Pink Lagoon Beach Party

Creatures from the Pink Lagoon (2006) looked like a stupid gay parody of a 60s science fiction horror movie. And it was! Even in black and white.

The setup: There's a chemical plant near the Exit 5 rest stop by the Pink Lagoon that is causing a mosquito-borne virus to mutate (or something like that). We see a man bitten and then his funeral. A group of women are gossiping about him: "He was buried in a kimono and a pinky ring." When one doesn't understand, they use ever more far-fetched euphemisms to explain: He was "light in his loafers", "playes for the other team", a friend of Dorothy",  but she still doesn't get it. Finally, they explain: "He was a figure skater." Later when everyone leaves, a hand (with a pinky ring) bursts out of the grave - and then the wrist goes limp. If this sounds funny to you, you'll love this.

Platinum haired Nick Garris is a sweet young thing riding around with his rough trade friend. He wants him to come to his birthday party so everyone can see how nice he really is. Instead, he drops Garris off by the side of the road and goes cruising at Exit 5. Will we see him again - alive?

The party is at a beach house (filmed in the PNW), owned by a swishy black gay and his hunky boyfriend. Also attending are a shy, not quite closeted nerdy boy, and an older, bitter queen with a sharp tongue (ooh!) and his latest "conquest". There's actually a lot of cute but outrageous stuff here before the zombies even show up. 

But of course they do, in makeup that would embarrass Ed Wood (if that's possible). In fact, everything about this movie is cheap, down to the sign for Exit 5, which is clearly several 8"x10" sheets of paper with "Exit 5" printed across them, stapled to a board. The acting style matches the cheapness, and so does the dialog and jokes. There isn't much info available about this, but it looks like a lot was cribbed from The Boys in the Band (haven't seen it, don't know).

But there are a couple of decent original songs, and of course, show tunes save the day.

This was actually a lot of fun, although maybe not as much as, say, Monster Beach Party or Psycho Beach Party. Maybe they should have put "Beach Party" in the title.