Blood Beach (1981) John Saxon

[jaws3dfan]

R.I.P. John Saxon

Blood Beach is a 1981 American horror film written and directed by Jeffrey Bloom and starring John Saxon, David Huffman and Burt Young.

The premise, conceived by Steven Nalevansky, involves a creature lurking beneath the sand of Santa Monica Beach that attacks locals and vacationers.

The film's tagline is: "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...you can't get to it."

[jaws3dfan]

I took the following information from this website bmovienewsvault.com

Availability: This film is currently out of print! BLOOD BEACH had two brief theatrical releases in 1981 and 1982 before quietly making its way to VHS through a now defunct company called Media Home Entertainment. It was a staple of the Horror section in most video rental shops, but as DVD began to take over, BLOOD BEACH never made the leap to the new format here in North America. It did however get released on DVD in other countries, including Germany (Region 2) and Japan (Region Free). BLOOD BEACH has also found new life (and fans) via the bootleg circuit at various conventions.

Current Rights Holder: Get ready to follow me down the rabbit hole Vault Dwellers! From what I've gathered from several sources, the reason we don't have BLOOD BEACH in any modern format here in The States, is due to the uncertainty of who actually owns the distribution rights. General consensus is that the film is in some sort of legal limbo, though others have theorized that director Jeffrey Bloom has regained the rights to the film and is looking to release it on his own at some point. (Note: This is just hearsay and I do not have any confirmation on that!) And still others say that the real issue is that there aren't any decent prints left to strike a new transfer from. (Anyone think of trying the Library of Congress?)

Tracking its history, BLOOD BEACH was released theatrically in 1981 by the "Jerry Gross Organization," and then in 1982 by Compass International Pictures, who also released John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN, TOURIST TRAP, ROLLER BOOGIE, FADE TO BLACK, HELL NIGHT, and other cult favorites. On the home video front, Media Home Entertainment (view logo HERE) gave BLOOD BEACH its VHS release, along with other genre fare, including HALLOWEEN, I COME IN PEACE, several entries in the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET series, and various Cannon Films titles.

Now this is where things get interesting: In 1993, Media Home Entertainment quit operations after years of downsizing, and sold off their film library. Among the companies that snapped up their titles were 20th Century Fox (under their FOX Video label), Image Entertainment (who released various Media titles on Laserdisc), and a little budget label called Video Treasures. (I knew them best as the company that released various Godzilla titles to VHS with some pretty snazzy cover art.)

Now personally, I don't think Fox or Image has the rights to BLOOD BEACH gang, but I do feel very strongly that Video Treasures might. Why's that? Because that little company eventually morphed into Anchor Bay Entertainment, a label many of us Horror fans came to love back in the late 90s. And seeing as how they released a bunch of Compass International titles to DVD, it stands to reason that they may have retained the rights to BLOOD BEACH.

If that is somehow true, that means that the current rights for Jeffrey Bloom's creature feature, currently reside with Lionsgate! Yeah, you read that right: Lionsgate bought out Anchor Bay/Starz in December of 2016! So the purveyors of the popular Vestron Video Collector's Series may actually (unknowingly?) have the distribution rights to BLOOD BEACH!
Yes, I know it's a long shot, but dammit, I want to believe!

[RickWJ324]

I haven't seen this since I was a kid. I believe it was on cable the summer of '83 and I saw it quite a few times. I barely remember anything about it now though and would love to see it again. I hope someone is able to release a blu of this eventually.

[Member-222782]

Jeff Bloom, the Director, actually opened an account here a year or two ago and briefly talked about the film and it's currently mired home video history. Then he disappeared after a few posts

[jaws3dfan]

Originally Posted by Cinema84

Jeff Bloom, the Director, actually opened an account here a year or two ago and briefly talked about the film and it's currently mired home video history. Then he disappeared after a few posts

Thats a shame, this is such a fun film and has never been released on anything other than VHS, if Lionsgate owns this one they need to find the best possible elements and give it new life with a 2k (or 4k) scan before its lost forever.

[RickWJ324]

Originally Posted by jaws3dfan

Thats a shame, this is such a fun film and has never been released on anything other than VHS, if Lionsgate owns this one they need to find the best possible elements and give it new life with a 2k (or 4k) scan before its lost forever.

That truly is a shame. Every film deserves to be preserved. I'd buy this in a heartbeat if a boutique label released it.

[Surge92]

Originally Posted by RickWJ324

I haven't seen this since I was a kid. I believe it was on cable the summer of '83 and I saw it quite a few times. I barely remember anything about it now though and would love to see it again. I hope someone is able to release a blu of this eventually.

I remember the TV ads for it when it played on TV back in the mid-'80s. I don't think I ever got to see the movie, though. Any '80s horror on blu-ray is a good thing.

[Savage_Blu]

This one is 'new' to me. I'd definitely day 1 blind buy an 80's horror movie with John Saxon called Blood Beach.

[jaws3dfan]

One day I hope to see this:

[jaws3dfan]

I see the ebay blu-ray bootlegers have finally found Blood Beach.
A company calling itself "MODmediaGroup" currently has a blu-ray of Blood Beach for sale. To me the aspect ratio looks to be 4:3

I hope one day soon an official blu-ray comes out so the poor quality bootlegs will go away.

[CMG]

There aren't many films the bootleggers don't find, to be sure.

I reckon think a fair amount of 'disc' money has been left "on the table" over the years with BLOOD BEACH never going beyond VHS in the U.S.

[Shane Rollins]

I still don’t get how this hasn’t been released. No Blu-ray is unfortunately something I’m used to, but not even a DVD is shocking. Not even a crappy VHS rip dropped on a DVD, which quite a few big movies got. (Fright Night II, anyone?)

I really hope Drafthouse scanned that print while they had it, like they did with The Astrologer. Otherwise, we’re really screwed.

[russweiss1]

Originally Posted by Shane Rollins

I still don’t get how this hasn’t been released. No Blu-ray is unfortunately something I’m used to, but not even a DVD is shocking. Not even a crappy VHS rip dropped on a DVD, which quite a few big movies got. (Fright Night II, anyone?)

I really hope Drafthouse scanned that print while they had it, like they did with The Astrologer. Otherwise, we’re really screwed.

With a quick search on Ebay I found Australian, French, and Spanish DVD releases. Whether they are legit or not I don't know.

[Shane Rollins]

Originally Posted by russweiss1

With a quick search on Ebay I found Australian, French, and Spanish DVD releases. Whether they are legit or not I don't know.

Look at them carefully. See if they’re in all different languages and/or broken languages.

The “Australian DVD” of Looking For Mr. Goodbar has a perfect Australian rating photoshopped over a blocky picture of the cover, the description is in broken English (almost like the author was ESL, or they typed in in a foreign language and then used an online translator), there’s a US FBI warning at the bottom, and the cover’s on photo paper.

I’m leaning towards boots on all three, but I’ll check them out. They’re in our database after all.

[jaws3dfan]

So if THE KEEP can finally get released than someone should be able to untangle the mess that is BLOOD BEACH and get it released!

[Pin cushion kid]

Never seen it, but I do own the remake.. The Sand, It rocked!! I've been waiting for this ever since. I finally gave up waiting 3 days ago .... I purchased a dvd copy from orbit along with Willow and the deep house 4k. I figured I have to see it once even if it's a terrible pq quality.

[kn5150]

has there been any update since this post?