DIRECTOR Isaac Gabaeff WRITER Alex Greenfield; Ben Powell STARS Brooke Butler; Jamie Kennedy; Mitchel Musso DVD 25 April
While the premise here is ripe for B-movie schlocky goodness — a group of young people are trapped on a beach, a monster beneath the sand — very little happens, the film’s two scriptwriters unable to conjure up a story past their one-line pitch between them. Oftentimes this isn’t an issue, monster movies (especially of this era) generally relying on gags and gross-out effects, however as a creature feature (mostly) missing its creature, The Sand is an arduous watch.
In fact, you may wonder at first whether the film is wilfully bad. No such mercy; this transpires to be wishful thinking as, following the first death — albeit a comical one, the victim’s skin being pulled from his face down into the sand — the film plods along while a cast of unlikeables bicker through until the credits. Our sand-dwelling monster is a lackadaisical beast only bordering on peckish, its cilia (some bad CGI; no practical effects to be had here) only making half-hearted attempts to drag down its meals. The one viewing to be had of said monster is awaited so long, no viewer will care.
Vague nods to Alien and Tremors do nothing to alleviate matters. There is absolutely nothing to recommend The Sand.
