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Nightmare Beach (1989)
Kino Lorber
Blu-ray Disc Released: 10/1/2019
All Ratings out of
Movie:
Video:
1/2
Audio:
1/2
Extras:
Review by Mike Long, Posted on 11/7/2019
One would think that the appeal of a foreign film is that it’s well…foreign.
But, as with so many other things where movies are involved, the Italians
do it different. During the 1980s,
there were many Italian horror movies which desperately wanted to have a
connection to America. Several
entries opened in New York City (Zombie
for example) and then moved the action elsewhere.
Even if the rest of the movie was clearly taking place in another
country, Italian filmmakers loved to fit in a few scenes which had been shot in
the United States. 1989’s
Nightmare Beach takes this idea and runs with it, attempting to be as
American as possible. But, does
that make it a good movie?
College students Skip (Nicolas De Toth) and Ronnie (Rawley Valverde) have hit
the beach for Spring Break, despite the fact that Skip is depressed due his
lackluster performance in the big football game.
Just prior to their arrival, a biker named Diablo (Tony Bolano), was
executed at the local prison. Now,
a dark figure on a motorcycle is patrolling the area, killing vacationers.
The Demons motorcycle gang believe that their leader has come back from
the dead. Local cop Strycher (John
Saxon) doesn’t know what to think.
After Ronnie disappears, Skip teams up with local bartender Gail (Sarah Buxton)
to try and figure out what is going on.
However, Gail’s connection to Diablo immediately makes her a target.
You can say a lot of things about Nightmare Beach (and trust me, we
will), but the film is never boring.
In fact, Writers Harry Kirkpatrick (a combined pseudonym for James
Justice and Umberto Lenzi) and Vittorio Rambaldi seemed determined to stuff the
film with as many exploitation elements as possible.
From the main story, we have a murderer who rides an insane-looking
motorcycle (I would guess that a good chunk of the budget went to creating this
machine), a motorcycle gang (the “Demons”, whose logo resembles the name used in
the 1985 Lamberto Bava film of the same name), violent and gory deaths, a
prostitute who does her business in Skip’s hotel, and a wild finale.
From outside of the main story, we have a wet t-shirt contest – and it’s
impossible to tell if this was staged for the film or if the filmmakers just
happened to capture something which was happening on the beach.
All of this puts Nightmare Beach in a somewhat unique position.
You see, most films of this nature are stupid and boring.
Nightmare Beach is stupid and…not so boring.
I would not go so far as to call it interesting, but, again, there is
always something happening and the movie has a goofy determination to keep
moving forward. Veteran Italian
exploitation filmmaker Umberto Lenzi is credited with being behind the film, but
he served as more of a consultant with James Justice taking the lead.
This is certainly not art, but there’s no doubt that Justice has made a
movie which has spunk and the somewhat awkward scenes in which Skip and Gail get
to know each other are nicely juxtaposed with the gritty moments where the
masked killer is electrocuting or boiling victims.
There are a lot, and I mean a lot, of bad, dull Italian horror movies which have
gotten a great deal of attention over the years, so it’s surprising that we
haven’t heard more about Nightmare Beach.
Again, this is not something that you’ll want to show to your snobby,
arthouse friends, but if you’ve got a group of buddies who like silly
exploitation films, this is the perfect viewing choice for a party.
The movie wants to be a giallo, but the killer is pretty easy to
identify, still that doesn’t stop it from being goofy fun.
Whether you’re a fan of grisly violence or very authentic 80s fashions,
there’s something here for the discerning fan.
Nightmare Beach
features a Maui and Sons shirt and a Robert Smith shirt in back-to-back scenes
on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Kino Lorber.
The film has been letterboxed at 1.78:1 and the Disc contains an AVC
1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 34 Mbps.
The image is sharp and clear, showing only mild grain in some scenes, but
in others, the grain becomes demonstratively worse.
There are no obvious defects from the source materials.
The colors look good and the image is never overly dark or bright.
The depth works well. The
Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track which runs at 48 kHz and a
constant 1.6 Mbps. The track
delivers clear dialogue and sound effects.
Although, the track is slightly unbalanced at times, with some scenes
being
The Nightmare Beach Blu-ray Disc contains a few special features.
We begin with an AUDIO COMMENTARY from Film Historian Samm Deighan.
“Nightmare Rock” (16 minutes) is an interview with Composer Claudio
Somonetti who provides an overview of his career in Italian films, citing many
specific examples, and it’s only in the second half that he briefly touches on
Nightmare Beach. The only
other extra is a TRAILER for the film.