The Sand

The Sand, also titled Blood Sand, is a 2015 American monster movie directed by Isaac Gabaeff and starring Brooke Butler, Meagan Holder and Mitchel Musso. At least one version of the opening credits reads "Killer Beach," but the closing credits give the movie title as "The Sand."

The Sand (also Blood Sand)
Theatrical release poster
Directed byIsaac Gabaeff
Produced byGato Scatena
Jordan Rosner
Written byAlex Greenfield
Ben Powell
Starring
Music byVincent Gillioz
CinematographyMatt Wise
Edited bySean Puglisi
Distributed byTaylor and Dodge
Release date
  • August 28, 2015 (2015-08-28)
Running time
84 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

A group of friends are having a party at the beach with some of their classmates. A girl named Heather is videoing the party, when two of the boys, Vance and Gilbert (Cleo Berry), find a large ball covered in a strange gooey substance. All the teenagers agree to put their mobile phones in the trunk of a car in an effort to ensure that no one will post compromising pictures or videos online.

The next morning two of the friends, Kaylee and Mitch wake up on the lifeguard shack. Kaylee's boyfriend, Jonah, awakens in a nearby convertible next to a girl named Chanda. In the back seat are Vance and his girlfriend, Ronnie. Gilbert wakes up, stuck from the waist down in a trash barrel, having been put there as a prank after passing out. A girl named Marsha wakes up, topless, having fallen asleep on top of a picnic table. The rest of the teenagers, including Heather, are nowhere to be found; there are, instead, a bunch of empty sleeping bags in their places.

Marsha accuses Heather of having stolen her top; she leaves the picnic table to find her. Kaylee, having witnessed a bird getting sucked into the sand tries to warn her, but Marsha doesn't listen. She is immediately immobilized by something hidden underneath the sand. Vance attempts to help her, but he falls and has his face ripped off when he touches the sand. Vance and Marsha are swallowed by the creature, as their bodies sink into the sand, much to the horror of their friends. Jonah sees the cracked ball from the night before and concludes that it must have been an egg, and whatever hatched from it has burrowed under the sand and has wiped out everyone, including Vance, Heather, and Marsha.

The group cannot call for help, as their phones are locked in the trunk of the car, and the car's battery is dead from their having left the headlights on all night. Mitch and Kaylee find hot dogs in the lifeguard shack and toss them at different ends of the beach to find out the extent of the creature under the sand. Thus they find the edge of it but realize the distance is too great. Jonah uses two surfboards as a bridge to reach the picnic table. He makes it to the table, but not before the creature has slashed his stomach, leaving a painful wound that starts to seep pus. He notes to the others, though, that the creature won't go near the ashes of the previous night's bonfire, indicating that it hates fire.

The sun beats down. Ronnie and Chanda attempt to retrieve the phones from the trunk of the car, but Ronnie becomes trapped, her fingers crushed under the rim of the trunk. A beach patrolman drives onto the beach. The group warns him, then are shocked to see him get out of his car and walk across the sand unharmed. Mitch realizes that the man's boots are protecting him. The patrolman, seeing Jonah's and Ronnie's injuries and Gilbert stuck in the trash barrel, assumes the group is on drugs and taunts them.

But the patrolman drops his keys in the sand, and when he reaches to pick them up, his hand is captured. He uses his pepper spray, which temporarily saves him, but in the process, his lower arm has been consumed; the shock causes him to fall, and he is sucked into the sand. Kaylee, however, manages to retrieve his pepper spray. The pepper spray gives Mitch an idea: he thinks he can get to the truck by putting his flip-flops on and wrapping his feet with towels soaked in pepper spray. Chanda throws him a towel from the car, but when Mitch attempts to catch the second towel the banister breaks and he falls to the sand and the sand creature pulls out his guts, therefore killing him and he is sucked into the sand with just a bloody spot left on the sand.

Kaylee, after a brief moment of sadness, takes charge. She frees Ronnie's fingers from the car trunk, then has Chanda take the broken pieces of the boardwalk and use them as a bridge to get to Jonah on the picnic table. Meanwhile, Gilbert discovers that he has cut his stomach on the edge of the trash barrel during his attempts to escape, alerting the creature.

Kaylee and Ronnie each make their way across the makeshift bridge to Chanda and Jonah. At the last step, Ronnie trips and, despite Kaylee's efforts with the pepper spray, she dies and sucked into the sand by the creature. Chanda, in desperation, follows through with Mitch's plan and runs across the sand to the truck with pepper-sprayed towels wrapping her feet. The group celebrates for a brief moment as she succeeds. But just then, Gilbert is attacked by the creature, and sucked down through the bottom of the barrel and is killed. The creature, having grown much larger tentacles, bangs against the patrol car, knocking Chanda unconscious.

At nightfall, Chanda wakes up and recuperates. She gets to the back of the truck and finds a self-inflatable raft. Chanda inflates the raft, and Kaylee and Jonah use it to reach the patrolman's car. However, the ground erupts, knocking Kaylee out of the open door and onto the raft. A huge glowing tentacle shoots out from the ground and assaults her. She manages to get on top of the car and, finding two gas cans on the rear rack, uses them to set one of the large tentacles on fire.

Kaylee, Chanda, and Jonah lock themselves in the car as the creature's tentacles flail and bash at them. Eventually, the attacks stop; in the silence, Kaylee and Chanda see that Jonah has died from his injuries. The two girls fall asleep huddled together.

In the morning, the girls are awakened by a man, who taps on the glass and asks them if they are alright. Kaylee and Chanda note, incredulously, that the creature is gone. They walk across the sand together, traumatized, as the man calls for an ambulance.

In a closing shot, the creature revealed as an enormous jellyfish, is seen under the water, headed towards Santa Monica Pier.

Cast

Release

Home media

The film was released on DVD by Monarch Video on October 13, 2015.[1]

Reception

Critical response for The Sand has been mixed, with criticism of the special effects.

Mike Wilson from Bloody Disgusting gave the film a negative review, stating that while the film's admittedly cheap special effects added a certain charm, and the film's death scenes were disturbing and well-executed; Wilson criticized the film's performances, dialogue, and the film's runtime.[2] Kim Newman wrote in his review of the film, "Though well-acted, smartly-written and nicely directed by Isaac Gabaeff to ratchet up the tension, The Sand suffers from hit-or-miss CGI effects – even the lo-tech practical monster/gore effects of vintage Corman c Attack of the Giant Leeches or Frank Henenlotter in his Basket Case-Brain Damage mode would play better than the glitchy, cartoony pixel-jumble that passes for a monster here."[3] Naila Scargill from Exquisite Terror gave the film a negative review, calling it "arduous", and criticized the lack of screen time of the film's monster, as well as the film's unlikable characters, and special effects.[4] Matt Boiselle from Dread Central awarded the film two out of five stars, writing, "The Sand could be good for a midnight watch where goofiness is happily embraced and the need for creature fun is welcome; however, once the sun comes up, it’s best to find a lot of shade from this solar disaster."[5]

Alternately, Michael Therkelsen from Horror Society rated the film a score of eight out of ten, calling it "a campy good time", while also noting the film's cheap special effects didn't fit with the rest of the film.[6] Jennie Kermode of Eye for Film gave the film three and a half out of five stars, commending the film's quick pacing, and likable characters, writing, "It takes skill to make a cheesy creature feature well. The Sand is much smarter than it looks on the surface. Give it time and it will pull you in."[7] Kat Hughes from The Hollywood News offered the film similar praise, writing, "The Sand takes a silly idea and somehow makes it work, helped greatly by the fact that it has got buckets of charm."[8]

See also

References
  1. "The Sand (2015) - Isaac Gabaeff". Allmovie.com. Allmovie. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  2. Wilson, Mike. "Review: 'The Sand'". BloodyDisgusting.com. Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  3. Newman, Kim. "FrightFest review – The Sand". JohnnyAlucard.com. The Kim Newman Website. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  4. Scargill, Naila. "The Sand". ExquisiteTerror.com. Exquisite Terror. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  5. Boiselle, Matt. "Sand, The (2015) - Dread Central". DreadCentral.com. Dread Central. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  6. Therkelsen, Michael. "Review: The Sand (2015)". HorrorSociety.com. Horror Society. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  7. Kermode, Jennie. "The Sand (2015) Movie Review from Eye for Film". EyeforFilm.co.uk. Eye for Film. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  8. Hughes, Kat. "The Sand review [FrightFest 2015]: "A heap of harmless fun"". TheHollywoodNews.com. The Hollywood News. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
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