best movie i've ever seen.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I tend to adore the ABC movies of the week: to me they represent the originality of plots back then. Pictures nowadays seldom come up with something new. Horror pictures always deal with haunted houses and dead kids. Or else they're Japanese rip-offs.This movie can boast of having a two-faced atmosphere: summer vacation leisure mixed with insidious peril.A middle-class family goes on a camping trip, and repeatedly become the victims of an eerie hippie gang's pranks. The pranks keep getting more and more physical until they reach the level of attempted murder.Dennis Weaver was perhaps type-casted as the upright, rather naive family man that believes that if you don't react on bad changes, they'll conveniently disappear clear out of sight. Nevertheless, he was an excellent actor, and this picture offers quite a number of interesting twists. A hilarious scene is when the family hears a cry further down the beach, and Weaver gets the sight of a body in the water. When he's ran out to it, he founds out that it's actually an inflatable sex doll dressed in his daughters underwear!

A family experiences 'Terror on the Beach' when a group of youngsters attacks them on their vacation. Basically we are introduced to the Gwynn family who are your typical American family. They have their arguments, but overall love each other greatly. They begin to be targeted by a group of young people. The gang runs them off the road at one point, tricks them into thinking their car is broken down, goes to their camp and takes some of their stuff, etc. It escalates quickly and it's obvious that the family are in real danger of being physically hurt. That's when they must come together and fight back against the gang who believe they own the beach.'Terror on the Beach' feels a bit like 'National Lampoon's Vacation' meets 'The Hill Have Eyes' meets 'Duel'. We have the family who are in the family van going on a trip. When they get to the beach area, they are stalked and watched by members of the gang. The gang also tries to drive them off the road at times... so it has the feel of a bunch of different films. The acting was good enough, especially from Parsons and Weaver, But 'Terror on the Beach' failed to do what a lot of the other ABC movie of the week films did. It lacked great suspense or high drama. This one had it's moments, but at the end of the day is your pretty average made for TV movie.It has some good moments, particularly towards the end when the family finally fights back against the gang. There are some great beach location shots to go with it. I'd probably recommend catching this online if you are interested in 70's television movies, but it is one of the more slower moving one's from that time.5/10

I can't believe I waste my time watching this garbage! I did because Leonard Maltin gave it an "AA" rating, and for TV movies this is usually a reliable indicator of some quality entertainment.The acting was OK, but whoever wrote it should be forever denied access to any medium of communication. The plot is ludicrous, the motivations of the "bad guys" totally absent, and the various family interactions silly and shallow. For example, Dad preaches that violent reaction to aggression is BAD, but he turns out to be an "admirable" person NOT because of his "ignore the idiots" philosophy, but because he's pretty good with his fists...The ONLY message I was able to glean from this pap was that the nuclear family is Good and alternate living arrangements are Bad. Oh, and Bad people happen to Good people.

Another reactionary film that warns America: there's a Manson family in your neighbourhood! And they want to terrify you with their dune buggies and long hair! This Manson family, however, doesn't seem to do much other than drive around being mean to people. No sex, no drugs, and not much rock n roll are in evidence. They also shave. In other words, typical movie of the week stuff with a ridiculous ending.