The Horror of Party Beach



"The first horror monster musical," released in 1964 by director Del Tenney. It is not a real musical, as it spends the first ten minutes with some musical accompaniment.

Because it's a "monster musical," the first three hours of this 78-minute film take place at a beach where suspiciously middle-aged teens boogie to a live band while making lame attempts at humor. A college grad named Hank and his immature and unpleasant lady pal Tina drop by. The two bicker, Tina's flirting sparks a brawl with a biker gang, and finally the girl runs off to go swimming and is killed by a monster.

Turns out someone's been dumping barrels of radioactive waste into the ocean, causing the skeletal crew of a sunken ship to mutate into frog-fish things that proceed to hunt down and kill every young woman they can find. The elderly and ineffectual Dr. Gavin, assisted accidentally by black servant Eulabelle, discovers that the things are vulnerable to sodium. Taking their time, the heroes eventually get around to tracking down the monsters' lair (as the kill count climbs ever higher), work up the energy to get a load of sodium, and then throw it on the horrors of Party Beach.

Oh, there's also a replacement love interest for Hank named Elaine, but she doesn't do much besides not die. And all her dialogue has been redubbed by someone even older for some reason.

For the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version, please go to the episode recap page.

Besides Horror, Party Beach provides examples of:
""Do you like bathing beauties?"
 * The Alcoholic: "Today Tina and alcohol are going to have a great cocktail!"
 * Two of the victims are clearly drunks.
 * Artistic License Biology: The frog-fish monster things are apparently human corpses whose every organ and tissue have been replaced with sea life, making them a "giant protozoa." In Real Life, protozoans are single-celled organisms.
 * Brief Accent Imitation: Hank puts on a Southern accent whenever he speaks to Eulabelle; there doesn't seem to be any reason for this, almost making it look like he's talking down to her.
 * Bucket Booby Trap: During the slumber party.
 * But Not Too White: We're talking Wonder bread and mayonnaise here.
 * Comic Book Adaptation: Believe it or not there was one, and it's a collector's item now.]]
 * The Danza: Eulabelle Moore as Eulabelle.
 * Dawson Casting: Recent high school graduate Hank looks 38. Elaine looks even older. To be blunt, she looks to be in her in mid-40's, the movie excepts to buy that she's supposed to be in her early 20's, and is voiced by someone in her late 30's.
 * Decoy Protagonist: Hank, Elaine, Dr. Gavin are presumably the heroes of the movie, but almost every time the plot moves forward, it's because of Eulabelle's actions.
 * Distressed Damsel: Elaine's role for the film's finale, having tumbled down a slight incline and somehow gotten her leg trapped.
 * Drunk Driver: Two of them at the same time. Played for laughs and completely, utterly botched.
 * Which leads to a quite hilarious couple of lines when the drunks fall victim to the monsters:
 * Dueling Movies: The Incredibly Strange Creatures claimed that it was the first monster musical. Neither film is a musical, however. Both just have some music acts performing in them. Though at least Creatures actually more acts, and those in the acts are at least tied to the plot by tiny, invisible strings.
 * Ethnic Menial Labor: Eulabelle is an example of the "mammy" archetype.
 * Face Revealing Turn: Completely and utterly botched via Behind the Black. A drunk guy finds someone slumped in a wrecked car, and chats amiably until the (breathing) corpse's head turns to the camera, revealing half his face is a bloody mess. Except the drunk was staring at the wound the entire time and only reacted when it became visible to the audience.
 * A Handful for An Eye: During the beach fight.
 * I Love Nuclear Power: The radioactive drums spill a split-second after hitting the ocean floor, and begin mutating a human skeleton immediately. (The fish swimming all around the spill? Not so much.)
 * The Immodest Orgasm: Elaine late in the film inexplicably starts making grunts as if she's climaxing, after having been attacked by the Horrors.
 * Incredibly Lame Puns: The movie features tons of puns that six year olds would find unfunny. Example:

"I don't know. I've never bathed one!""

", shakin' to the music as two guys stare]
 * Or:

Guy: That reminds me, did I remember to bring my hot dog buns?"


 * Men Are the Expendable Gender: Inverted. Of all the (known) victims of the monsters, and that's a lot, only three are male.
 * Mighty Whitey: Is there any reason Hank suddenly adopts a white Southern plantation owner's accent whenever talking to Eulabelle?
 * Hysterically, Eulabelle is the only character in the film who exhibits any sort of competency at all.
 * Monster Misogyny: Twenty-four on-screen female deaths, not counting Victim Montages, compared to three killed males. "You think a lot of guys who make movies have issues with women?"
 * Montages: A montage features more victims, subsequent reports (from the reporter or newsboy), Dr. Gavin at work... and some guy.
 * Religion Is Magic: Eulabelle owns a voodoo doll.
 * Replacement Love Interest: Apart from about a minute of angst on Elaine's part, Hank and Elaine seem perfectly okay with hooking up, about two weeks after Tina's death. To be fair, he pretty much broke with her at the beach.
 * Rhymes On a Dime: Eulabelle uses occasional but ubiquitously pointless rhymes as homilies: "You don't see me sittin' around moanin' and groanin' all day." "What are y'all doin' sneekin' and peekin' in the dark for?" It's the most fun you'll get out of this movie, and the best acting performance given.
 * The Scourge of God: The hard-drinking exhibitionist Tina is the monster's first victim, leaving her boyfriend Hank to hook up with the chaste and sweet Elaine.
 * Tempting Fate/Retirony: Tina complains about how strait-laced Hank is and says "You go your way and I'll go mine, and we'll see who gets the most out of life!" About ten minutes later, she's dead in part because of her lack of inhibitions.
 * Tsundere: Probably the best way to conceptualize Tina (besides "drunk"): "I never needed you, and I never will! ...Oh Hank, what happened to us?"
 * Use Your Head: In a move which has wisely not been adopted by professional fighters, the biker gang uses their leader as a battering ram.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Eulabelle chews out Hank for giving up during his search for sodium without going through every supplier in the phone book. Sure enough, the next one he calls afterward has some.