Surf Nazis Must Die (1987)

User Rating:

3.1/10   

Director:

Peter George

Writers:

Jon Ayre (story)
Peter George (story)

Release Date:

3 July 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Drama | Horror

Tagline:

The Beaches Have Become Battlefields... The Waves Are A War Zone!

Plot:

When the grandson of a gun wielding woman is murdered by neo-nazi surf punks in the post-apocalyptic future...

Plot Keywords:

Dominatrix | Violence | Racial Slur | Racism | Nazism

Cast

Gail Neely	...	Eleanor 'Mama' Washington
Robert Harden	...	Leroy
Barry Brenner	...	Adolf
Dawn Wildsmith	...	Eva
Michael Sonye	...	Mengele
Joel Hile	...	Hook
Gene Mitchell	...	Brutus
Tom Shell	...	Smeg
Bobbie Bresee	...	Smeg's Mom
Tom Demenkoff	...	Ariel (as Ty Thomas)
John Williamette	...	Mex
Rand Hogen	...	Teeth
Daniel Kong	...	Wang
Steve Reid	...	Yin
Terry Lee	...	Yang

Also Known As:

Faszystowscy surferzy musza zginac (Poland) [pl]
Surf Nazis Must Die (France) [fr]
Surf-natsien täytyy kuolla (Finland) [fi]
Surfistas nazis deben morir, Los (Spain) [es]
Surfnazisterna måste dö (Finland: Swedish title) [sv]

Runtime:

USA:83 min | UK:80 min (DVD)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Certification:

Australia:R | Finland:K-12 | USA:R | UK:18 | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Huntington Beach, California, USA

Company:

Troma Entertainment

Trivia:

When the murder victim bends over, the charm on his necklace drops down, revealing it to be a Hammer of Thor.

Quotes:

Eva: Slime-sucking Neanderthal! How dare you question my loyalty?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Tromeo and Juliet (1996)

Great but loose

If you don't like this film, it is because you don't really understand. Go pay your seven or fifteen bucks and plop down at the local cinemark, because if you don't stuff like this, it just isn't for you.

But if you can take a joke, then the thing is interesting. I haven't seen a bunch of Troma's catalogue, but I think it is one of the more memorable flicks there; it certainly isn't Tromeo and Juliet or Terror Firmer, but I don't understand the claim that it isn't a typical Troma film. At least it wasn't something like "Outlaw Prophet" (which put Troma on a blacklist with my wife). It was a genuine trash film, and taken as such seems as good as any other work of trash.

What makes this movie good is the fact that the kids have all given themselves new names, a fact that comes up when Smeg is talking to his mom (who claims he shouldn't call her mom). That is just choice.

Or the fact that the Nazis are all queens in hiding. I like the not so subtle homo-eroticism.

Of course, not only could both of these elements been mobilized more effectively, but there are other things it could have hit on. The apocalyptic oil pumping could have been used better, along with placing Leroy as part of the energy company pumping the beach dry. I was hoping that the fact that there is a big disjunction between the bourgeoisie expectations of Leroy and the ludicrous turf wars of the surf gangs could have been put to better use.

So to all you people who didn't like this because of the film making-- you are just wrong. This is what good ol' not so Hollywood film looks like. Like all real films, it's flaws are that it doesn't exploit everything that it could.