The Beach Girls and the Monster

When I was a young kid, there was a show that came-on late on Friday nights; it specialized in horror/sci-fi films, and as time passed the movies they screened got worse and worse until they scraped the bottom of the barrel with trash like this and "The Horror of Party Beach." The show was eventually canceled when its ratings fell precipitously. It's obvious that stupid garbage like this was the chief reason. The film is slow, boring and has the most laughable "movie monster" ever, which turns-out to be Hall's character in an outrageously bogus seaweed-suit. That's pretty bad, when you consider monsters like Ro-Man from "Robot Monster" and the indescribably laughable fish-critters from THOPB. At the end of the chase scene that ends the film, watch how the professor's sportscar turns into a boxy four-door sedan just in time to go over a cliff!

Instantly reminding me of a live action version of the 1970's mystery comedy cartoon series "Scooby Doo", I had this figured out within the first reel. A creature from the black lagoon style monster is terrorizing the teen hot spot, attacking young women and leaving their badly scarred corpses bleeding in the sand. Scientist Jon Hall and his son are trying to prove that this is some sort of mutation, having evidence of other sea creatures having grown to sizes unknown to science. They are also dealing with Hall's nasty second wife and a houseguest who has outstayed their welcome. The creature itself is scary looking enough (no hot dog like teeth like "The Horror of Party Beach"), but the film is pretty much just bland rather than bad. I felt it had no real suspense once I figured out the possible twist, and it was a matter of maintaining patience to get to the end. Amateurish acting and poor technical aspects made it all the more tedious.

A beach movie without Frankie and Annette? Here it is. Who would not like this film? Anyone who likes drive-in movies. Enjoy the black-and-white local California surfing sequences. It has those 60's wild dancing. More of beach party babes on the sand for your enjoyment. This campy classic also offers a Frank Sinatra Jr. An interesting trivia is that film was made after the Frank Sinatra Jr kidnapping. Don't miss his bongo drum score. A low budget sea monster stalks beach bunnies until the end. The monster looks like it ran into a shredder. A classic movie 'bomb' from the golden days of film-making. Real cool, Daddy-O. Frankie and Annette eat your hearts out!

I've only ever seen this film with the title Monster From the Surf, but whichever way you package it, it's a stone cold psychotronic classic. Heck, the dual presence of Radley Metzger behind the camera (he acquits himself nicely, especially with his shots of a drunken Vicky) and Frank Sinatra Jr.'s score should be enough enticement for anyone. Add in faded matinee idol Jon Hall in the starring role, season with liberal amounts of surf footage, and you have a winner! Especially memorable is the 'theme song', as interpreted by a hand puppet. A pleasure to watch on many levels.

Beach Girls and the Monster, The (1965) * (out of 4) A bunch of teens just wanna dance to some good music and surf but a sea monster shows up to ruin their day. This is a rather infamous film that tries to mix with horror genre with any of the Beach Party movies but the film is a flat out disaster but I must admit that it kept me entertained throughout its 65-minute running time. If you can't stand bad movies then there's no need for you to see this one but if you believe that some bad movies can be entertaining then this here is a must see. The performances are all incredibly bad but this does lead to some nice laughs as does the really bad direction. The monster has a cute rubber face and I admit that I enjoyed the few scenes that it's in but the twist in the plot can easily be spotted. The film is best remembered today for its Frank Sinatra, Jr. soundtrack and it's actually pretty good even though it's third-rate Beach Boys stuff.

Beach set horror film about a monster stalking and killing kids in around the coast. Its an okay (at best) little film with lots of music, a rather dumb, but fun looking monster and just a touch of mystery. In all honesty the best way to view this film is as the model for every Scooby Doo episode ever made. I know I just ruined this for about six of you but for the rest of you I probably just saved you from wasting 65 minutes of your life. It's a film that is just as clever as Scooby. Beyond that the film really doesn't have much to recommend it. If you're in the mood for a the live action Scooby Doo film (sans the dog) give this a shot otherwise take a pass.