"Blood Beach" Rare Horror Movie! Anyone Remember This?

[CyberpunkCentral]

As long as there is a 35mm print of the film, this can definitely get a Blu release. I guess the demand isn't high enough for companies to restore it.

[DaylightsEnd]

I still have the German region 2 dvd for this flick somewhere, looks atrocious.

Blood Beach is a super-fun Saturday afternoon guilty pleasure that sits in the same space as flicks like The Boogens. Has that campy 50's/60's monster vibe that's right in line with the Jaws creature-feature revival of the late 70's/early 80's, with a smattering of 70's paranoia/body horror as

[Show spoiler]victims get mutilated and are later discovered

. The 70's beach and Santa Monica pier settings of that era have a terrific atmosphere that supports the limited sets, very basic effects, and simple themes. The cheesiest part of the flick is probably the creature reveal. It was much more creepy up until the third act. They probably should've only revealed a small portion of the actual creature, and done so on remote, blurry camera shots, leaving the audience to largely retain its own speculation and imaginings of the beast from beneath. I love that the ending puts some strong foreshadowing in motion and sets us up for a great sequel, continuing on even as the credits roll, practically almost kicking off Part 2, Bloodier Beach, Back with a Vengeance.

I also love the dark, haunting, tense, punchy score of this film, crafted by the infamous Gil Melle - a jazz, orchestral and innovative electronica wizard in his day - whom also brought us the scores for such productions as The Andromeda Strain, The Sentinel, and some of the early Columbo detective series TV shows. Great stuff all around.

This film is well-supported with loads of old-skool talent and solid performances in all areas, from acting to filming to scoring. It may have ultimately wound up to be less than the sum of its parts due to the weak effects and lackluster editing, but that doesn't take away from any of its vintage charm. It remains very high on my list of late-70's/early-80's blu ray wants.

[superunknown80]

I have a bootleg copy of this which I got on ebay a while back. Picture quality is surprisingly ok. Sound is also ok. Nothing that's going to blow your socks off. But not as bad as some people have reported on other releases of this film. Has all the deleted scenes below inserted in lower quality. I imported it from Australia. It's not the same as the current Australian release I see listed on ebay though. The cover art is different. Mine says "extended and uncut" on the cover

https://www.google.com/amp/s/bootleg...composite/amp/

[superunknown80]

Anyone grabbed the Australian dvd that's available on Amazon and Ebay? Looks like an official release. Just wondering about the PQ on that?

[russweiss1]

I last saw this in 1985 on VHS but but also saw it in the theater in 1981. I even cut out the newspaper ad. It's interesting to see that Shaw Brothers was one of the production companies.

Blood Beach lobby Newspaper Ad.jpg

[DaylightsEnd]

Originally Posted by superunknown80

Anyone grabbed the Australian dvd that's available on Amazon and Ebay? Looks like an official release. Just wondering about the PQ on that?

I just grabbed that Aussie dvd from Orbitdvd, for about $9. It’s in with my second sight preorder of the Changeling 4k and a few other May 30 releases, so I won’t have it in-hand for a couple more weeks or so. Very, very disappointed that it’s not a blu ray, but what the heck, for $9, why not. My guess is it’ll be really rough quality, still the short/cut version, and zoomed/chopped/cropped/hacked to widescreen.

[lilboyblu]

Originally Posted by DaylightsEnd

I just grabbed that Aussie dvd from Orbitdvd, for about $9. It’s in with my second sight preorder of the Changeling 4k and a few other May 30 releases, so I won’t have it in-hand for a couple more weeks or so. Very, very disappointed that it’s not a blu ray, but what the heck, for $9, why not. My guess is it’ll be really rough quality, still the short/cut version, and zoomed/chopped/cropped/hacked to widescreen.

Did you get a chance to watch this DVD over the summer? If so, how does it look?

[Trekkie313]

Originally Posted by lilboyblu

Did you get a chance to watch this DVD over the summer? If so, how does it look?

I'll give mine a spin.

[DaylightsEnd]

Originally Posted by lilboyblu

Did you get a chance to watch this DVD over the summer? If so, how does it look?

Yes I did spin the Aussie dvd. It looks every bit as poor or even slightly worse than my old German import dvd. Looks like someone took a copy from a vcr played onto an old tv screen. About 200 dpi and pretty rough. The only way this would get salvaged is if someone could get a hold of decent remaining source materials (if at all possible) and chub up a fresh scan.

[lilboyblu]

Originally Posted by DaylightsEnd

Yes I did spin the Aussie dvd. It looks every bit as poor or even slightly worse than my old German import dvd. Looks like someone took a copy from a vcr played onto an old tv screen. About 200 dpi and pretty rough. The only way this would get salvaged is if someone could get a hold of decent remaining source materials (if at all possible) and chub up a fresh scan.

Bummer to hear that! Thanks for the quick response though just the same. Will hold out hope that maybe one of the boutiques (i.e. Grindhouse, Synapse, VS, or Terror Vision) can salvage together something of better quality.

[8traxrule]

I’ve seen an HD transfer of this showing on one of the free online channels (either Xumo or Pluto TV).

[terekes]

Originally Posted by ScareBearDan

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't every single cheap DVD release of this film an edited cut of the film running about 10 minutes short of the original 92-minute length? I have a U.S. DVD-R release and the Spanish release, and they are both the short version.

Yes. Dialogue Lt. Piantadosi with Harry Caulder in police station scene missing.

1. The film had a nice region 2 dvd release (with both English and German audio). However this release omits the police station scene. It does provide it in German audio only as an extra but it also cuts out seconds before and after this scene occurs as well as looking like total shit This scene in English has always been in the US vhs edition (as well as the previous German vhs edition).

2. The very rare German vhs has two additional gore shots that were clearly made by the distributor for whatever reason. Not only does it show parts of the monster it doesn't have (like claws), for one shot they actually constructed some sort of monster from hell puppet thing. They also cut some seconds from the original film to put these shots in.