THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH (1964)
Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 78 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital Mono
Video: B/W 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Del Tenney
Cast: John Scott, Alice Lyon, Allan Laurel
Del Tenney's regional cult-classic The Horror of Party Beach (1964) was “The First Horror-Monster Musical”, a schlocky sixties stinker with one of the worst looking creatures creations to ever scar the silver screen, looking like a humanoid aquatic-chicken choking on a bag of dicks. It's real bad stuff from the first frame on through to the last, but it's also the sort of movie tailor made for a bad movie night group watch with way too much beer. If you love bad movies this is sure to be some of the tastiest/moldiest cinema fromage you've ever had, so dig into this bad movie fondu with two forks my vintage shit fest fans, The Horror of Party Beach is served!
The movie is variation on that old 50's nugget - the toxic waste monster, it all begins with a very bad company dumping toxic waste off the Eastern Seaboard. The toxic sludge leaks from a barrelthat been dumped near an old shipwreck, coating the skeletons of a long-dead sailors, re-animating them as half-man/half-fish creatures that elicit more laughs from viewers than any sort of fear. The creatures make their way from the depths to land emerging to slaughter young people who have gathered near the beach for some sun, fun and sand, clawing their faces and leaving behind a string of bloody corpses that would have made the 'Godfather of Gore' Herschel Gordon Lewis (Blood Feast) proud, with loads of chocolate syrup blood dripping off of the shredded limbs of dead teenagers.
We have a a pipe smoking scientist, a housekeeper who stumbles upon the way to kill the monsters (it's the same way you would kill a slug), there's a slumber party massacre, bad boy bikers, beach parties, surf-rock from The Del-Aires and a creepy underwater transformations that is actually sort of eerie. This spunky shocker's got a little bit of everything for fans of vintage schlock, none of it all that good but every last bit of it is entertaining in that special bad movie night sort of way that some of just cannot get enough of, it's not for everyone, but for some of us it's everything.
Audio/Video: The Horror of Party Beach (1964) debuts on Blu-ray from Severin Films with a new 2K scan from the original camera negative, presented in 1080p HD and framed in 1.85:1 widescreen. The black and white image of the Blu-ray advances over the previous Dark Sky Films DVD looking brighter and cleaner, grain is visible (for better or worse), blacks are deeper and the gray scale is much improved. Dare I say crisp? No, I wouldn't say that at all, but it is definitely a step in the right direction, but it's still soft and overly dark in places, there's some fading and print damage evident throughout, but this is absolutely the best the film has looked on home video. Audio comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA Mono with optional English subtitles, the audio is fairly solid and reproduces dialogue and the surf party tunes of The Del-Aires and the roars of the aquatic mutant menace.
Severin are kind enough to give us some new extras to accompany the film, we get a 16-min Return to Party Beach: A Retrospective Documentary on The Horror of Party Beach which is narrated by Tom Weaver and has an interview with the late directors wife Margot Hartman who speaks about the various challenges and adventures while making the film, while the narration gives a nice overview of Tenney's career. We also get a 4-min interview with The Del-Aires band members Bobby Osborne and Ronnie Linares, these guys look like aged surfer hippies and still rock out, performing their song “Zombie Stomp” right there in the living room, very cool dudes. Director Tim Sullivan (2001 Maniacs) shows up to discuss rock n' roll in movies beginning with I Was a Teenage Werewolf and on through the beach party film of the 50's and beyond. Severin also carry-over the 9-min interview with director Del Tenney who speaks about his life, career and making his movies, there's also a trailer for the film.
Special Features:
- Return to Party Beach: A Retrospective Documentary on The Horror of Party Beach (16 min)
- It's the Living End: An Encounter with The Del-Aires - Interview with band members Bobby Osborne and Ronnie Linares (4 min)
- Shock & Roll: Filmmaker Tim Sullivan on Rock & Roll Horror Movie (8 min)
- Archival interview with Director Del Tenney (9 min)
- Trailer (2 min)
The Horror of Party Beach (1964) is a bad-film classic, full of good surf music, bad schlock, a few decent thrills, and aquatic chicken creatures that look like they're choking on a bag of dicks - what's not to love? If you're a bad movie enthusiast now's the time to get enthused, Severin have come through with another slice of vintage crud with some quality extras and a damn decent A/V presentation.
