BLOOD BEACH

BLOOD BEACH (1980). Written and directed by Jeffrey Bloom. 

"Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water you can't get to it."

Harry Caulder (David Huffman), who works for the beach patrol, re-encounters his ex-girlfriend Catherine (Marianna Hill) when her mother, Ruth (Harriet Medin of The Ghost) goes missing. Seems Ruth was just out walking her dog on the beach when she disappeared. Then there are more disappearances, and a young woman covered in sand gets bitten all over her body and goes into shock. There is something under the sand that is pulling people down and devouring them. (One victim is a would-be rapist who gets his penis bitten off!) Captain Pearson (John Saxon) and Sergeant Royko (Burt Young)  lead the investigation, but it is Caulder and Catherine who search for the monster in caverns under the sand. Blood Beach, which may have been influenced by the classic "Invisible Enemy" episode of The Outer Limits, is creepy and suspenseful even if the monster itself is a bit disappointing. The performers are more than adequate, with a dynamic Saxon leading the cast. Four years after this film was released, Huffman, only 39 and with a wife and two children, was murdered by a thief he pursued. Hill [The Baby] has had numerous credits, was off the screen for twenty to thirty years, but has resurfaced in a new movie, Chief Zabu.

Verdict: And you thought sunburn was bad! **1/2.

THE BABY

David Mooney (Manzy) and Ruth Roman

THE BABY (1973). Director: Ted Post.

Social worker Ann Gentry (Anjanette Comer) is a widow who lives with her mother-in-law, Judith (Beatrice Manley). She asks to be assigned to the case of the Wadsworth family, who live in a big rundown house and live off the money given them by the state for the care of a member they call "Baby." Although he has the mind of an infant and sleeps in a crib, Baby (David Mooney/Manzy) is actually a grown man. Ann comes to believe that his problem isn't true retardation, but that for some reason his mother (Ruth Roman) is holding him back developmentally. In the meantime Baby is poked with an electric prod by his sadistic sister Alba (Suzanne Zenor); his other sister Germaine (Marianna Hill of The Astral Factor) takes off her clothes and climbs into the crib with him; and in an even more tasteless scene -- if that were possible --  his babysitter abuses him. But as awful as the Wadsworths may be, is it possible that Ann Gentry is even worse and has her own plans for Baby ...? The Baby is well-acted, especially by Mooney, but it is so exploitative of the mentally ill that it's rather hard to take at times. The movie gets points for originality, but little else. Even the plot twists are pretty sick. This is the kind of movie that does no one's career any good. Tod Andrews, who plays a doctor, was the star of From Hell It Came.

Verdict: Too repellent to be entertaining. For a more sensitive look at the mentally-challenged see A Child is Waiting. **.

THE ASTRAL FACTOR / INVISIBLE STRANGLER

THE ASTRAL FACTOR (aka Invisible Strangler/1978). Director: John Florea.

Roger Sands (Frank Ashmore) is a psychotic who murdered his unloving, self-absorbed mother and while in prison has developed the ability to enter the astral plane, become invisible, and escape. Once out, he runs about strangling women who remind him of his mother and/or who testified against him. Lt. Charles Barrett (Robert Foxworth of Prophecy) is the chief detective on the case, assisted by Holt (Mark Slade); both do a fairly miserable job of protecting the victims, but the killer is highly unusual. The Astral Factor isn't a very good movie, its chief interest being its bizarre C-list cast: Stefanie Powers is Barrett's nutty girlfriend; Elke Sommer is one of the potential victims; Sue Lyon is Sands' mother; Leslie Parrish [Missile to the Moon] and Marianna Hill are two other victims; and Cesare Danova and  Percy Rodrigues also have small roles.  Elke Sommer [Deadlier Than the Male] actually gives a pretty good account of herself as a nervous lady all alone in a big mansion waiting for Roger to show while the cops stand by. The film meanders terribly but there is some suspense at the end. The scientific/paranormal aspects of the script are pretty much muddled.

Verdict: The poster is much better than the movie. **.