Nightmare Beach (reviewed by Lisa Marie Bowman)
Welcome to Spring Break!
That’s actually one of the alternative titles to 1989’s Nightmare Beach. It’s an appropriate title because Nightmare Beach opens with hundreds of college students descending on a small beach community for Spring Break. While the locals and the police force prepare for two weeks of rowdiness and binge drinking, the students just want to have a good time. Fortunately, Diablo, the leader of the feared Demons motorcycle gang, has just been put death via the electric chair. The beach should be safe …. or as safe as anywhere can be during Spring Break!
Unfortunately, the beach is not safe. A mysterious figure is riding a motorcycle through the night, tracking down people celebrating Spring Break and electrocuting them. In the grand tradition of all towns that depend on the tourist industry for their economic survival, local officials are trying to keep the murders quiet. There’s no need to start a panic and cause all of those drunk college kid to spend their money somewhere else. But when college quarter Skip Benachek (Nicolas de Toth) starts trying to figure out why his best friend, Ronny (Rawley Valverde), hasn’t returned to their hotel room, he discovers that there is a murderer on the loose. Is it the ghost of Diablo or is it the strange police chief (John Saxon) or the overwrought local minister (Michael Parks)? Working with Gail (Sarah Buxton), the sister of one of the victims, Skip is determined to find out!
This film is an odd mix of Spring Break comedy and Italian horror. Scenes of people partying on the beach and playing practical jokes and trying to figure out how to stay in a hotel without paying are mixed with scenes of those same people being horribly electrocuted by the killer motorcyclist. The film’s tone is all over the place but it’s such an extreme mishmash of styles that it actually becomes oddly fascinating to watch. Usually, when it comes to movies like, the comic relief is guaranteed to be safe from harm. In Nightmare Beach, the comic relief seems to be the primary target. Spring Break fans will enjoy the beach antics. Slasher movie fans will enjoy the unique killer and the occasional jump scares. Fans of cult cinema will enjoy watching John Saxon and Michael Parks chew up every piece of scenery that they can get their hands on.
The film’s credited director is Harry Kirkpatrick, who has no other credits. I have it on the authority of a member of the cast that the film was actually directed by Nightmare Beach‘s producer, the prolific Italian horror filmmaker, Umberto Lenzi.
