Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘The Sand’

Written by Scott Edwards

Everyone needs a break from life at some point and there is no better time to get away than on Spring Break. Even when you get out of school, this can prove to be one of the more entertaining times to take a vacation. Knowing what you did as a kid and with a little bit more information about life, it is a great time to people watch and make new friends. You never know what you will find when hitting up a beach or an amusement park during Spring Break and more than once, you will find yourself happily surprised.

Waking up after an all-night rager on the beach, Kaylee sees that she has spent the night with the lovable loser Mitch who is happy to be there.  Looking outside and seeing her ex-boyfriend Jonah snuggling up with Chanda, along with Ronnie and Vance necking in the backset, everything seems fine, but there is nobody else left on the beach with them, except for Gilbert who is stuck in a trashcan. As the group is trying to come up with a plan of how to get home, Kaylee notices a bird that landed on the beach and sees that it has gotten stuck.  Watching as the bird is taken under the sand, she knows that something is up and everybody needs to stay off of the sand.

Trying to warn her friends about something strange happening, nobody believes her as Vance jumps out of the car to try and help a friend. Watching as the beach has eaten its next meal, the group starts to notice that anyone that slept on the sand is now gone, yet their belongings are still there. With their cell phones locked in the trunk of the car and the car’s battery dead, there may be no way to escape the killing zone. With nothing going according to plan, everyone tries to keep their heads, but watching as Gilbert is dying in the sun, they know that something must be done and waiting for help is not an option. 

---

Seeing what looks like an oversized broken egg on the beach, the group sees that they released the beast last night and while that is all well and good, they still need to find out how to escape it. Finding a spot where the sand is no longer deadly, a new plan is hatched, and Jonah is ready to put it into motion. Using his surfboards as a type of walkway, he is able to move harmlessly across the sand with no problem, but when the sand starts to take his boards away, it is ready to feed once again. Stinging Jonah in the belly and giving him massive lesions that burst, he is still alive, but worse for wear. Knowing that nobody will come to help them, the group is forced to try to come up with another plan of moving off of the beach, or at least getting to a phone to call for help.  But the sand is hungry and it will pass up on no meals if it has a choice.

A creature under the sand that traps and eats people, I mean come on, how much more realistic of a movie do you need. I was pleasantly impressed with how the movie played and loved the blood shots as people were being taken under. I was not a huge fan of the love story that kept revealing itself in the movie as it seemed too rudimentary, but you know what, you have to have a conflict to try and keep everyone happy. I felt so bad for big Gilbert being stuffed in a trashcan on the beach and not able to do anything throughout, I mean what a way to go. The characters were fun and you get some jokes, plenty of tension and lots of yelling about how stupid everyone is, just like when friends get drunk together. With your main horror elements covered, bikinis, blood, a monster and a silly cop, it is just a fun movie to watch that you don’t have to think too much about. Stay Scared.

Five Takeaways

1. When you are drinking on a beach, make sure there is a lifeguard tower to sleep in.
2. Don’t keep your car lights on all night, it kills your battery.
3. When little hair-like things come out of the sand and have the power to suck you down, panic!
4. Locking cell phones in the trunk of a car might seem like a good idea, but come on, nobody could live without their phones for that long.
5. Stay in the water since Sharks could be the least of your worries.

---