The Horror of Party Beach.

Review #1235: The Horror of Party Beach.

Cast: 
John Scott (Hank Green), Alice Lyon (Elaine Gavin), Allan Laurel (Dr. Gavin), Eulabelle Moore (Eulabelle), Marilyn Clarke (Tina), Agustin Mayor (Mike), Damon Kebroyd (Lt. Wells), and Munroe Wade (TV Announcer), with the The Del-Aires. Directed by Del Tenney.

Review: 
I have to admit that this film had been lurking on my radar of curiosity from time to time, mostly because of its reputation as an awful film. After all, it was mocked on Mystery Science Theater 3000 just like other fellow schlock films like its ilk, such as Eegah (1962), Monster a-Go-Go (1965) and The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (1964) The latter one matters most in part because it also marketed itself as "The First Horror Monster Musical" Of course the music featured here is actually just soundtrack + source music (hence the credit for the Paterson, New Jersey rock band The Del-Aires), but when has that ever stopped someone from making a wild credit to get some attention? It probably serves to distract from that fact that the monster itself is a horrifically laughable design (done by Robert Verberkmoes), complete with chicken eyes that looks like it has sausage links in its mouth. The fact that there is more than one of these monsters present in the film (with one of the monsters played by a teenage son of the production assistant due to the suit not fitting the stuntman) makes it even more hysterical. I do wonder how Richard Hilliard (who also served as cinematographer) came up with merging beach part movies with monsters - or maybe Tenney really thought a black-and-white Connecticut beach film would entice the kids, complete with chocolate syrup for blood. Then again, this was paired up with fellow Tenney feature The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964) on original release with a "Fright Release" akin to a William Castle gimmick.

In any case, how is the actual film? Oh, it's pretty terrible, having gaping holes in logic, inconsistency levels of terror with its silly monsters, flunky acting that would fit best for an all silent radio play and pathetic execution in terms of basic continuity. This actually had three editors, a supervising editor and two assistant editors yet they couldn't keep continuity over whether a monster attack is happening in the day or at night. At least one can't say that it is too long at 78 minutes, that is for sure. Nobody acting in this film comes off with too much dignity, although I imagine they weren't asked too much by their immediate family if they ever appeared in "that silly chicken beast movie". The beach aspects are laughable, since everyone seems way too old to be hanging around the beach (complete with silly motorcycle gang who leave the film after showing up once) - to say nothing of the character who accidentally triggers the discovery of the monster weakness believing the beasts to be a product of voodoo (this probably goes with the original working title of Invasion of the Zombies). As is the case with most monsters, the weakness is something the heroes can wrap their heads around - this one being sodium of all things, a substance described by a quick Internet search as the "sixth most abundant element on Earth" - but then again I guess one really needed to search a bit to find where you can get a tub of the stuff for the 1960s and then track the chicken-sorry, atomic beasts and use it on them before it just swallows up the whole town. Believe it or not, the television print for the film cut out most of the gory scenes, such as the shots of the body of the first attack when it surfaces. I don't know man, cutting out the parts of a film that make this stick out beside the tedium of beach party fare and sci-fi gobbledygook seems like a bad decision. At least being "scared" by some old effects is better than being dulled by the rest. I'll give it credit for its gradual effects change of sea creatures to monster (done on a sound stage, superimposing images of a fish over dissolving shots), since it means the film is actually getting itself going. To point out all the ridiculous mistakes or silly things (such as the examination of the monster hand, the visible human head out of monster neck, etc) would be exhausting, so let me just put it this way: You would actually be better off filming yourself going into the water of the beach and shaking the camera a few dozen times while making silly noises - if you do that, you may just make a better viewing experience than the one present here. Just take Tenney's word for it in describing the film years later: "It's amusing, but it is a terrible movie...But it turned into a cult thing, and people have fun with it." This is worth a curious laugh more than anything, awful dreck to point and laugh at for the summertime thrill and laughs.

Overall, I give it 1 out of 10 stars.