects are tolerable enough, but the gore is pretty much missing, as most of the violence involves victims being burnt to a crisp after being electrocuted by the killer/or bike. Yep, bike! They are quite original, but still these buzzing jolts are weakly handled and simply risible in the execution of the deaths. Most of the time he just happens to be there, just like many of the other characters. So there's a high suspension of disbelief needed. The smashingly uproarious rock score by Claidio Simonetti sticks in many heavy metal cues with plenty of impact and with the guidance of some striking cinematography works its way in.

The acting throughout is mainly poor. Gladly the capable presence of John Saxon shines through. His snarlingly hard-ass and slimly performance as the police chief adds much needed class to the rest of the fumbling performances. Michael Parks is features briefly in an amusing alcoholically twitchy doctor/coroner and Lance LeGault scornfully chews up the scenery as the priest. Nicolas De Toth makes for a sluggishly vapid heroine and the foxy Sarah Buxton's fine performance adds the much need sparks in their pairing.

"Welcome to Spring Break" is averagely plain, which in the final product I didn't find to be as fun as it could have been. More mindless fodder to an overpopulated trend.

First things first - many have considered this film to be a 'Giallo'. It has some features of a giallo plus an Italian director, but it's a full-fledged slasher. And an entertaining one.

Being a slasher fan, I really enjoyed it. Sure, it's dumb as hell, the characters are just stereotypes, plot is as unoriginal as it gets, yet this movie is still fun to watch. It has all the elements right - a bunch of read herrings, a touch of supernatural, a twist ending, Spring Breakers and nudity a plenty plus John Saxon. The killer is easy to figure out, but that's the case with many slashers.

If you're a fan, don't hesitate and grab a copy.

Director Umberto Lenzi used the name "Harry Kirkpatrick" when he made this. Don't know why. Maybe because it didn't spill the usual gallons of blood as is usually seen in Lenzi's gorefests. In fact, at first I thought that this was a crime drama rather than a slasher flick, because there was so little "slashing" going on. Then I realized that it actually WAS supposed to be a slasher flick--it's just such an incompetent one it was difficult to tell. Anyway, as mentioned by a previous poster, there are a few electrocutions (badly done) that pretty much serve as the film's body count. Other than that, the acting isn't good enough to pass muster in a junior high school class play, the script is laughable and has holes big enough to drive the 3rd Armored Division through, the identity of the killer is painfully obvious long before the final unmasking and the film fails miserably at whatever it is it's supposed to be--it's too mild to be a slasher flick, it's not coherent enough to be a crime drama, it's far too obvious to be called a thriller and, despite its alternate title of "Welcome to Spring Break," there's not enough T&A in it to qualify as a decent T&A flick. John Saxon, Michael Parks and Lance LeGault, usually reliable actors, must have needed to pay the rent to have appeared in this thing, but they're professional enough to give it their best shot; unfortunately, the odds are stacked against them and the whole picture looks like a really bad student film. A flop on all levels. Avoid it.

I first saw this movie on USA UP ALL NIGHT as WELCOME TO SPRING BREAK. Normally,I don't like slasher flicks at all,but this film has a goofy sense of fun,as if it's making fun of itself. Running gags run rampant ("How 'bout them GATORS!?") and the acting is absolutely horrible. I found it to be an interesting,surreal film with beautiful scenery (check out the phosphate mine!) and laugh-out-loud moments,some of which are intentional.

"Nightmare Beach" concerns itself with a gang of stereotypical, party-hearty Spring Breakers who come to bad ends, courtesy of a motorcycle helmet-wearing psychopath who rides a truly awesome bike.

Don't look for much more plot than that, although there IS a disgraced football player named Skip (Nicolas De Toth), whose best bud (Rawley Valverde) becomes a victim. Naturally, he wants to find the killer, and so does the gorgeous Gail (Sarah Buxton), whose sister is also part of the psychos' body count.

"Nightmare Beach" is co-written and directed by an American named Harry Kirkpatrick, although the man originally hired to direct it was Italian cult favourite Umberto Lenzi ("Cannibal Ferox", "Almost Human"). Lenzi took a powder early on but remained on set in an advisory capacity. Handling makeup effects duties are Alex and Vittorio Rambaldi (Alex being the son of Carlo Rambaldi, who'd worked on "E.T.", "Alien", and the 1976 "King Kong"). And the gore is pretty good, even if the killer doesn't claim an over-abundance of victims. Adding to the fun factor is that whenever the psycho isn't doing his thing, this plays a lot like a typical 80s sex comedy, complete with obnoxious, sex-starved idiots. "Nightmare Beach" does have a sense of humour about itself, which does help a lot. Admittedly, the story is largely routine stuff.

Of course, you can't go wrong with familiar faces like Lance LeGault (as a pontificating reverend), the almighty Michael Parks (as a guilt-ridden doctor), and the even more almighty John Saxon (as a tough cop) among the cast. Genre buffs may also recognize Fred Buch (he plays the mayor); 13 years previous, he'd been cannon fodder for the zombies in the B-movie classic "Shock Waves".

Very nicely shot (by Antonio Climati), this makes good use of some locations, especially that phosphate mine.

Energetic to a fault, this particular slasher actually creates some truly upbeat vibes, which is not something one can say about many entries in the genre.

Seven out of 10.

Your typical crazy teenage slasher flick... this one being set at Spring Break at the (you'll never guess) beach.

With the most homoerotic biker gang around on the prowl, and a religious freak electrocuting sun-worshippers to death, you'd better stay alert as well as tanned this season!

Featuring dismal acting, killings that are more funny than frightful and the usual gratuitous Wet T-Shirt competitions, the movie is still just about tolerable thanks to the ol' So Bad It's Good cliche.

My favourite moment: All throughout the movie, a practical joker pretends to either be dead or seriously injured to freak out nearby vacationers. Guess what happens to him in the end? Ever heard of the boy who cried wolf? Hee-hee. 4/10

There isn't a great deal of entertainment value to be found in these here parts. This one of those goofy slasher movies which lacks those elements that bring cheesy entertainment and isn't even any good on a so bad its good level.

Following the execution of a bikey leader a mysterious biker goes a killing spree during spring break in Florida, dispatching his victims mainly by electrocution. The whole movie is badly executed and almost all scenes fall flat resulting in no laughs, suspense or excitement. The acting is absolutely terrible even by the standards of dreck like this. The younger actors, including our blander than bland leads, deliver their lines like kindy kids in the end of year Christmas play. I do not exaggerate when I say that the actress who plays the biker girl may well give the worst acting performance in the history of film. Even the old hands like Michael Parks and John Saxon don't exactly distinguish themselves, phoning in poor performances.

The whole movie just trundles along each scene trundled through in a workman like fashion by the directors and actors with no flair or style right up till the Scooby Doo style plot resolution. Even the exploitative elements fail to disappoint; there is little gore other than in the lame and fake looking deaths by electrocution and for a slasher movie set a spring break it is remarkably chaste. What is left over is bad actors going through the motions in the paint by numbers plot and a lot of padding, involving spring break hijinks, some of which I think was meant to be funny and filler subplots like the one involving the bikey gang, which isn't even properly resolved. If a movie like this can't even get the lowest common denominator elements right there is not a lot of point to it.

Umberto Lenzi's possible and probable name change to Harry Kirkpatrick shouldn't have mattered much at all to anyone who might have caught a glimpse of this highly dreadful U.S. made film (titled as WELCOME TO SPRING BREAK). A lot of his films are identified by other English names, one of which is Chinese. Those who've heard of him will recall CANNIBAL FEROX (a.k.a. MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY). Others will have heard of NIGHTMARE CITY (CITY OF THE WALKING DEAD, the U.S. title), which had numerous video releases. This, unfortunately, wasn't what I expected. It doesn't even compare to any of his violent, but fun-filled crime / horror movie efforts he did in the 70s. It's as horribly bad as movies like this go. What's the whole point about it? The opening sequence shows somebody about to get executed. We get too many shots of butt-cheeked beauties in swimsuits and bikinis, and then, a "supernatural" maniac on a motorbike who instantly kills with no apparent reason (or taste). Plus a lousy biker gang who assaults police officers, and the girl in it gets slain by that killer. What became of John Saxon, dragged against the motorcycle with his legs tied up against the chains? I DON'T KNOW!!! I DON'T CARE!!! It doesn't feel like a mystery even though we're trying to find out who the hell our serial killer is. Maybe I should've said that it doesn't taste like Ragu! Gore lovers won't be excited over the lack of effects put into them. Stick to those classic Italian made treasures and give this dry bone to your faithful bulldog. Absolutely dreadful!!!

Also known as Welcome to Spring Break, this is in fact a rather uneasy mix of slasher and beach party blow out. The early scenes with awful school kids bragging, boasting and generally acting like prats while nubile young ladies parade, strip, perform in wet t-shirts and even offer sex for sale are pretty grim despite the many glimpses of skin. A gang of bikers, known as The demons (get it?) are a giant red herring while a serial killer hidden beneath a motorcycle outfit wreaks havoc. I trust that leading man Nicolas De Toth is not related to the legendary director of western because he is just awful. Sarah Buxton, alongside him does a sterling job and if the pairing had been more equal, this just might have taken off. Whilst De Toth is quite useless the bad ass copy is beautifully played by the ever reliable John Saxon. Nothing can prevent this from sliding back into obscurity, however, even if the last third is very watchable and the skin in the early scenes welcome enough.

I saw the movie because Umberto Lenzi was its director. Umberto is one of my favorite directors, however, I was disappointed seeing this movie. There is some innovative murders in this (electric chair tied to a bike), but whole plot is so disjointed that it seems like they just stitched few scenes together without thinking of inter-transition. You won't feel any emotional attachment with any of the characters in movie. Not unwatchable, but you won't miss anything if you give this one a slip.

I was perplexed at how notorious Italian director Umberto Lenzi (of "Cannibal Ferox" fame) made such a generic slasher flick as this one. IMDB has our backs: the trivia says that Lenzi didn't really direct it, it was made by a guy called Harry Kirkpatrick. Lenzi was only on set as an advisor to him.

About the only thing that sets this movie apart is the ridiculous method the killer uses to dispatch his victims. He rides a motorbike everywhere (and his helmet serves as a mask) and he coaxes people into sitting on it behind him. Then he pulls a lever and the bike turns into an electric chair, frying the passenger with electricity... but leaving the killer completely unharmed.

How is it possible that he is immune to electrocution?

The movie also has some nonsense about there being a conspiracy to cover up the killer's crimes, but that didn't register, and nor did any of the characters. The protagonist doesn't work on the big screen; the guy I assumed was going to be the lead gets killed, leaving us with the other guy.

And there's nowhere near enough nudity.