Rating: D+
Dir: Jeffrey Bloom
Star: David Huffman, Marianna Hill, Burt Young, John Saxon
This is gifted with one of the finest taglines in genre history: “Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water – you can’t get to it.” Sadly, that is probably the best thing about this. It manages to be both a descendant of Jaws and a predecessor of Tremors, without occupying the same solar-system as either film in terms of quality. Filmed on Venice and Santa Monica beaches in California, it begins with an elderly woman, out walking her dog early one morning, being pulled beneath the sand by something beneath the surface. Naturally, as far as the authorities has concerned, it is just a missing person case – until the attacks continue, becoming more brazen and witnessed.
The most effective guy investigating it is harbour patrolman Harry Caulder (Huffman). Though he arguably spends more time trying to decide whether to hook up with trolley dolly Marie, or ex-girlfriend Catherine (Hill), who returns to town because her mother was the first victim. The monster makes that choice for Harry, by eating one of them. I’d say it was the wrong bit of totty, but perhaps that’s just me. The police, under Capt. Pearson (a nicely world-weary Saxon), are largely clueless, which is understandable, considering this is not exactly charted territory for law enforcement. The best performance the film has comes from Young as Chicago native Sergeant Royko, who must have been absent on the day of the California-mandated sensitivity training.
But much of this seems like lazy, uninspired film-making. While it shares with Tremors a reluctance to pin down a specific source for the creature, that provided a wealth of information for us, which could be used to put together a decent picture of the monster, its behaviour and habits. Here, you reach the (annoyingly open) ending, with hardly any more information than you had when Cathy’s mom took her sand bath. Instead, we’re frequently diverted off into Harry’s love-life, Capt. Pearson’s political pressures and even musical stylings from one of Harry’s colleague and his girlfriend. I wish I was kidding. Seriously, being dragged screaming under the sand and eaten alive would be too good for them.
Both Tremors and Jaws allowed the relationships between the characters to build naturally from events as they occurred. In this everything feels contrived, unnecessary, or occasionally both. Although there is some wry amusement to be gleaned from the wilful denial of the threat by the locals, we are not here for romance or social drama. Look at the title of the movie, and read the room, people! It’s something of a shame, as Bloom – best known as the director of Flowers of the Attic – does reasonably well with the actual attacks, especially considering how little he’s given to work with in them. Surprised to see Sir Run Run Shaw’s name pop up in the opening credits as a producer. It’s not his finest hour, and I’m glad he didn’t give up. For his next American movie was a little thing called Blade Runner.