Blood Beach

Blood Beach is a 1981 American horror film written and directed by Jeffrey Bloom and starring David Huffman, John Saxon, and Burt Young.

The premise, conceived by Steven Nalevansky, involves a creature lurking beneath the sand of Santa Monica Beach that attacks locals and vacationers.

Meanwhile, the mysterious and crazed Mrs. Selden, who resides in an abandoned section of the Santa Monica Pier, witnesses the attack and disappearance (and others throughout the film), but does not come forward.

The next morning, Harry sees Marie's hat on the beach, along with a small sinkhole which he recognizes as similar to the hole at the scene of Ruth's disappearance and the death of the dog.

Searching for the unknown creature's home, Harry ventures to an abandoned section of the pier and finds an access tunnel leading to an underground storage facility.

The next day, Royko and Piantadosi find Mr. Hench emerging from a sewer manhole in a Venice street after escaping from the creature's lair, but he is in a state of shock after being horribly mangled and cannot explain what happened to him.

Increased attention from the local news media lead the police to attempt to kill the creature as quickly as possible and Pearson orders the installation of motion detectors, heat-sensing cameras and explosives.

The next morning, Harry leaves with Catherine to drive her home to San Francisco while the beach reopens to the public, now that the subterranean creature is dead.

In the final scene over the end credits, as the beach becomes crowded again, new small sinkholes begin to appear unnoticed by most all over the sand, implying that Dr. Dimitrios was correct in his theory that the creature has the ability to regenerate from severed pieces.

[2] Blood Beach received trade screenings in December 1980,[3] after which it was given a limited theatrical release twice in the United States: by the Jerry Gross Organization on January 23, 1981,[3] and by Compass International Pictures in 1982.

[6] Tom Buckley's review in The New York Times called it "a cut or two above the recent run of low-budget horror films" and praised the work of "an attractive and professional cast, a rarity in the genre", but noted that it was "undermined by plodding direction and a talky and incoherent script that is short on action, suspense and even the gore that the title promises".