Blood Beach (1980)

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

John Saxon and Burt Young chew the scenery as frustrated detectives while beach goers increasingly get chewed up by Blood Beach. It's an enjoyable horror romp which might have benefited from a little humor/camp and continues the Jaws inspired terror at the beach theme found in other films such as Tintorera: Killer Shark (1977) or Piranha (1978). A U.S. co-production with Sir Run Run Shaw, Blood Beach was distributed by The Jerry Gross Organization and also features a score from Gil Melle (The Andromeda Strain, Night Gallery, Columbo, Killdozer). 

Director and co-writer Jeffrey Bloom was originally a professional magician but went on to extensive television work including episodes of The Dark Room series as well as other films such as Nightmares (1983) and Flowers in the Attic (1987).

the trailer

the feature

Convoy (1978)

Sam Peckinpah's 1978 film Convoy is often maligned by fellow Peckinpah fans but I've always enjoyed this dusty, double clutching, and populist exploitation flick.

Amongst all of his cinematic output, Convoy proved to be Peckinpah's most successful film in terms of box office receipts, grossing $15,000,000 in the United Sates alone.

As a favor to actor James Coburn, Peckinpah brought him onto the film as an assistant director so that Coburn could obtain his Directors Guild of America card. Rumors have persisted that Coburn's participation became much more involved as Peckinpah often bagged out of shooting due to being "under the weather" and Coburn stepped up to direct scenes in his absence.

The film is based on a song by CW McCall (aka Bill Fries) that was initially recorded in the mid 70s for use in bread commercials. The song became a radio hit in 1976 during a wave of CB related mania in the U.S. and was then altered to include specific details and characters from the film.

Presented below are the trailer and the full movie.

the trailer


the movie