Surf Nazis Must Die (1987)

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:

Racial Slur | Racism | Surf Film | Tromaesque | Dominatrix

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

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]
Los surfistas nazis deben morir (Spain) [es]
Surf Nazis Must Die (Italy) [it]
Surf Nazis Must Die (France) [fr]
Surf-natsien täytyy kuolla (Finland) [fi]
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:

Italy:VM18 (tv rating) | 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:

Adolf: I am the Fuhrer of the beach!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Tromeo and Juliet (1996)

The Endless Reich

Peter George is almost too talented, in a sense, to have made Surf Nazis Must Die for a Troma audience. As a regular low-budget piece, it uses its thousands of dollars reasonably well. Unlike a whole lot of other films made by Troma, this one isn't shot by incompetent simians throwing crap up onto a wedgie board to decide the next shot. Hell, the actors even kind of try to give some decent performances. The only problem happens when George and his co-writer try and make a solid story out of their material: surfing Nazis taking over the territory from rival ethnic gangs. Maybe there shouldn't be much of a story to expect, but there could be more, either as an actual deranged work of real craft and structure, or as a go-for-broke guilty pleasure.

On the latter part, the filmmakers don't even live up to the cheesy promise of the poster; the only time one sees some death on the waves occurs in the climax, and it's more like a much better version of the climax of I Spit on Your Grave (saying "much better" is indeed a compliment in any regard as it's the worst film ever made). Mostly it's just shots of regular surfing (mostly in what looks like so-so stock footage), and then the action (which isn't quite as much as you might expect) taking place in other areas between the Nazis and other gang members. This isn't to say the filmmakers disappoint with camp value all the way, far from it; the highlight is Gail Neely as the "Mama" of Leroy, a black youth killed by the Nazis, who goes to exact her revenge on a motorcycle after going through a gun shop like Tuco in GB&U. Seeing her is almost worth the price of the DVD.

But at the same time there isn't quite enough crazy action to justify the sloppy storyline. There's some interest in the power games between Mengele and Adolph (and seeing one of the Nazis, Smeg, being harranged by his mother at home like a typical nag), and a few other things, yet most of the plot doesn't hinge on the Nazis or gangs as much as the Mama in her Punisher mode. It's almost the kind of flick that could make an ambitious remake- maybe with actual hardcore surf kills and with a plot out of the Warriors- but as it is a curiosity veering on being an actual good movie.