The Sand (2015)

Really Surprised!

Memorable, crazy movie

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Granted, this movie had score a relatively low rating here on IMDb, and I probably should take heed of that. But there was just something about the movie's cover with the tentacle that was alluring and interesting, and that made me actually sit down to watch this 2015 horror movie.Naturally I didn't have much of any expectations to the movie, because I had never heard about it prior to actually finding the movie.With this being your typical late-teen / young adult horror movie, then you can expect pointless and tacky nudity, which totally doesn't serve the movie in any way."The Sand" (aka "Killer Beach") actually starts out well enough and doesn't waste any time in establishing a backstory or such. So there is action from almost the very beginning of the movie. And there was no need to establish that, because you don't need to be particularly attached to the characters in the movie for it to work properly.The special effects and CGI in the movie were serving their purposes well enough, although you can clearly see that it is computer animated. Some of the CGI was actually downright laughable to witness. But still, it does look adequate enough, and it is much better than the special effects in many other horror movies.They actually had some fair acting talents in the movie. And I must admit that I wasn't familiar with anyone in the movie aside from Jamie Kennedy. Now, I can't claim to be a fan of Jamie Kennedy in any way, but he was actually cut out for this particular character. It should be said that people in the movie were actually doing good jobs with their given roles and characters.Writers Alex Greenfield and Ben Powell actually came up with an interesting concept for the plot and script. And I will say that the storyline was original, so that was a nice and fresh approach.The most disappointing aspect to the movie, aside from the questionable CGI effects, was that you had to wait almost to the very end of the movie before tentacles started to emerge from the sand. Up to that point it was small wriggling tendrils that emerged from the sand. I had expected more tentacle action from the movie, especially given the movie's cover. However, I will say that the fluorescent tentacle was really worth the wait, because that was cool and looked good.The atmosphere of the movie was good, and there was a real sense of dread and endangerment to the young people marooned on the beach.All in all, then I actually found "The Sand" to be an adequately entertaining movie, though it is hardly the type of movie that you will watch more than a single time - provided that you actually manage to sit through it the first time. My rating for "The Sand" is a mediocre five stars out of ten.

A group of twenty-somethings party the night away on the beach only to wake up the next day to discover that a ravenous multi-tendrilled creature lies hidden beneath the sand, waiting to devour them.The Sand draws inspiration from an awful lot of movies, the most obvious of which is Blood Beach (1980), which bore the memorable tag-line 'Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water - you can't get to it.". Other titles with which it shares similarities include Tremors (1990), The Ruins (2008), The Mist (2007), Rogue (2007), Black Water (2007), Frozen (2010), Splinter (2008), and The Raft segment from anthology sequel Creepshow 2 (1987). The problem is that The Sand isn't as good as any of the films it so closely resembles (not even Splinter).As soon as one of the characters insists that all mobile phones are to be put in a bag, out of reach, while the friends party hard on the beach, it is abundantly clear that this film is going to be bereft of clever ideas or originality. And so it continues, the film playing out in very predictable manner, the photogenic cast falling victim one-by-one to the killer spaghetti that lurks beneath the sand. It's not a painful watch, the hot babes in bikinis ensuring that there is always something to please the eye, but as a horror film it is definitely a disappointment, with zero tension or scares and some really bad CGI (for both the creatures appendages and the gore).

THE SAND is, in essence, a film version of that 'floor is lava' game you used to play as a kid (you know, where you and your friends - or just you if you had no friends) weren't allowed to touch the floor because you'd die, so you had to clamber over furniture and jump a lot. Man, I used to love that game. Anyway, this cheapie has the same premise. A bunch of uninteresting characters are trapped on a beach with a killer creature in the sand. A bench, a lifeguard hut, a trash bin, and an open-top car are the only refuge. This single location movie sees them trying to figure out a way to escape without being eaten by a tentacled nasty.This film's connections with the 1980s monster movie BLOOD BEACH are numerous, although it's much lower key and smaller scale, unsurprising given the lack of budget. Despite being a majorly flawed film, I still enjoyed it as I've always enjoyed similar single location movies. The acting is pretty bad and the CGI effects are really terrible (worse even than in an Asylum film) but THE SAND offers mild suspense all the way through and you can certainly do a lot worse.

Once in a while, a low budget horror film will surprise you. The dialogue is exceptional, the lead characters fully developed, and the story line solid. This is not such a film. I always click the "contains spoilers" but do try to avoid revealing them very often. That said, if you read the plot summary and look at the stills, you know a lot about the movie already. Scantily-clad women--and a few guys, including Dean Geyer who is a handsome enough guy but always looks like he took Nyquil an hour ago--are stuck on a beach fighting an unknown evil. One pretty girl gets topless, but the whole pretty thing and topless thing loses its appeal when losing the fight against the unknown evil. Why the topless girl could not have survived, at least for while, and instead one of the girls who retained her top could have lost the fight, I don't know. It would not have changed the plot, and while there remained plenty of cleavage, it still would not have been unpleasant. The dialogue is amazing. I think the phrase "Look at me" was probably uttered just over seven hundred times. Or at least thirty, and none of them with one of the pretty people meaning "Hey, I'm pretty. Look at me." You could turn this into a drinking game. What happens at the end? I can't tell you. Not that I won't tell you, as I don't want to give it away. I can't. Nobody can. I would be willing to bet that the writer(s) have no idea either. But it's not actually that bad. If you see it in the discount DVD bin, save your money, but it shows up for free, give it a watch. Eye candy. Unknown evil. Fat man in a trash can. Basically, this is the Citizen Kane of its time.