Nightmare Beach (1989)

Dynamic comic book slasher on the shores of southeast Florida

The execution of a motorcycle gang leader just north of Miami upsets his gang members and dead bodies start piling up during Spring Break. John Saxon plays the determined police chief while Sarah Buxton and Nicolas De Toth appear as college students particularly interested in taking down the killer.

“Nightmare Beach” (1989) was produced by the same Italian company that made “Primal Rage” a year earlier and so involves some of the same people in the production, including the heroine and the writers. Despite arriving late in the game, it ranks with the most entertaining slashers of the ’80s. It’s full of pizzazz with its rockin’ soundtrack, Spring Break setting, scores of beautiful females and the hammy motorcycle gang straight out of “The Warriors.”

The well-done whodunit angle features something interesting that can be traced back to "Night, After Night, After Night" from twenty years earlier, as well as “The Centerfold Girls” from 1974. I don’t want to say anything more.

Needless to say, it's an undeservedly obscure slasher. Seek it out and enjoy.

It runs 1 hour, 30 minutes, and was shot at Fort Lauderdale and North Miami Beach, Florida.

GRADE: A-