Barracuda

I bought this movie because I really thought it would be terrible. I imagine something like "Spawn of the Slithis", or "Nazi Surfers Must Die", but this movie turns into a good one after all. In the beginning, the plot is very silly - barracudas eat people. Amazing. The filming under water, with the barracudas waving their tails while eating the limbs of people is laughing. But... in the middle of the movie the barracudas disappear, and the story, although with poor acting, is interesting. In fact, X-Files is very close to that. And the end is a lot better than one you could expect from a movie called "Barracuda".

...from American General Pictures and director Harry Kerwin. Wayne Crawford stars as university marine biologist Mike, who is in the small coastal Florida town of Palm Cove to do some pollution testing on the local waters. A nearby chemical plant, run by the shady Papa Jack (Bert Freed), has been dumping unknown chemicals into the ocean, and it seems to be causing the local barracuda population to become overly aggressive. As Mike digs deeper into what's going on, powerful forces begin to close in.

This micro-budget travesty is a mash-up of Jaws and countless nature-gone-wrong horror tales, slathered in a thick coat of 70's conspiracy paranoia. The acting is woeful, particularly from star, co-writer, and underwater sequence director Wayne Crawford. William Kerwin, star of many of H.G. Lewis' memorable 60's horror films, plays the local sheriff. The killer fish are really secondary to the conspiracy plot, and the fish attacks consist of someone off camera holding a bad barracuda prop and slapping the actors and actresses with it while red fruit punch is generously squirted into the seawater. The movie's cynical ending is not unexpected. Perhaps the only redeeming feature, if barely, is the throbbing synth score from Klaus Schulze, which seems like an almost-there rip-off of Tangerine Dream.

When I put Barracuda on Netflix Streaming after getting home from a long train trip, I was not expecting much, just your basic Jaws rip off with some cheap gore. To my surprise, although it was definitely a cash in on Spielberg's epic, it was still a fun, interesting movie.

The plot, at least initially, is what you'd expect. Killer barracuda suddenly begin attacking swimmers at a Florida beach, sparking an investigation by a local sheriff and a scientist. Things get interesting when the investigation uncovers a conspiracy.

Barracuda delivers all the gore you would expect from a Jaws knock off, but it also features elements that raise it to above average status. In particular, the scientist protagonist acts like an actual scientist, rather than the typical doom sayer we see in these movies. He initially expresses skepticism that barracuda could be behind all of the attacks and looks for evidence, like a real scientist.

Some reviewers have complained that the conspiracy angle crowds out the barracuda in the second half of the film, which has an element of truth. Still, the plot remains interesting, and the gore in the first half of the film more than suffices.

Something strange is happening in the water off the coast of a town called "Palm Cove, Florida". For starters, the owners of a chemical plant have become extremely sensitive about their business and have hired some guards to prevent the collection of water samples taken anywhere near their facility. In one specific incident a marine-biologist by the name of "Mike Canfield" (Wayne Crawford) is arrested by the local sheriff "Ben Williams" (William Kerwin) and taken to jail for trespassing. While there he manages to help the sheriff investigate some deaths to local divers in the area. Along with these deaths the inhabitants of the town have become increasingly aggressive to one another but neither the sheriff nor Mike can connect any of these incidents together. At any rate, while this movie is similar in many respects to "Jaws" it obviously didn't have the financing of the former film and the quality of the movie isn't anywhere near as good. Even so, it had some good moments here and there and for that reason I give it a rating of average. But just barely.

The main reason why I often enjoy imitations and cheap rip-offs more than the original they're inspired by is because the people behind it are so much more shameless and extravagant with their ideas. Spielberg's landmark classic "Jaws" spawned a copious number of imitations and suddenly nearly every type of sea animal – whether genetically altered or not – at one point during the seventies got depicted as an unstoppable killing machine. Not just every possible species of sharks, but also piranhas, octopuses, whales and even barracudas. This one, however, isn't exactly the "Jaws" rip-off you'd suspect it to be. If anything, it's actually more of a "Piranha" copy and not nearly as trashy and/or mindlessly entertaining as I hoped. The script tries to be a little too clever, creative and mysterious even though the outcome of the story is pretty obvious right from the beginning. I, for one, think the writers/directors duo Harry Kerwin and Wayne Crawford perhaps should have opted for a cheesy good old-fashioned creature feature rather than a pseudo-intellectual piece of eco-horror. "Barracuda" nevertheless opens promisingly with moody underwater images guided by creepy musical tunes, immediately followed by a scene of two divers getting virulently attacked by the titular creatures. There's something fishy – pun intended – going on in a little coastal town. Simultaneously with a couple of bizarre and unsolved diving accidents, a marine biologist discovers dangerous chemicals in the water, probably coming from Poppa Jack's plant nearby. Likely, the chemicals turn the barracudas into ravenous killers and even appear to negatively affect the townspeople that consume locally caught fish. The middle-section is intolerably boring, mainly because you're completely unprepared for the switch towards a slow and talkative film, and "Barracuda" eventually ends as a full-blooded political conspiracy thriller. The killer barracudas don't even get mentioned or shown anymore. This is a textbook case of misleading – or even downright false – advertisement, really. The alternate title for this film is "The Lucifer Project" and at least that one immediately gives a far more accurate small description of what to expect. Of course, the title "Barracuda" accompanied by a bloody drawing of a sharp-teethed fish devouring a human head attracts a lot more horror fans. Shame.