Horror on the Lens: The Beach Girls and the Monster (dir by Jon Hall)

For today’s horror on the lens, we offer up 1965’s The Beach Girls and the Monster.  In this one, a monster that might be a mutated barracuda is hiding out on the beach and killing teenagers.  Can Dr. Otto Lindsay (played by the film’s director, Jon Hall) figure out how to defeat the monster?  Will Otto’s son Richard (Arnold Lessing) ever stop surfing long enough to get back to studying science?  Will Otto’s much younger wife Vicky (Sue Casey) seduce the troubled and crippled sculptor Mark (Walker Edmiston)?  And will it ever occur to anyone to just go to a different beach?

Complete with a ludicrous monster, a great soundtrack, tons of dancing, melodramatic acting, and a twist ending that will surprise no one, The Beach Girls and the Monster is low-budget favorite of mine.   It’s also, I think, a perfect movie to watch on a rainy October Saturday.

Enjoy!