"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.
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.