Itsy bitsy teenie weenie…beach monster
There is something under the beach. Sand is shifty to begin with. But this is something more. You can’t see it. You don’t know it’s there until it grabs you and won’t let go. Then it pulls you under and there is nothing showing that you were ever there.
Harry Caulder (David Huffman) works for harbor patrol. He swims to work. To get there he needs to cross the beach to the water. No problem. His neighbor Ruth Hutton (Harriet Medin) was there one morning. They said hello. He went into the water and started swimming. Ruth disappears. But her dog is still there. Harry tells the local police that he heard Ruth scream, but by the time he got there she was gone. And she wouldn’t go anywhere without her dog. The police are Sgt. Royko (Burt Young) and Lt. Piantadosi (Otis Young). Ruth’s daughter Catherine (Marianna Hill) comes back to town to try to find out what happened to her mother. Catherine and Harry have a history.
Then a girl at the beach is with her friends. They are burying her in the sand. She starts screaming. There is something biting her feet. Her friends pull her out of the sand and she is covered with blood. Now the police are getting heat from the mayor and the city council. It’s tourist season. People come anyway. The beach is starting to get a name. Blood Beach. The kids think it’s a hoot.
One of the most interesting parts is when a rapist is attacking a girl walking home at night on the beach. She manages to push away from him. Something under the sand bites off the first thing is reaches. Oh. Not good. How about when the dog is lying in the sand and Catherine goes to pick it up but the head’s been bitten off? Oh. Not good. Anyway, as people go missing the police are beginning to realize that there is a monster somewhere under the sand. They dig up the beach but find nothing. They know it’s there somewhere. First they need to find it. Then they need to figure out a way to kill it.
"Blood Beach" was released in 1980 and was directed by Jeffrey Bloom. It is an American science fiction horror film with comedic aspects. The movie is one of many that were done to cash in on the "Jaws" 1975 phenomenon. It even had the tag line: "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, you can't get to it."
You don’t get to see the creature until the end of the movie. That’s OK cause it ain’t special. It’s a lot creepier not seeing it. Many have compared it to a Venus Fly Trap but it looked more like a type of sea anemone to me.
Needless to say it was one of my favorite monster movies.