Monster of the Day #182

Updated on January 20, 2011 By Ken Begg 24 Comments

I really have to sit down and listen to the commentary for this film, as I can only assume they go into the (unmentioned in the film) radically different designs seen for the monsters. This one below is seen only during the attack on the girls’ slumber party.

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  • Ericb

    How does it eat with all those sausages in its mouth?

  • TongoRad

    The scariest design was the one with the guitars and drums.

  • P Stroud

    The woman is supposed to be a teenager. Heh heh.

    I’ll say one positive thing about Horror on Party Beach. The beach band isn’t half bad. But then I’m partial to surf music.

  • roger h

    is this “Muppet Beach Party”?

    Sausage Monster was always one of my favorites.

  • The Rev.

    That bottom picture…I’d swear that was the lead actress there, but maybe I’m wrong. If so, it must’ve been a publicity still since she never wore anything close to that revealing.

    I quite certain that design showed up at the end too. In fact, they’re the ones that are shown to actually be on fire; the other version just “disappears” in a cloud of smoke and fire. I even think the last one, seen pitifully clawing at the air, is one of the bottom design. I always figured they were stunt suits (maybe suit…I want to say there’s two of them on screen at one point but I could be wrong) that they used in that one scene to pad out the numbers in the scene or something. It’d explain the makers’ willingness to light ’em up.

    I always loved that attack in the pool. Kind of like the attack in the pool from yesterday’s MotD, come to think of it. Talk about lack of peripheral vision and just basic awareness…

  • The Rev.

    Whoops! I meant the MotD from two days ago.

  • fish eye no miko

    they go into the (unmentioned in the film) radically different designs seen for the monsters

    They do mention it in the film, actually. The guy on the news talks about how the creatures have different shapes and sizes, “just like humans”… Uh.. ok…

    The Rev. said “That bottom picture…I’d swear that was the lead actress there, but maybe I’m wrong. If so, it must’ve been a publicity still since she never wore anything close to that revealing.”

    You’re right om both counts. Plus, when Elaine is menaced by the creatures, it’s out doors (at Fingle’s Quarry), she never get attacked while in a building of any sort. So, definitely a publicity still.

  • “Is there anyone who likes pickles as much as me?”

  • Rock Baker

    The lower publicity shot is another still I’ve never seen before. I’d love to have a copy of that still for myself, it’d be going on the wall! That could be Elaine, but I’m not fully sure. The monster, tho, looks shockingly like the one seen in publicity shots from The H Man!

    And I too am a fan of The Del-Airs. “Elaine” is one of my favorite songs from any “beach” movie.

    I don’t remember the commentary ever going into the alternate suits, but I could just not remember. It was a pretty boring commentary, really. Although, I think Tenney pointed out that some of the attack scenes used a split-screen to increase the number of fishmen. This awed me, as I could never tell that the shot showing six monsters was such a shot. The only clue is that the monsters stand in pairs with wide spaces between each couple. It seems, they only built TWO of the top photo suits! That may be the reason for the ‘moss-monsters’ from the bottom shot, just to fill out the numbers during attack scenes.

    The alternate suits also get brought out for some shots in the three-girls-from-New-York-get-attacked scene. One gets his hand trapped in the trunk.

  • Rock Baker

    You know, after looking at it again, I think it might be Elaine.

  • BeckoningChasm

    The only film I know of where the writer and cinematographer were the same guy. I wonder why he didn’t direct it also?

  • The Rev.

    Rock: You’re right, I forgot about it popping up in that attack on the dames from Noo Yawk. Good catch.

    I remember thinking the second version looked a bit more realistic, particularly considering the given origins of the monsters. (Of course, the first version is so wonderfully goofy I can’t help but love it.) However, I never before saw their eyes, and now that I see them in that still…I’m really glad I didn’t see them in the movie.

  • David Fullam

    Yes, the commentary does not address the issue and that so upset me. For years I wondered why two different types of suits were used, and why did they not appear in the shots together? The film is cut to make it look like they are all attacking together, but you never see them standing next to each other in any scene in the film. As has been said, they do address the two different types in the film itself (different creatures, different genes, etc). That was my only disappointment with the DVD, the failure to address why we had two different suits. I do love the fish men, but think the sea weed men were scarier.

  • Rock Baker

    Obviously, they should’ve made two movies. A goofy beach monster movie with the top-photo suits, and a creepy mutants-on-the-loose-at-night flick with the seaweed monster suits. Take another look at that publicity photo. THAT’s a movie I want to see!

  • The Rev.

    It truly is amazing how disparate they are. They really do look like they should be in two separate movies.

    Of course, since the movie fluxuates between goofy beach movie and surprisingly dark and violent monster flick, it almost makes sense.

  • Rock Baker

    Imagine if the producers had gone another direction, and had two forms of ‘zombie’ be formed at the same time. Then the two varieties of monsters would be at war with each other as the human race tried to find a way to defeat both and survive. Granted, the plot they did use could’ve worked with a little attention to details like how a small (?) community would react to “an invasion from the sea!” One mention of a locked door just doesn’t cut it.

  • The Rev.

    Rock, I think I’d pay to see your movie…

  • sandra

    I’m trying to work out what the object on the floor next to the girl’s foot is. It looks like a fish. If so, Did the monster bring it with him ?

  • The Rev.

    It looks like she’s on a rug. If you mean the thing in the lower-right corner, then I really can’t make it out.

  • Rock Baker

    It DOES look like a fish! It’s probably one of her shoes at an odd angle, if I had to guess. Or maybe a bit of monster suit that fell off and got kicked to the side?

  • I have an unreasonable love for these goofy monsters. I saw the movie when I was a kid and it freaked me out, especially the sequence when the radioactive waste starts mutating the skeletons. I only saw the movie once and have never wanted to rewatch it for fear that it’s really as terrible as the adult me thinks it must be.

    Redesigning the fish zombies has been one of my occasional sketchbook projects.

  • Rock Baker

    How do your redesigns look?

  • Rock –

    Click on the link in my previous post. It will take you to one of the images at my Epilogue.net gallery.

  • Rock Baker

    Sorry, didn’t notice the link!

    Nice interpretation, I must say. But all I see is ANOTHER movie I’d like to see that doesn’t exist!