A badass beach bum turns the word "lifeguard" upside down when he combats an amphibious assault of the undead on Public Safety Day.

SYNOPSIS:

Conceited teen Ralph tries to rape beautiful but shy girlfriend Cassidy on vacation one summer night at Quigley Lake, where the water is said to be magical. A hulking stranger in warrior grease paint mask emerges from the shadows and races to her rescue, stabbing Ralph in the eardrum with scissors from his lifeguard fanny pack. He carries Ralph’s limp body out into the lake while Cassidy flees in horror. Brian, a peeping Tom teenager, secretly witnesses the scene.

Three years later, the beach reopens after an official investigation into the incident fails to apprehend the legendary lifeguard (known as Deathguard) and people think Cassidy killed Ralph, whose body was never found. Meanwhile, sleazy Mayor Hilliard keeps Deathguard’s existence under wraps, believing he will scare away tourists, while at the same time conceding he’s a necessary evil after dark when the beach has always been off limits to the public for murky reasons. The mayor schemes for a way to replace Deathguard with someone more controllable for the eagerly anticipated Public Safety Day and open up the beach at night to increase revenue. But Cassidy lingers around town, determined to find out the truth about Deathguard and expose the mayor as a fraud.

Ralph’s nerdy younger brother Max arrives at Quigley Lake in his prized classic car after graduating high school. His girl-crazy pals try to erase the bad memory of Ralph’s disappearance by helping Max get laid. But Max only has eyes for Cassidy, believing her incapable of killing his brother. Ignoring his friends’ warnings that Cassidy is a psycho killer, he becomes the Hardy Boy to her Nancy Drew as they try to solve the mystery of Deathguard. A thin robed man named “Sun” and his suicide cult spook the locals and antagonize the mayor by showing disturbing interest in the lake’s rumored magical properties.

Max, Cassidy and Brian enlist the aid of seedy local “Lemonhead” to take them across the lake to Anguish Island, where Deathguard is rumored to reside. There, they discover Deathguard’s primitive dwelling place and an ancient graveyard that is slowly slipping into the lake where the water is reanimating their remains. Deathguard rescues Cassidy (again) from near certain death at the hands of a zombie, but Lemonhead is not so lucky and meets a grisly demise. Deathguard viciously decapitates Lemonhead’s corpse’s head and informs the teens it’s the “only way” to prevent him from returning from the dead. He rows them back to the mainland and darkly warns them to go home. Late that night, Sun and his suicide cult drown themselves in the lake while Deathguard is powerless to stop it.

Mayor Hilliard goes ballistic when Lemonhead’s headless corpse washes ashore as preparations are being made for Public Safety Day. He charges Deathguard with the murder of Lemonhead and throws him in jail, along with Cassidy, his alleged accomplice. He hires a Sumo Wrestler to man the lifeguard tower, believing his massive presence will make people feel extra safe. Public Safety Day draws a big and excited crowd that stays long after the sun goes down to watch fireworks.

Max and Brian break Deathguard and Cassidy out of jail, and they return to the beach in Halloween costume disguises just as all hell breaks loose. The suicide cult and Anguish Island undead storm the beach, scatter the terrified tourists and leave a trail of blood and guts in their wake. Mayor Hilliard narrowly escapes. Deathguard springs into action and battles wave after wave of zombies with improvised weapons from his fanny pack. Max and Cassidy, costumed as a warrior and sorceress, gain supernatural powers from the lake, Max’s plastic sword turning into a real one which he uses to slice zombie heads off, and Cassidy hurling fireballs.

Just when it looks like Team Deathguard have gained the upper hand, Sun’s corpse attempts to slip off with a brood of undead in Max’s classic automobile. Max desperately tries to stop them but doesn’t want to damage his beloved car (and no longer has magical powers outside of the lake). With Cassidy and the survivors screaming at him to do something and Sun’s diminished-intelligence zombie struggling to operate the vehicle, Max has a moment of clarity. He mocks up a Molotov cocktail, flips it into his car and says, “Happy Public Safety Day, motherfuckers.” His classic car, and the last of the zombies inside it, erupt in flames. Deathguard grimly severs the heads of dozens of corpses littering the beach as a tattered “Public Safety Day” banner snaps in the breeze and dud fireworks fizzle and pop. Cassidy gives Deathguard a warm hug goodbye before walking off with Max hand in hand.

The next morning, Max and Cassidy wake up in bed with each other in his cabin. He’s okay with the tradeoff of losing his car and winning the girl. Mayor Hilliard hides in his office as news crews assemble in the street. Deathguard appears, as if by magic, drags the protesting mayor downstairs and throws him behind bars. Back on Anguish Island, a young deaf man with bandaged ear digs fresh graves for all the fallen. It’s Ralph, Deathguard’s seething slave for the last three years. He vows to wreak havoc when he gets off Anguish Island.