Blood Red Beach is the twenty third feature film from Mad Angel Films and is indie comedy horror at its finest. Obviously not the highest budget, but its enthusiastic cast combined to make watching this a blast. This was directed by Matthew A. Peters (Graveyard Shark, Big Brood) and written by Mark Joseph Peek (Axegrinder 666).
Three hundred years ago, a pirate named Captain Roderick Cross (Peek) was cursed by his former lover when him and his crew were burning her for witchcraft on a small deserted island. The curse killed his crew, and then the pirate was told that he was cursed to become a ghost for eternity, doomed to forever roam the island he was on. He was told that the only way to break this curse was to find every piece of his pirate's gold, but before dying, the witch told Roderick that she had hidden that away where he would never find it.
In present day, a group of friends have been invited to the new island based home of their eccentric rich friend; Preston (Berndale March - Graveyard Shark, Romeo 3000). The friends, who include among them Ruby (Stephanie Ward - Graveyard Shark, Big Brood), Kip (Graveyard Shark, Brackish), Austin (Jesse Wakeman (Summer of the Wolf), and his girlfriend Britt (Graveyard Shark) have a small party down at the beach at night. Preston introduces a strange woman; Cara Fey (Big Brood), she gives each of the friends a gold coin and then tells them about the legend of the cursed ghost pirate. Preston then tells the group that the next day he was arranged a treasure hunt for his friends. Split into groups and following clues, the friends are tasked with finding a chest full of gold that has been hidden somewhere on the island. After most the friends have gone to bed, the strange woman returns to the beach, where she performs a ritual that resurrects Captain Roderick Cross spirit into a zombie form, and tells him how to finally locate all the gold pieces of his missing treasure.
To begin with, when the prologue started, I was a bit concerned about the generic pirate accents and the predictable and well trodden dialogue. That concern lasted for all of about thirty seconds as I quickly realised this was all intentional. That then applies to the rest of the dialogue over the course of the eighty five minute comedy horror. Frequently cheesy and melodramatic, but said enthusiastically from a cast who appear to be having a blast. Best of all was March, he was the highlight of Graveyard Shark, and again his manic over the top character he played became a sublime highlight. His over exaggerated hand movements, the over emphasis he puts on his lines, it was just all so hilariously perfect. Peek was another highlight, it is always good to have a strong antagonist, and while a single pirate wandering around singing pirate shanties and attacking the friends doesn't sound like much, Peek brought to him a strange likeability, and gave the pirate his own twisted sort of code. Rather than being a wholly slasher type character, this bad guy is often as likely to leave his victims alive than to kill them. For him, the only reason he is after the group is to retrieve his coins that each of them holds. This creates some interesting scenes where you can't be sure that just by meeting the antagonist people will die for certain.
I found almost all the characters to be enjoyable to follow, from the token stoner, to Ruby and Kip. They all seemed a part of the film world and bounced off each other well. I wasn't so keen on the two couples within the group, but they still had some decent moments.
The death scenes were fun on the whole even if the special effects didn't look super realistic, but again, this fitted the light hearted vibe that saw survivors not really that bothered about the friends they lost. A throat slash, severed limb, and a death from a cliff were all neat looking, giving a bit of variation. The island setting might not have wowed, but it worked for the pirate theme. In terms of the story, this was as basic as they come, mainly a low budget homage to The Pirates of the Caribbean. It served its purpose but there were not many surprises to be found.
Blood Red Beach doesn't take its acting seriously, but that it is due to the remit being to be larger than life characters, so it works. I guess its indie look could also put some people off. In a world as frequently bleak as it seems at the moment, I found this was a great way to be whisked off to some goofy horror world for an hour or so, escapism at its indie finest. Not perfect by any means, but the fun was higher than the faults for me. Blood Red Beach is out now on Blu-Ray, DVD, VHS, and also as a limited collector's box set exclusively through Mad Angel Films website (here).
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