THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH (1964) Blu-ray
Director: Del Tenney
Severin Films

Del Tenney and the Del-Aires do the "Zombie Stomp" in the sand, but that's not THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH as one will see on Severin Films' Blu-ray.

Not long after her drunken, exhibitionistic behavior has caused a brawl between boyfriend Hank (John Scott) and the leader of a biker gang Mike (Agustin Mayor, ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER MAN), Hank's girlfriend Tina (Marilyn Clarke) washes up in the surf horribly mutilated. The lead detective (Damon Kebroyd) disbelieves witness claims of a sea monster as the perpetrator until more bodies turn up – including the mass slaughter of twenty sorority girls – but local scientist Dr. Gavin (Allan Laurel) comes to discover that a combination of radioactive waste dumped into the sea and protozoan parasites infesting the corpses of a recent fishing boat wreck have created mutations that must feed on human blood to survive. While Gavin and his assistant Hank try to determine a means of killing the creatures, his moping daughter Elaine (Alice Lyons) joins the search for the creatures' radioactive underwater lair and trips into danger.

One of a trio of Del Tenney's Connecticut-lensed regional horror films, THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH combines AIP's "Beach Party" series with their horror output in a manner styled to make bucks off the teen contingent of the box office. The end result is very much an odd duck that is remembered for its quirks, from the very AIP clean-cut youth – the brawl ends with an earnest handshake between Hank and Mike – to its musical performances by the Del-Aires (including the "Zombie Stomp") – along with the retrograde touches like black maid Eulabelle (Eulabelle Moore channeling Manton Moreland) who tries to ward off the "zombies" with voodoo dolls. In addition to some surprisingly protracted attack sequences, what may catch audiences off-guard is the film's knowing prurience, not just ogling its females but also having characters make crude remarks about them or one tasteless bit in which the camera focuses on the backsides of the sorority girls looking out the window expecting party crashers and noting the fishy smell that heralds an appearance by the monsters. "Teenage" Hank disappears for roughly a half-hour after the first scenes before turning up to play a Steve McQueen/THE BLOB-esque youthful hero (although he does not bring together the town elders and youths since the bikers disappear after the opening and the others still hang out at the beach after dark despite the murders). Also unlike the AIP model, the songs performed by the Del-Aires are actually catchy. A scene in which Gavin and Hank have discovered the way to kill the creatures thanks to 'fraidy cat Eulabelle is followed by a montage of newspaper headlines of more creature kills with footage of the attacks superimposed over that goes on long enough that the town and the audience may wonder "what the $%& are they waiting for, then?" The monster suits are simultaneously cheesy and elaborate rubber pieces while the gore is surprisingly grisly – from chocolate-syrup spattered corpses and clawed faces to a severed monster arm – but the "effects" highlight of the film is the initial transformation underwater which consists of a series of dissolves of a still image of the corpse over which the swimming fish printed over the image look transparent. For all its flaws, the film remains immensely entertaining and strangely camp because it should be intentionally funny yet plays things straight in a manner AIP certainly would not had they got to a horror-themed Frankie and Annette film first.

Released theatrically by Twentieth-Century-Fox in a double-bill with THE CURSE OF THE LIVING CORPSE – another joint venture between Tenney and theater chain owner Alan V. Iselin (FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER) – THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH became a late night TV staple, and it was this censored version that debuted on VHS in the United States from Prism Entertainment while Canada's Admit One Video got the full-strength cut. A widescreen transfer premiered on MonstersHD, and it was this somewhat imperfect master that was released on DVD in a replication of the original double bill with THE CURSE OF THE LIVING CORPSE on DVD from MPI's Dark Sky label with commentaries by Tenney. Restored from a 2K scan of the original camera negative, Severin's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC widescreen transfer is framed rather tightly at 1.78:1. The MonstersHD transfer framed the opening credits at 1.66:1 and the rest at 1.78:1, and it seems as if the former ratio would have been the better choice although the film would have been projected at 1.85:1. The 2K scan represents the film as best as its patchwork construction can. Night scenes are soft enough to look like they came from a lesser source, but it is actually the shallow depth of field of the lens and a lack of follow focus as the point of focus eventually reveals itself with the movement of a character into the foreground. Night and day-for-night scenes are badly intercut, but the day scenes look believably overcast rather than the grayish look they all had on the DVD transfer. The monster suits are shown in crisper detail along with the surprising bloodshed and a couple of actual make-up effects hold up well with the added definition. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track is loud with a relatively stable high end during the barrages of the shock sequence music (which sounds like a library track that appeared in an early episode or two of the 1960s DOCTOR WHO serials). Optional English SDH subtitles are also included.

Severin has regrettably not carried over the commentary track, but they have produced a handful of new extras. "Return to Party Beach" (16:26) is a retrospective piece narrated by Tom Weaver with comments from Tenney's widow Margot Hartman tracing Tenney's interest in acting when his family moved from the Midwest to Los Angeles for the war effort, his move to New York and then to Connecticut when he traded acting for real estate. Still desiring to work on the other side of the camera, he served as assistant director on a some of roughies including Jerald Intrator's THE ORGY AT LIL'S PLACE and SATAN IN HIGH HEELS before directing PSYCHOMANIA/VIOLENT MIDNIGHT which Hartman reveals was based on the true unsolved murder of a schoolmate. The film brought Tenney to the attention of Islen who put up half the money for a pair of pictures, with Hartman writing THE CURSE OF THE LIVING CORPSE and Tenney HORROR OF PARTY BEACH. Hartman provides some anecdotes about the shoot – including one of the bikers hot-dogging during the drag race sequence and causing a crash – and the film's being picked up by Fox. "It’s the Living End: An Encounter with The Del-Aires" (4:27) is an interview with surviving band members Bobby Osborne and Ronnie Linares about their beginnings, the opportunities to get gigs in Patterson, NJ when they were starting out, and playing songs from their album for the picture (including "Elaine" for which a character was named). In "Shock & Roll: Filmmaker Tim Sullivan On Rock & Roll Horror Movies" (7:42), Sullivan (2001 MANIACS) discusses the parallel developments of rock 'n roll and horror as a teen genre – with the drive-in offering the opportunity for teenagers to get out of the house after television had drawn their parents away from hardtop theatres – and American International catering to teenage audiences with horrors the likes of I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF, HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER, and BLOOD OF DRACULA stopping their plots for musical numbers to the development of the "Beach Party" films, of which THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH plays like a "car crash" between a beach musical and a horror film. He traces the mix of the two to subsequent horror films in the 1980s with MTV-styled rock-scored death scenes like the later Elm Street films. An archival interview with Tenney (9:02) from the Dark Sky disc reiterates much of the retrospective piece in his own words while also highlighting CORPSE and PSYCHOMANIA. The theatrical trailer (1:48) is also included. A bundle available directly from Severin Films includes an enamel pin and an inflatable beach ball. (Eric Cotenas)

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