“This Beach is Killer” Synopsis: After an all-night graduation beach party, a group of hung-over twenty-somethings awake to a beating sun, and a seemingly carnivorous beach that devours anything with a heartbeat that touches the sand.

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Calamity Brains:

The Sand is a surprisingly decent watch, considering it’s a low budget B movie with a ridiculous premise. Though the effects are uneven throughout the movie, the filmmakers manage an impressive amount of tension for the situation, and all of the unknown actors are at least passable. Add in a healthy dose of boobs and babes, and The Sand becomes thoroughly worthy of a lazy Sunday.

After a party on the beach, revelers (including Brooke Butler, Meagan Holder, and Mitchel Musso) awaken to find that stepping onto the sand now means a gruesome death. All of their classmates have died in the night – those that survived are those who spent the night on top of something solid (a car, a watchtower, a table). With no rations and no way to call for help, their situation quickly becomes desperate.

One saving grace for The Sand is that the monster is not actually the beach, but rather something living underneath the sand. It primarily shows itself as filaments reaching for flesh – a clever device that requires very little in the way of effects. This choice allows the movie to sidestep most of the inherent silliness it was likely to face. While it’s definitely still more on the camp side of things, The Sand manages a surprising amount of tension, not to mention a few scenes that had me wincing in sympathy. And though there are a lot of tropes, the movie turns a few of them on their head, meaning you can’t always predict how a situation will play out.

Even with a few rough patches, The Sand ended up being a tight, decently-made movie. Add in a Jamie Kennedy cameo, and it’s worth a watch for fans of B monster flicks.

Calamity Brains’ Rating: B
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