Nightmare Beach

Plot synopsis:
At dusk, a number of bikers are standing together outside a prison as if in mourning. Inside, Diablo, a prisoner, is led down "the mile" for his execution. When strapped in the electric chair, Diablo screams and curses at the guards, in particular the police officer, Strycker. Before he is executed, the prison warden asks if he has any last words or make a last statement. Diablo says: "I've been framed, but I'll come back to get even!" The switch is thrown.A few days later, a local policeman says: "welcome to spring break, the annual migration of the idiot". Thousands of college students are flocking up and down the Florida east coast for their week of spring vacation, settling in on Fort Lauderdale. Two teenage boys, Skip and Ronnie, are checking into a small hotel where Skip is recognized by the hotel desk clerk as the quarterback who threw an interception at the Orange Bowl.Meanwhile, the cops learn that Diablo's body has been taken from the cemetery. Reverend Bates, who was present at the execution, is at the cemetery, and he reminds everyone of Diablo's last words. That night, a girl is hitchhiking, and a biker clad in black leather stops. She asks the biker if he is going to Manatee Beach for spring break, and he slowly nodes his head. After driving at a breakneck speed, the girl complains. The biker stops and lets her off, and then electrocutes her to death with a system attached to the motorcycle.The next day, Skip and Ronnie almost get into a scuffle with the Demons, the motorcycle gang whom Diablo was the leader, outside a local bar. Officer Strycher shows up and stops the Demons from doing anything, and the boys go inside the bar. Skip meets Gail, the bartender, who was seen in the opening scene at Diablo's execution. Skip does not seem to be into the bar scene, and Gail seems impressed by the football player. Skip also turns down a date with Rachael, the Reverend Bates' daughter. Ronnie is later picked up by Trina, a lady biker of the Demons. She leads him into an alley where the Demons proceed to beat him up and rob him. After the Demons leave the scene, the mysterious helmeted, black-leather-clad biker shows up when Ronnie is able to stand up. Ronnie takes a swing at him, steadies himself with the motorcycle, and is electrocuted and incinerated.When the mayor of Fort Lauderdale hears about this latest killing, he wants to cover up Ronnie's murder so that no one will suspect a serial killer. While looking for his friend, Skip spots Trina wearing a football medal similar to the one Ronnie had. She tells Skip that she got it from her "old man", but Skip, who does not believe her, follows Trina to the Demons hide out. Skip is spotted and captured and when the Demons prepare Skip for another brutal beating, Strycher arrives with a warrant; he is looking for Diablo's body.Back at the hotel, a voyeuristic clerk is murdered while peeping through a small hole in the wall of a closet. Kimberly, a student having sex with an older man and providing him with sad stories about her parents lost business (in order to exact pity/pleasure compensation), sees the peephole and an eye looking through it. After sending the man on his way, Kimberly runs to check the closet and finds the dead man. Before she can escape in the elevator, the killer murders her.Gail goes with Skip, first to the hospital for his injuries, and then to the police station to report Ronnie's disappearance. Later, Skip waits for Dr. Willet in the doctor's car and demands to know where his friend is. Dr. Willett tells him where Ronnie is buried. Skip travels to the cemetery where Strycher finds Skip, threatens him and orders him to leave town.Meanwhile, Dawg (the Demon's new leader since Diablo's demise) is arrested for the hotel murders. At the same time, Skip hides out at Gail's place where he tells her that someone might have killed Ronnie. Together, they catch Trina alone and she tells him she does not know who killed Ronnie, and that Diablo did not kill Gail's sister Mary (the murder for which Diablo was blamed and executed for). Earlier, Diablo's innocence was verified by Strycher, who told the mayor, "you wanted a patsy," in reference to Mary's death. Skip and Gail suspect that Officer Strycher to be the one responsible for the killings. They sneak into his place and find photographs of the dead girls.That evening, the Demons bust Dawg from the county jail. When Skip and has a run-in with Strycher, the Demons show up. Dawg shoots Strycher, and the bikers drag the wounded officer around on a chain until he is dead. Gail finds Diablo's corpse at the gang's hideout and soon the murderer arrives where he reveals himself to be Reverend Bates, who tells Gail that he has been killing people whom he believes are sinners (and admits to the murder of Mary). Skip shows up in Strycher's car, and he and Gail try to escape from the reverend. Bates chases after him, but wrecks his motorcycle and is electrocuted by power wires.

Tags: murder, prank

Review:
You get young people partying, 80s metal non stop, wet t-shirt contests, pretty girls making a buck or two on the side with older gents, sharply dressed biker gang, shady local government figures, and a leather-clad masked killer who offs everybody in high voltage fashion.
The story isn't very special, a beach town biker gang leader gets fried on electric chair, while John Saxon the sheriff and Michael Parks the doctor see to it.
I'm not a big fan of this type of film, but Nightmare Beach succeeds where other slashers fail because it doesn't try to be anything that it isn't, and the focus is always on the dumb teens at the centre of the story and the over the top murder scenes.
The movie seems to take a lot of influence from Lamberto Bava's 'Demons', as trashy eighties metal is mixed in with just about every sequence...and was that the logo for said film that I saw on the back of the biker's shirts?
A biker by the name of Diablo was put to death by electric chair after supposedly being framed for murder by the local officer, and now the authorities have a problem on their hands as the biker going round electrocuting people threatens the business boom.Umberto Lenzi's career peaked in the late sixties to early seventies with Giallo classics such as Seven Blood-Stained Orchids and several awesome crime flicks such as Almost Human.
While Nightmare Beach is nothing like as good as Lenzi's earlier efforts, and certainly doesn't represent a return to form, at least this film is enjoyable throughout, and personally I didn't care too much that I know the director is capable of better.
The electrocution style murder scenes are well shot, and while they don't all look particularly realistic; and don't feature much in the way of gore, it's nice to see a slasher that doesn't just feature knife killings.
I hoped that the latter would be the closest to the truth as I opened the jiffy bag in which my shrink rapped VHS arrived in and placed it into my video recorderIt opens with a menacing looking guy  whom we later find out is named Edward Diablo' Santor  being escorted to the electric chair for being found guilty of the murder of a beach bunny named Mary.
So has Diablo kept his promise and returned from the grave to raise hell among the living?To describe this flick to you in the best possible way, I'd have to say it's like a late night Baywatch complete with a psychopathic killer working his way through the lifeguards!
Other than that, the acting isn't good enough to pass muster in a junior high school class play, the script is laughable and has holes big enough to drive the 3rd Armored Division through, the identity of the killer is painfully obvious long before the final unmasking and the film fails miserably at whatever it is it's supposed to be--it's too mild to be a slasher flick, it's not coherent enough to be a crime drama, it's far too obvious to be called a thriller and, despite its alternate title of "Welcome to Spring Break," there's not enough T&A in it to qualify as a decent T&A flick.
John Saxon, Michael Parks and Lance LeGault, usually reliable actors, must have needed to pay the rent to have appeared in this thing, but they're professional enough to give it their best shot; unfortunately, the odds are stacked against them and the whole picture looks like a really bad student film.
Here in his attempt to shamelessly imitate the success of American teen slasher-movies, veteran Italian director Umberto Lenzi bids you welcome to a lot more than just Spring Break!
Some people and websites describe "Welcome to Spring Break" as a Giallo, but that's probably just because its director is Italian and maybe even because the DVD-cover proudly depicts the image of a maniacal killer wearing a pitch black motorcycle helmet (which was one of the favorite disguises of Giallo-killers), but it's actually a full-blooded and prototypic slasher in the trend of "Friday the 13th", "Happy Birthday To Me", "April Fool's Day" and other so-called holiday-themed splatter junk.
Try and raise confusion by suggesting the killer may be the vengeful reincarnation of a wrongfully executed biker, cast the almighty John Saxon as a sadistically corrupt cop, throw in some totally random images of a wet T-shirt contest and you got yourself the true definition of an 80's guilty pleasure.
If you've seen a few movies like this, it shouldn't be too difficult to guess the maniac's identity quite early in the film already, but at least Umberto Lenzi's efforts to provide red herrings are admirable.
Although, things turn bad when the biker's body is now missing from its grave and a serial killer biker has hit the scene and is killing teenagers.
When watching this, I was thinking that I was going to get mostly a slasher film, but Umberto Lenzi (who's going by Harry Kirkpatrick for the occasion) seemed more occupied with the pointlessly low-brow partying.
This costs the mystery element of the story with Porky's-Revenge of the Nerds II antics winning out.This low-budget, b-grade effort is pretty much a loudly obnoxious copy and paste slasher/goofball item that recycles the usual stereotypes, clichés and red herrings with less than desirable results.
Nicolas De Toth makes for a sluggishly vapid heroine and the foxy Sarah Buxton's fine performance adds the much need sparks in their pairing."Welcome to Spring Break" is averagely plain, which in the final product I didn't find to be as fun as it could have been.
The clichéd title (Welcome To Spring Break) makes this sound like an '80's T&A teen comedy, but it's not.
A biker is juiced in the electric chair and soon the teens on Miami Beach on spring break start dying, at the hands of a maniac riding a motorbike and wearing a helmet to hide his/her identity (Night School?).
The movie has average production values, but scenes of real spring break action which is shown frequently is distracting, and the beach the thing takes place on is always cloudy.
Also known as Welcome to Spring Break, this is in fact a rather uneasy mix of slasher and beach party blow out.
"Nightmare Beach a.k.a Welcome To Spring Break" is an interesting addition to the 80's slasher genre in many ways, firstly the beginning where we have a guy executed for the murder of a local girl, then swearing revenge that he'll return to punish everyone involved, is certainly interesting.
Then shortly after a leather glad biker is randomly picking off youngsters on spring break by mainly electrocution, is certainly quite different to the usual stalk and slash deaths of this decade and could have offered something fresh and original, but it doesn't and rather quickly becomes standard and by numbers, which isn't a bad thing but it does border on bland at times.But given the fact that this movie was done by an Italian director, who is known for over the top kills and thrills, and adding in sleaze, this movie doesn't really have any of that.
The first half of the film is very underwhelming and light on momentum, and by the time the gore rolls in is a saving grace and the mystery element does work, as there are a few suspects to choose from and some of the deaths are quite nasty and inventive, but the endless scenes of college kids getting drunk just isn't interesting enough and gets tiresome rather quickly.It's always nice to see a familiar face in these movies though and that is John Saxon who does give an interesting and menacing turn as the local policeman, but seems rather bored at times and going through the motions, but despite all that he does give by far the best turn, but his earlier work is far better (Black Christmas, A Nightmare On Elm Street & Tenebre).
But the same cannot be said of the two main leads Nicolas De Toth who's about as fun as a wet fish and very wooden and Sarah Buxton who's very beautiful but shows no range.All in all "Nightmare Beach" comes nowhere near to becoming a slasher classic, but it's still okay and it does have some tense moments that make it better than the usual late 80's slasher movie..
Umberto Lenzi's possible and probable name change to Harry Kirkpatrick shouldn't have mattered much at all to anyone who might have caught a glimpse of this highly dreadful U.S. made film (titled as WELCOME TO SPRING BREAK).
Nicolas De Toth and Rawley Valverde play Skip and Ronnie, a pair of college football players who, along with thousands of other like-minded youngsters, head to the beach for spring break in search of sun, sea, sand and sex.
The pair's fun is interrupted, however, when they get on the wrong side of the town's local biker gang, and a mysterious killer begins to bump off the Easter revellers in truly shocking style.Hiding behind the pseudonym Harry Kirkpatrick and shooting on location in Fort Lauderdale with an all-American cast, Italian horror director Umberto Lenzi is clearly intending to pass off this 80s slasher as a product of the US of A; to complete the illusion, he sets his sexy spring break shenanigans and murderous mayhem to a suitably loud hair metal soundtrack (he's not fooling me though: with a Claudio Simonetti score that sounds like leftovers from the Demons and Phenomena soundtracks, a really silly motorcycle that electrocutes its pillion passengers, and a daft denouement that could have come straight out of a giallo, this film's Italian origins seem only too apparent).Whenever Lenzi's attention is focused on either the wild antics of the sex-mad teens (wet t-shirt competitions, drunken zany pranks etc.,) or the gruesome activities of the psycho killer (best death: the roasting of a young woman in front of an open incinerator), Welcome To Spring Break is reasonably enjoyable trashy fare.
Sadly, the plot frequently wanders into territory far less likely to entertain, the business with the bikers soon getting tiresome and a ridiculous sub-plot about the town's corrupt officials (which sees John Saxon slumming it as a sleazy sheriff) only serving to add to the tedium.All in all, this is a pretty uneven effort, one for those who have already seen the slasher classics and wish to explore lesser known examples of the genre, or who simply enjoy their 80s horror extra cheesy.4.5 out of 10, rounded up to 5 for all those lovely, big-haired, 80s beach babes..
This one of those goofy slasher movies which lacks those elements that bring cheesy entertainment and isn't even any good on a so bad its good level.Following the execution of a bikey leader a mysterious biker goes a killing spree during spring break in Florida, dispatching his victims mainly by electrocution.
Even the old hands like Michael Parks and John Saxon don't exactly distinguish themselves, phoning in poor performances.The whole movie just trundles along each scene trundled through in a workman like fashion by the directors and actors with no flair or style right up till the Scooby Doo style plot resolution.
Even the exploitative elements fail to disappoint; there is little gore other than in the lame and fake looking deaths by electrocution and for a slasher movie set a spring break it is remarkably chaste.
What is left over is bad actors going through the motions in the paint by numbers plot and a lot of padding, involving spring break hijinks, some of which I think was meant to be funny and filler subplots like the one involving the bikey gang, which isn't even properly resolved.
Executed biker returns from the grave and heads to spring break to kill the girl who sent him to the electric chair.
Yes, I find it interesting that the first review I saw for this movie called it a feel good slasher flick.
Well roll me is flour and slap me in a skillet...ah musta missed that part of the movie.What this movie has: Sarah Buxton, John Saxon and Michael Parks.What this movie is missing: Action, suspense, tension, and much of anything associated with slasher flicks, including the all necessary sleaze factor.A biker affectionately known as Diablo is put to death in the electric chair for the murder of a young woman.
A few days later his body ends up missing from his grave, unfortunately at the same time spring break week begins for this beachside town.
It aimlessly wanders about its story with John Saxon, well...being John Saxon, Michael Parks being assured his career has sunk this low and a killer with an amazingly obvious identity who couldn't scare a timid cub scout let alone inspire chills in anybody watching this who succeeded in staying awake through it.It does succeed in telling its story from beginning to end, but it does not succeed in providing a very threatening killer or much blood and sleaze as one would expect from a slasher flick..
Make no mistake though, WELCOME TO SPRING BREAK (the titling I saw on a decrepit old home video tape) is a trashy 80s slasher with all the good/bad things that implies.
Usually he's the calm professional law enforcement official in these things (BLOOD BEACH) and it was nice to see him chew the scenery.The killings are all appropriately gory and like Umberto Lenzi's giallo creations the murderer has a back story that goes beyond the obvious "back for revenge" plotting.
This is a movie filled with nightclubs, rock bands, spandexed bimbos, square jawed heroes with feathered hair, and everyone dresses like they just walked out of a Stryper video.No screwing around in the woods, though for a film supposedly set during spring break there wasn't one pair of bared, drunken tits in the whole shebang.
Welcome to Spring Break (1988) * (out of 4) Notorious Italian director Umberto Lenzi traveled to America to make this slasher film, which is one of the worst out there.
A biker gets sent to the electric chair but he swears he was framed by a local cop (John Saxon).
The biker screams he will return for vengeance and after his death it just happens to be spring break.
Director Umberto Lenzi, working from a slim, yet serviceable script by Larry Kirkpatrick (who also wrote the equally dumb, but satisfying "Primal Rage" for Lenzi), keeps the proceedings lively and eventful by tossing in a rowdy gang of hog-ridin' hellions called the Demons (!), a bunch of thrashing' heavy metal tunes roaring' away on the soundtrack (the theme song "Don't Break My Heart" by Kristen really smokes), a few wet t-shirt contests, several grisly murder set pieces (Alessandro Rambaldi did the great, gruesome gore f/x), a throbbing' rock score by Goblin's Claidio Simonetti, crude condom gags, plenty of attractive babes in skimpy bikinis, a "Jaws"-style "let's keep this homicide stuff quiet 'cause it's bad for business" cover-up conspiracy sub-plot, more idiotic horny toad college revelers than you can shake an empty beer can at, and even a little gratuitous female nudity.
As if feeling like a social pariah in the 80s isn't bad enough, there is also a killer cruising around the beach on a motorcycle killing any immoral party animals.
Sheriff Strycher (John Saxon) thought he just witnessed the killer be executed by the State but now it looks like he will have to work some more.
Meanwhile, Skip teams up with bartender Gail (Sarah Buxton), whose sister was murdered by the alleged killer, to do their own detective work.More 80s Italian Florida-filmed madness.
This one easily trumps stuff like Miami HORROR because 1) it is an amazing time capsule of 80s spring break and 2) it isn't boring!
Director Umberto Lenzi doesn't seem too bothered with details (how is it that Saxon shows up right before a fight anywhere in the county), but the electrocution murders are well staged.
Umberto Lenzi (aka Harry Kirkpatrick) made this film during the teen slasher era of the 1980's.
But, the film did have its moments, like when John Saxon gets dragged off by the biker gang, well, he deserved it.
Not your typical Lenzi film, but ok for the good 'ol 80's teen slasher era..
Slasher Movie Meets Spring Break Epic with a Hint of "Jaws!".
"Cannibal Ferox" writer & director Umberto Lenzi appropriated the spring break beach movies, the slasher movie, and the murderous animal movie and came up with the imaginative but ghoulish Welcome to Spring Break.
Sleazy Police Chief Strycher framed the biker for the murder at the insistence of the paranoid mayor who did not want the town to acquire a bad reputation that might dissuade spring break students from populating their sunny beaches.
Later, after Chief Strycher (John Saxon of "Enter the Dragon") has run him out of town, Skip teams up with Gail (Sarah Buxton of "Today You Die") to learn who really committed all the murders.
Umberto Lenzi adopts the pseudonym of Harry Kilpatrick, but he need not have concealed his identity because Welcome to Spring Break qualifies as an above-average whodunit.
Clocking in at 90 minutes, Welcome to Spring Break is not the best Lenzi movie, but it boasts a mystery, a genuine surprise, red herrings galore and several interesting characters..
~Spoiler~Welcome to Spring Break is an uninspired effort from Umberto Lenzi.
"Welcome to Spring Break..the annual migration of the idiot."A maniac in a biker suit and helmet is randomly murdering college kids visiting Manatee Beach on their Spring Break.
Questioning whether or not the murders are being committed by a recently executed biker gang member, Diablo, the mayor(Fred Buck)wishes to cover them up and hopes that corrupt cop Strycher(John Saxon, playing a mean, brutish thug with an ugly backstory that surfaces for the viewer when our protagonists search his trailer)and Doctor Willet(Tarantino regular Michael Parks)can keep the crimes hush-hush.
Skip also has run-ins with the bikers for his dead comrade had a series of altercations with them.Umberto Lenzi's slasher flick features the excess of the 80's.