NIGHTMARE BEACH (1989, original title La spiaggia del terrore, aka WELCOME TO SPRING BREAK) is a late-stage giallo from Umberto Lenzi, an extremely prolific director and also one of my favourites. This one's a lesser work but one that nonetheless proves entertaining for the fans. It's set at Spring Break time in Florida, where a cast of young good-looking characters are assailed by a psycho killer on a souped-up motorbike who favours electrocution as his (or her) modus operandi! Cruel chief of police John Saxon doesn't help much either with his "shoot first" method of policing and a local motorbike gang sporting DEMONS jackets (!) only adds to the mayhem.
I caught this on Prime in a HD version and it's certainly a colourful, fine-looking film but you feel at times Lenzi is distracted by all of the "bikini babes" so much that the endless titillation feels like padding. Italian horrors of the 1980s struggled to find good actors and there's a real sense here that the younger characters are of the 'pretty but bland' type you see in Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street sequels. However, the electrocution murders are inventive and get more gruesome as the running time goes on, leading to some eyeball-popping, face-melting nastiness that doesn't disappoint. The ending offers a traditional identity for the villain despite the supernatural plot elements elsewhere. A solid slice of '80s horror this, far from reaching classic status, but still fun if you're in the right mood.
I caught this on Prime in a HD version and it's certainly a colourful, fine-looking film but you feel at times Lenzi is distracted by all of the "bikini babes" so much that the endless titillation feels like padding. Italian horrors of the 1980s struggled to find good actors and there's a real sense here that the younger characters are of the 'pretty but bland' type you see in Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street sequels. However, the electrocution murders are inventive and get more gruesome as the running time goes on, leading to some eyeball-popping, face-melting nastiness that doesn't disappoint. The ending offers a traditional identity for the villain despite the supernatural plot elements elsewhere. A solid slice of '80s horror this, far from reaching classic status, but still fun if you're in the right mood.