The Horror of Party Beach
Director: Del Tenney
Year: 1964
Rating: 5.0
This is pretty great for a movie that many critics
call the worst film of all time. That is just stupid. Elitism. Sure, there
is much to make fun of, but for an independent film on a budget of $50,000
and a director Del Tenney with little experience, it is good fun. It begins
like all those AIP Beach movies. Girls frolicking on the beach in bikinis,
bare-chested young men trying to get their attention, a rock band called
the Del-Aires knocking out songs like The Zombie Stomp on the beach that
everyone is dancing to, a motorcycle gang, the tease from a girl and boys
vying for dominance in the pack. Just good fun. Good tunes. It is shot in
black and white showing its budgetary constraints. It only really matters
when the mauled bodies don't show red blood.
A company has been tossing radioactive drums
into the ocean. Leaky ones. At the same time a boat sank with people on board.
They mixed and faster than you can say, what the hell, the ocean is filled
with large gilla like monsters that have a taste for blood. Primarily of
the female flavor. The encounters between monster and woman are cliched and
enjoyable.
The tease is of course the first to get
it. Don't they always in slasher films. Then the classic slumber party that
practically invites the monsters in for a bloodbath. The flat tire in the
woods of course with three damsels. The acting is flatter than three day
old roadkill and the Monsters look like the oversized work of someone who
was watching Sesame Street and smoking dope. But none of that really matters.
And The Zombie Stomp should have been a hit. All the makings of a cult film.
